Attracting Pollinators: Work With Nature,
So Nature Will Work For You
Pollinators are essential to life on earth. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says bats, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds--and lesser known creatures that flit from plant to plant, such as the hawk moth pictured here--are responsible for pollinating 75% of flowering plants and agricultural crops. That means bees and other pollinators contribute to more than $30 billion per year in crop production. Due to loss of habitat, global warming, and use of pesticides, pollinators are in decline and in some places have to be hauled around in trailer trucks to be at the right place at the right time to help produce crops. The more you do to naturalize your yard, the more you do to help pollinators, and the more you do to help agriculture succeed.
What do you plant to help pollinators? While there are some plants that are somewhat universal in appealing to pollinators just about anywhere in the country---butterfly bush and marigolds, for example, along with salvia and Joe Pye Weed--local native plant species are the absolute best for providing food, cover, and places for pollinators to lay eggs and for their young to grow. One of the most over-looked aspects of planning a pollinator garden is bloom time: plants need to not only be beneficial to pollinators, summer-blooming plants need to be available to provide food when spring-blooming plants fade, and late-season plants need to be available as long as warm temperatures last. Where we live in Zone 7, it is not uncommon for our late-season wild plants and a non-native yellow-blooming butterfly bush to still be attracting bees and butterflies in early November. They may not be as big or flashy as the most popular bird species, but if you learn to look for them you may find pollinators to be just as interesting.
Butterflies are possibly the most noticed, well-known, and best-liked of the pollinators. They come in just about every size and color imaginable, they don't sting, and they are more important in the greater scheme of things than most people would ever imagine.
How do you attract butterflies and provide places for them to shelter and reproduce? Plant butterfly weed along with the previously mentioned butterfly bush, and purple coneflower and aster, and you are off to a great start. Clover and alfalfa, along with sunflowers and pansies are also important as "host plants" that provide places for adult butterflies to lay their eggs and for the larvae to grow. If you in particular want to attract monarch butterflies and assist in their life cycle, milkweed is the only plant on which the monarch female will lay her eggs. If you have plenty of space, add some goldenrod and cosmos as food sources; if your space is limited, lantana seems a very popular choice.
How do you attract butterflies and provide places for them to shelter and reproduce? Plant butterfly weed along with the previously mentioned butterfly bush, and purple coneflower and aster, and you are off to a great start. Clover and alfalfa, along with sunflowers and pansies are also important as "host plants" that provide places for adult butterflies to lay their eggs and for the larvae to grow. If you in particular want to attract monarch butterflies and assist in their life cycle, milkweed is the only plant on which the monarch female will lay her eggs. If you have plenty of space, add some goldenrod and cosmos as food sources; if your space is limited, lantana seems a very popular choice.
