How to attract pollinators to your garden
If you are like me, you still are adding touches to your flower gardens.
I love to visit the local nurseries in late spring and browse for one more bit of annual color, or for a special and unique perennial.
So, if you are planning on doing some gardening this holiday weekend, consider adding a few plants for pollinators, and then enjoy watching them when they show up later in summer!
Butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators are attracted to garden plants by their nectar. Nectar is a fluid that is produced by flowers, is rich in glucose (sugar) and is often used by insects and some animals as a source of energy.
While the insect or animal is feeding on the nectar, it also is moving pollen from flower to flower, which causes pollen transfer and pollination.
Pollination is a symbiotic biological relationship, which means that both the plant and the pollinator benefit from the arrangement. The plant gains the service of the pollinator moving pollen from one flower to another flower of the same species, while the pollinator gets a food source.
Butterflies are probably the best loved of all pollinating insects as they add color, beauty and grace to our landscape. We are so lucky that the monarch butterflies migrate through Oklahoma gardens as they move north every summer, and they will stop and feed on nectar plants, as well as lay their eggs, which will turn into larvae (caterpillars.)
Plants to grow
Some tips for attracting pollinators include growing flowering plants that produce nectar and also plants for the butterfly larvae to feed on. Butterflies will benefit from a sunny location since warm high temps help them to fly.
Vining plants on fences can provide both shelter and sun. Water puddles, water features or bird baths also will help provide a water source. All of these same conditions benefit visiting bees and other pollinators, as well.
For flowering plants, use a mixture of early, mid- and late-season annuals and perennials.
Some great annual flowering plants you can plant from seed right now and even later into summer that will attract butterflies and other pollinators are zinnias and cosmos. You can easily find these seeds available in gardens centers, and as long as you keep them wet, both of these will germinate easily and flower for you later in summer.
Other annuals that are excellent for attracting pollinators include geraniums, sunflowers and annual lantana.
Easy-to-grow perennials to attract pollinators include yarrow, salvia and butterfly bush. Try columbine in the shady areas of the gardens, and plant chrysanthemums for late season blooms. Now is also a good time to add flowering trees and shrubs to your landscape that attract pollinators like crape myrtle, lilac and roses.
Including plants in the garden to feed the larvae will help, as well. Add parsley, dill, fennel, rue and one of my all-time favorites, passion flower. Milkweeds are especially important for the monarch larvae to feed on as they move north this summer.
For hummingbirds, many of the nectar plants listed will attract them, but they feed heavily on insects, too. Hummingbirds LOVE red flowers. To attract them to the garden, you also should put out feeders with one part sugar to three parts water (heat to boiling and then let cool) from midApril until Halloween. Also clean your feeders regularly since the water can turn cloudy quickly in warm temperatures.
Butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators bring an added dimension to your gardens. Invite them into your landscape this summer with some of their favorite plants and enjoy watching them stop by!