We’re celebrating all month, and we’d love to encourage you to support pollinators in your gardens.
Pollinator Month is a special time for Harlequin’s Gardens – a time when we celebrate the hard work of bees (honeybees, solitary bees, bumblebees) wasps, ants, flies and bee flies, butterflies and moths, beetles, some bats and birds, and some mammals. They’re all around us, connecting the dots between flowers and food.
Come check out our special pollinator display, which is our whole facility! The descriptive signage for most of our plants is marked with bee, hummingbird, and butterfly icons.
You might notice that almost everything is important to bees, of which we have over 500 species here in Boulder County alone. Even our native bunch grasses can provide nesting sites for bumblebees in the dried leaves at the bottom.
Pollinator Garden In Progress
Breaking News! Last week, we literally ‘broke ground’ on a display garden restoration! We received a grant from PPAN to help us replant our ‘Xeric Rock Garden’ and make it into a demonstration garden of our best water-wise pollinator-supporting plants, with an emphasis on native perennials and shrubs. We will also include some of our favorite well-adapted non-native plants that provide significant support for pollinators and beneficial insects.
The best ways to help pollinators are:
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PROVIDE SAFE FORAGE. First, at Harlequin’s Gardens our plants are all neonicotinoid-free. Neonicotinoids are widely-used systemic insecticides that circulate through the entire plant, including nectar and pollen, which are collected by bees for food. Bees, with their fuzzy bodies and need for pollen for their baby food are the best pollinators. Neonicotinoids are nerve toxins to which bees are very sensitive, and are implicated in Honeybee Colony Collapse. If you don’t know whether harmful pesticides have been applied, you don’t know whether your plants are safe for pollinators. -
STOP USING TOXIC PESTICIDES, especially insecticides and fungicides. This doesn’t mean that your plants have to look scraggly; Harlequin’s has non-toxic pest-management alternatives and alternative plants that are less prone to pest problems. If you use a lawn care service, chat with them about what they’re using and direct them to use only non-toxic products on your property. - PROVIDE SAFE HABITAT. This includes not only safe, pesticide-free plants that keep your garden blooming all season, but nesting habitat as well. About 75% of our native bees live in the ground in
plain-old Colorado dirt. Leave some small areas bare and un-mulched for them. Butterflies appreciate little mud puddles to drink from. - ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME. This includes your neighbors, HOAs, City and County lands, roadsides, and right of ways. We have pollinator plant lists you can show others to give them ideas.
Our plants are adapted to our local environment. This means that they’re ‘happier’ here and require less chemical and water input. We carry many plants from ground covers to trees, among them Nepeta (catmint) and Helianthus (sunflower), that will provide for pollinators in general, as well as some plants visited by bee specialists, for example Sphaeralcea (mallow) and Oenothera (evening primrose). Even our own-root roses, selected for our climate and soils, are good for pollinators. As a rule of thumb, if you can see the stamens, so can the bees.
Ask for our pollinator plant lists to help you shop, or prepare in advance by viewing these plant lists, Plants to Support Pollinators (Honeybees, Wild Bees, Butterflies, etc.) and Plants for Pollinators.
OTHER RESOSURCES INCLUDE:
- Pollinator Partnership
- Xerces Society
- USDA Utah Pollinating Insects Lab
- Project Apis m.
- Rewilding: Pollinator Pathways
- See more ways to celebrate Pollinator Month!
There are plenty of local events as well, like the Pollinator Palooza at the Butterfly Pavilion. Check your local community calendars for more.