Pollinator Garden
Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles, birds and bats.
Pollinators visit flowers in their search for pollen which provide protein, nectar which provide carbohydrates and resin and oil which is used to waterproof their nests. During a flower visit, a pollinator may accidentally brush against the flower’s reproductive parts, unknowingly depositing pollen from a different flower. The plant then uses the pollen to produce a fruit or seeds. Many plants cannot reproduce without pollen carried to them by foraging pollinators.
Pollinators have been in decline due to pesticide use, loss of high-quality habitat and climate change.
This garden was designed to make flowering plants available for pollinators from early spring through late fall using Minnesota native plants that have co-evolved with our native pollinators. Flowers diverse in color and form have been used to attract different pollinators as some insects are specialists of a certain plant due to characteristics such as size, strength and tongue length. Some plants are the host to the larvae of butterflies. For example, the Wild Lupine included in this garden is host to the Karner Blue butterfly and the Butterfly Milkweed is larval host to the Monarch butterfly. A few annuals and plants that are not native to MN, but that are known to attract pollinators have also been used. More information about native plants can be found at our native garden.
The seedheads and stalks of many of the plants will be left standing through the winter to provide seeds for birds, habitat for overwintering insects and nesting sites for insects.
More information on pollinators and what you can do in your home garden to help support and encourage them, can be found in the following resources:
Insects & Pollinators | NRCS (usda.gov)