I read your article on Monarch butterflies and milkweed. What do I need to know if I want to make my flower garden more attractive to all pollinators? JM

I appreciate your interest and enthusiasm in creating a pollinator habitat in your landscape. Some might ask why we need to care about pollinators. Well, here are some interesting tidbits of information. Of the approximately 1400 plants that are grown for food and plant-based industrial products, about 80% require pollination. More than 50% of the world’s edible fats and oils come from pollinated plants while almost all fruit and grain crops depend on pollinators. The bottom line is that life would be pretty tough on this planet without them.

While most flowers are good for pollinators, there are several key elements that will help take your flower garden to the next level for pollinators.

One of the first things you are going to need to consider when planning out your pollinator garden is that you will need both nectar and larval food plants for butterflies. Nectar is the liquid flowers produce that serves as the fuel for many pollinators. These are the plants we tend to be familiar with and would include: Yarrow, Columbine, Agastache, Aster, False Indigo, Ageratum, Coreopsis, Echinacea, Joe Pye weed and many others. One thing to remember as you transition your garden to a pollinator garden is to plant your flowers in larger groupings of the same kind of flowers than you perhaps might have. These larger groupings of a single variety help provide a destination for pollinators. They will learn that they can come to your garden to satisfy all their needs rather than having to fly from garden to garden to be able to gather enough food.

Once you have attracted pollinators to your garden, you can help keep them there by providing larval host plants for their young. These larval host plants might include dill, fennel, parsley, chives, or milkweed. Since some of these may not be as showy as you would like for your primary garden, you might want to set up a special area for larval host plants because ultimately, these plants will be eaten down to the stems by young caterpillars. You may not care, but it seems many people tend to divide their pollinator gardens into nectar and larval areas.

Another thing to consider is bloom time for your flowers. Since you want to provide a season long home for these pollinators, pay attention to the bloom time of your flowers and try to select flowers whose bloom times overlap to provide a continuous source of nectar for the pollinators. This will require a little bit of research on your part, but the upside is that your will have a garden that flowers all season long.

Another thing to add to your pollinator garden would be some larger, shelter plants such as honeysuckle. These types of plants create a place where pollinators can go to get out of the weather or to get away from someone looking to make a meal of them. In the case of honeysuckle, this shelter plant is also a provider of nectar.

We have all heard of bird feeders, but have you heard of a pollinator feeder? They are like a bird feeder but with a different food source. A pollinator feeder might be something as simple as a tray type feeder only instead of bird seed, a pollinator feeder might be filled with over-ripe fruit such as bananas or oranges. Oftentimes a banana that has passed its prime will serve as a good source of quick energy for visiting pollinator insects such as butterflies.  The uneaten rind of a cantaloupe or watermelon would also be a good choice for your pollinator feeder. These trays should be elevated to about flower height and placed in your pollinator garden. If you do have a bird feeder, you might place it a little distance from your pollinator garden as your visiting insects can also serve as a food source for birds.

Rocks are also a good addition to your pollinator garden, and by rocks, I mean the larger, accent type of rock rather than gravel or smaller pebbles. These larger rocks absorb heat and can provide a good place for butterflies to warm up since they can only fly when temperatures reach appropriate levels.

Many of you all have bird baths in your landscape, but it’s also appropriate to provide a watering station for pollinators as well. However, these watering stations should be shallow and it’s a good idea to add some rocks in the water to give your visitors something to stand on while they are getting a drink.

For those of us who had grandparents who lived on a farm (or maybe yours still do) think back to those older flower gardens on the farm. As I remember, many of them had groupings of rather tall, lush plants with flowers that seemed to bloom all season long. They were also, more than likely, plants that were native to the area since the era of plant nurseries where you could purchase any number of exotic plants had yet to come on the scene.

We have several good resources for information on Native Pollinator Plants for Oklahoma on our website in the Lawn and Garden Help section / Flowers. And, we have a special section of our plant sale dedicated to both Organic Pollinator Plants and Pollinator Plants in general. You can find both of these resources at www.tulsamastergardeners.org. Good luck and happy gardening.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org.

Photo: Todd Johnson - Oklahoma State Agricultural Communications Services