I don’t think I’ve ever seen the goldenrod as pretty as it is this year. It seems brighter and fuller somehow. It could only be that I’ve noticed it more as each year brings an increase in the blooms that line our driveway.
Several years ago Miss Cindy told me the blooms remind her of a poem her mother used to recite every year. She could only remember the beginning lines, but after she told me about it I found the poem.
September
The goldenrod is yellow,
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.
The gentian’s bluest fringes
Are curing in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.
The sedges haunt their harvest,
In every meadow’s nook;
And asters by the brookside
Make asters in the brook.
From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes’ sweet odore rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.
By all those lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.
—Helen Hunt Jackson
Such beautiful descriptive lines!
I recently learned goldenrod can be used medicinally. I hope the girls will figure out how to best use it since we have plenty.
Yellow Bells herald the first warm weather of spring and the yellow blooms of goldenrod welcome the first airish weather of fall.
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Goldenrod is a beautiful and valuable nectar plant for bees and butterflies. People are not allergic to it!!! Ragweed is the culprit. A particularly beautiful goldenrod is one called “fireworks” it makes an arching bush…gorgeous.
I just made a trip up to Boone and the golden rod was exceptionally beautiful this year, so full and abundant more than I’ve noticed before. Wonder why. But don’t question the beauty just enjoy I guess! Have a good week.
I have delayed mowing my back field first because of another yellow weed that was covered in bees and now the golden rod. There’s plenty of time to mow after frost and the bees need their food. Golden rod honey is also delicious.
I enjoyed the poem. That was really special Miss Cindy’s mother would quote that each year. What a nice memory! I used to think goldenrod was a weed until I was told several years ago that it was indeed a flowering plant. A sure sign that Fall is making its arrival. I loved the picture, the color of the goldenrod with the green trees and the blue sky. Have a blessed day all!!
Heres one I remember from grade school:
“Asters are here and goldenrod too. Heap up the cart with yellow and blue.”
Goldenrod is the state flower of Kentucky. I’ve always loved it. Here in Michigan, we get a variety called “Canadian Goldenrod.” It’s very tall and usually branches out to wide, multi-stem flower stalks. The real way to tell, I’m told, is when you pull it out of the ground, the root forms a “J” or “L.” It grows profusely in our area, but I never want to pull it to find out what letter it makes. The bees and other flying bugs love it so much and, since it signals the cold snowy weather to come, I can’t begrudge them any wildflower.
Tipper, thank you so very much for highlighting Goldenrod. Too many people mow it down because they mistake it for ragweed. Goldenrod is a highly valuable forage plant for honeybees. They need it to increase their winter survival stores.
My Grandfather (Pap) used to recite that beautiful poem when I was a child. I think of him every time I see it in print or hear someone reciting it. Sadly, it was Goldenrod that forced us move from the northern Appalachia area in southern Pennsylvania nearly 60 years ago. Every year Pap developed a more severe allergic reaction to goldenrod, which back then was called “Hay Fever”. After moving to the Gulf Coast of Florida, Pap’s allergies and Gram’s sinus problems disappeared! They always said it was the sunshine and salt air that “cured” them – LOL!!
While cleaning out a bookshelf recently, I ran across one of Pap’s old diaries. In it was the poem “September” by Helen Hunt Jackson. Tears, fond memories and a heart full of love came over me as I read the poem aloud. This will always be one of my favorite poems!
I love to see goldenrods blooming because I know Fall is on our heels. They are very pretty & make a beautiful floral arrangement. However, I am very allergic to them & get congested when they are blooming. I’m also allergic to ragweed. I love Fall-It’s my favorite season and like Matt, I absolutely hate hot weather! Hope everyone has a good day!
I’ve too have noticed how plentiful and brilliantly bright yellow they are this year, more so than I recall in years past. That is a lovely poem. I can imagine Miss Cindy enjoys it more because it reminds her of her mother. I enjoyed reading it, thank you for sharing it with us. I would like to know how golden rod is used to benefit health. I figure there might be a future blog or video about what the girls discover how to use golden rod.
