This is the time of year we gardeners are gearing up for our gardens. If you are growing vegetables, you likely have your cool season crops in the ground. If you are a flower gardener, you are probably busy cleaning up your garden to get ready to the season.

Typically, we look to April 15^th as our average last freeze date, but who knows. We could be done with freezing temperatures, or there could still be a few lurking just over the horizon. Either way, we are planning out our gardens and getting ready for the season.

One thing I would like to encourage my fellow flower gardeners to do is to try to move past our prime directive in purchasing flowers… “that’s pretty” …and become a little more intentional in our purchases. Yes, we all have our favorites that we will always want in our gardens. But I’m guessing there are some new favorites waiting for you that might actually serve a greater purpose. I’m talking about working to transition at least part of our flower gardens to what I call a pollinator garden.

Why do we need to be concerned with pollinating insects? Well, approximately 80% of the plants that produce the fruits and grains we enjoy, need to be pollinated. European honeybees do the work on many industrial farms, but for the home gardener, local pollinating insects do the heavy lifting.

Pollinator insects visit our flowers to extract nectar which is the fuel they live on. In the process they end up pollinating the flowers. Good nectar plants include Yarrow, Aster, Columbine, Agastache, False Indigo, Ageratum, Coreopsis, Joe Pye Weed, Coreopsis, and a variety of others.

When leaning into providing beautiful and functional plants for our pollinating insects, we need to think a little differently about how we plant. Pollinating insects will appreciate larger groupings of the same flower as compared to individual plants. Groupings will let the pollinating insects know that they can visit your garden for their nutritional needs as compared to having to visit multiple locations to accomplish the same thing. Pollinating insects will visit your gardens for a meal, but if you really want to see an increase in butterflies etc., plant some host plants.

Host plants would be those plants that will attract pollinators so the mamas can deposit their eggs on the plants. These insects search out plants that will be the preferred food source for their babies. So, when the eggs hatch, they will find themselves smack dab in the middle of a delicious buffet.

Plants that readily serve as host plants would include dill, parsley, fennel, chives, and milkweed.

Since these larval host plants aren’t typically as showy as some of the others, oftentimes gardeners like to dedicate a certain area of their garden to these larval host plants. This is both practical and perhaps preferred. I say this because the insect larvae are going to devour the plant… but that’s why you planted it…right? Because of that, some gardeners prefer to refrain from planting these larval food plants in their prime viewing areas. As for me, I don’t care, but I know I’m not the norm… in more ways than one. 

Another thing you should consider when selecting flowers for your pollinator garden is that you should stagger blooms times as much as possible. This involves paying attention to bloom times of your flowers and selecting flowers so that you will have blooms throughout the season. Some flowers will be early bloomers while others will be late bloomers. This way, the insects will come to know they can depend on your garden to provide for their needs all season long. And, like we mentioned in an earlier article, dandelions and henbit are good for the pollinators since they are some of the earliest bloomers. Obviously, you don’t need to plant these and you might already have them in your yard.

A good pollinator garden also has a place for these insects to find shelter or protection. This does not mean you need to build something special; it just means that you need a strong, woody shrub nearby where they can find shelter from predators or the elements. In our landscape we have a nearby holly bush, but honeysuckle would be a better idea since it also provides a food source.

Next, you should provide a source of water. You may have a birdbath, but the birdbath needs a little modification to make it pollinator friendly. This is pretty easy. Just add some stones to the bird bath. Doing this will give the pollinators a place to land so they can get a drink.

If you really want to enhance your pollinator garden, you can provide a pollinator feeder. Pollinator feeders are different in that bird feeders provide seeds, pollinator feeders provide different nutrients by using over-ripe bananas, cantaloupe rinds, or perhaps orange slices. You’ll just need some kind of a tray to place these on. These are especially useful early and late in the season when other sources of food are not as readily available.

It’s also a good idea to include some larger rocks in your landscape as well. Butterflies need to be warm before they can fly, so rocks in the garden will be another attractor of pollinators.

And last but not least, consider adding native plants to your garden. Native plants are just what they sound like, plants that are native to our area. These are plants the pollinators are familiar with and will seek out over and above not so familiar varieties. Native plants would include Echinacea/Coneflower, Guara, False Indigo, Gaillardia, Coreopsis, Blackfoot Daisy, Rudbeckia, and Wild Indigo to name a few. And don’t forget Common Milkweed since it’s the primary food source for the larvae of migrating monarchs.

While many of our local garden centers have native plant in stock, be sure to check out the Sand Springs and Jenks herb festivals for some special finds from local growers.

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: Tom Ingram