Solidago caesia 

Blue Stem Goldenrod

• Partial to full shade
• Average to dry soils
• Roughly 3' in height and spread
• Mid to Late Fall Blooms
• Well adapted to garden, woodland and forest settings.

The latest blooming of the goldenrods in the spaces I work with, this one is a true forest ecosystem plant, happily growing under a mixed species canopy among sedges and ferns. They have an open, airy form and smooth leaves and stems. Visually, I find them to be distinct enough from their meadow adapted relatives that I suspect that you could sneak them into even an anti-Goldenrod gardener’s space without causing alarm. Of course, I’m not actually suggesting that you sneak into other people’s gardens and plant native species 😉.

They grow to around 3’ tall and will form a loose clump of a similar width. As a late blooming species, their foliage remains full and green through the summer. They thrive in dappled shade and average soil conditions and are as popular with pollinators as the rest of the Goldenrod family, with the added advantage of blooming after a lot of other pollen and nectar sources have mostly faded away for the year.

I encountered the forest patch in these photos a couple of autumns ago and have been able to collect a few puffs of seed from the patch the last two autumns. Because they can bloom so late, the fact that the tree canopy protects them from the first couple of autumn frosts is the only reason that the seeds have been able to fully mature before the first freeze.