I forgot to add that the poem is lovely and well describes autumn! What a nice tradition – to read an autumn poem with your kids. I have a question for your readers – does anyone ever use persimmon seeds for coffee or maybe other things. I saw a post concerning this and had just picked up a ton of tiny, squishy fruit to make jam. I really didn’t want to but hate to see this fruit go to waste. I left the fruit in the fridge till I could find my old recipe and then read the blog post where she dried the seeds and ground them for coffee! Well, I thought that would be easier than jam as so many were squished open so I dried the seeds with the pulp still on and WOW, they smell like chocolate! They are so hard that my blender doesn’t grind them but pulverizes the outside. I now have a small batch of powdered persimmon seed to try and still have most of the seeds which are clean but still too hard to grind. I haven’t tried it yet but it smells so good and wonder if others have done this before. I bought a grain mill but have never used it and might try it for grinding the seeds into coffee but wonder if the powder could be used like nutmeg or other spices. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I just found that persimmon seeds contain high amounts of tannin and can be horribly diuretic and even the fruit can cause problems but most importantly if you have type 2 diabetes the sugars in persimmon are 25% and should be avoided. I’m not going to try my seed experiment and just leave the fruit to the deer who love it! My dog does too, and that explains the bathroom problems he gets in the fall! I also looked inside three of the seeds to see if it would be a long cold & wet winter. I found spoon shapes inside meaning tons of snow – I live in Florida! You never know. Anyway, for those that read my comment – don’t take chances – when I opened the little storage bottle that I had put the seed powder in the chocolate smell was all gone – I guess it had to be warm.
We have something here in north Florida called Dog Fennel – not sure what the proper name is. But it grows along the highways lush and green until 6 weeks before the first frost. Then it blossoms with tiny white flowers covering the tops. That is how local folks know when the first frost is. It grows alongside the goldenrod blossoming yellow and looks so pretty. I’ve heard that goldenrod also blossoms at the same time as some other ‘weed’ which causes allergy flares but folks notice the yellow goldenrod much more and it has been given the blame.Don’t know if it’s true or not since I’m not bothered by allergies – thank God!
I had never read that poem. It has the flavor of another and gentler era, like maybe the 50’s. Somehow the name of the author sets a faint bell ringing though, I’m guessing from something else she wrote.
There are several different kinds of goldenrod. The most common – the one in the picture – is tall goldenrod. It is the ‘meadow’ and roadside one. I have one that grows in our mostly-shaded front yard that is wand-like. It is just now starting to bloom. I leave it all summer just for now even though it does not look.very neat to have tall ‘weedy’ stems sticking up. There is also a “sweet goldenrod” that has an anise smell when crushed. It only gets about kneehigh. It like dry woods, especially in sandy ground. Whenever I find it, I am ‘bad to’ pluck some leaves to smell. (I do that with cedar, hemlock, rabbit tobacco and little brown jug to, sometimes putting some in my shirt pocket.)
I got a smile from Miss Patty writing about the purple cow poem. My Mom really liked that silly poem and I remember it still. “I never saw a purple cow. I never hope to see one. But I can tell you anyhow, I’ d rather see than be one.” There is an accompanying one: ” Ah yes, I wrote the purple cow. I’m sorry now I wrote it. And I can tell you anyhow, I’ll kill you if you quote it.” I tease people sometimes that I saw a purple horse once. I don’t tell them at first that it was wearing a horse blanket. Recently though I saw a whole herd of multi-colored horses (in Thoroughbred Park in Lexington, Ky.) Can’t tell.just anybody about such sights though.
Growing up in the midwest, my grandmother would pay for my younger sister & I to go out and pull up ragweed. She said it was an allergen and would pay us each a penny for 10 & a dime for 100.
Think she did it to occupy our time. lol That said, both ragweed & Goldenrod bloom about the same time. Now, 65 yrs later, I hate pulling up any plant that bears a color!
Love that poem. Thanks for sharing!
Some of us love to look at Goldenrod, but from a distance. Now I’m curious if Autumn-gathered honey might desensitize Fall allergy symptoms. Needed. Time for some research!
Very little nectar for bees to gather in Autumn, but goldenrod is a favorite source of pollen for honeybees. I call it their last hurrah of the season, and before winter sets in. Pollen stores are eaten along with the honey when hives overwinter. While local honey is said to help desensitize one to allergies, I would think the eating of the pollen (my grandfather called it “bee bread”) would be more effective in that regard.
Love the poem and the picture! But I’m grateful not to be there because I am terribly allergic to goldenrod.
Goldenrod is in full bloom here in our neck of the woods. It’s one of my favorite fall flowers along with ironweed and purple asters. In our area we have a lighter shade of purple asters, which is pretty, but when we were traveling to St. John, Indiana Saturday I noticed a dark, richer shade of purple aster that was gorgeous. I would love to get the seed from that and plant it around here. I also noticed a brighter fuller type of goldenrod along the highway as we were heading north and I would love to gather those seeds to plant around here. Maybe some day I can get that done!
What a lovely poem. Sounds like something school children would have memorized to recite. We used to have to ‘recite’ things when I was little. That has fallen by the wayside. When I pulled my kids out of school, I made them do it. My older daughter recited “O Captain, My Captain!” by Whitman. She did a nice job of it & performed in front of my parents. I had to recite some poem about a purple cow in Kindergarten & all I can remember now is the ending rhyme of “I’d rather see, than be one”.
The early colonists brought goldenrod with them as a garden plant. It was not considered a weed. I think it is pretty, but I don’t like to see fields overtaken with it. It is a sure sign that the land isn’t being tended to the way a pasture ought to be. We have finally reclaimed our hay lots from its incessant encroaching. But to see it blooming right next to the bright purple asters – that is a favorite sight for me.
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I’d rather see than be one
Love the poem, and it makes me recall a gentler time in school when we learned much about seasons and nature. it kept us grounded, and taught us to appreciate the works of nature. Recitation was also common, and we learned to recite Trees by Joyce Kilmer at an early age.
I always suspected I might be highly allergic to either Goldenrod or Ragweed. Fall brings on allergies. I still appreciate all that is 4 seasons, and love to read poetry about nature and seasons.
I really enjoyed the poem this morning! Mommy and Bobby used to say when the goldenrod gets high and yellow, fall is fast lay coming on. I’ve always thought the stuff was beautiful and it’s also bird food. Medicinally what’s it treat? Have a golden day all!!! My neighbor over my hill below has it growing out her gutters and it is bugging me something fierce looking 6 feet tall shooting out of gutters- lol. Since she’s a 40 something hippie, I’m sure rotten soffets can rot on, man!!!
I love how different plants bloom at different times of year so it’s spread out and we don’t get it all at one time. Goldenrod is so pretty blooming along the roadsides as well as yellow Tickseed. I love when Ironweed is also mixed in, the color combination of yellow and purple is beautiful.
I wasn’t sure if the ‘yellow’ plant in your blog was yellow rods or forsythia. Both I think are beautiful. I think I will have to cut and paste that poem, so gentle and truer than most descriptions. For sure, fall is trying to creep in and here in upstate Florida we are beginning to brace for ‘the current hurricane threat’ There is a weather man on the cable ‘weather’ channel by the name of Jim Cantore and he is always where severe weather of some sort is either going on or coming to that area…he is down around Tampa area, right now, and we keep saying, Jim, stay away. Not that we don’t like him, you understand, but when he is in your area, bad weather is also. God Bless
It is for sure goldenrod – state flower of Kentucky. Forsythia is a bush that blooms in spring and is really yellow instead of the gold of goldenrod. I ran into a tall patch of goldenrod yesterday while walking my “granddog.” As Mint2Bee mentioned, gold and purple look so nice together. We don’t have the purple asters growing wild here in the Texas Hill Country, but I saw two other species of purple wildflowers blooming near the goldenrod. I enjoy the manicured gardens of those with a green thumb, but even more I love the wild gardens seeded and tended by the Master Gardener.
Yes, my mother always quoted that poem in the fall of the year and every year when the golden rod is blooming, I think of my mother! She also warned me to not handle the flowers because they are covered with chiggers!