Be a Pollinator Pal
- Plant flowers that bloom throughout the spring and summer and into the fall. Examples are listed below.
- Plant flowers and shrubs to create a green corridor connecting with your neighbour's plantings or natural areas. Even plants in pots on balconies and decks will work.
- Provide nesting sites such as bare soil, rotting wood, stacked rocks, even water, to encourage pollinators to move into your yard.
- Reduce or eliminate pesticides and herbicides. If you must use them, spray pesticides at night when pollinators are less active.
- Mow less! Consider leaving a portion of your landscape untended to act as a natural area for pollinators, birds and other wildlife.
- While out in nature, act with care. A misplaced footstep on bare ground or in fallen leaves can destroy a nest and its inhabitants. If you pick up a rock or log, put it back where you found it; you'll be putting the 'roof' back on something's home.
Pollinator Plants
The plants listed below will provide a nectar and or pollen source from early spring to late autumn in parkland and prairie ecosystems. They are listed according to their bloom period, with the earliest blooming being first on the list to the latest blooming being last on the list.
All plants have been successfully grown in the parkland ecosystem and none spread aggressively either by seed or roots.
There are many good pollinator plants, both indigenous and non-indigenous, that are rhizomatous. Rhizomatous plants can be useful, particularly where soil stability is an issue or where plants with aggressive root systems are necessary to compete with existing vegetation. In most garden settings, however, plants with rhizomes require more attention and can end up monopolizing the site. For this reason, plants listed here, with the exception of saskatoon, have bunch root systems; none are rhizomatous.
The indigenous species included are those that have cultivars of the species that can be found in most nurseries.
| INDIGENOUS | NON-INDIGENOUS |
| Saskatoon Amelanchier alnifolia | Apple Malus |
| Red Osier Dogwood Cornus sericea | Nanking Cherry Prunus tomentosa |
| Wild Columbine Aquilegia canadensis | Purple Sensation Allium Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' |
| Highbush Cranberry Viburnum trilobum | Alpine Aster Aster alpinus |
| Blanket Flower Gaillardia aristata | Meyer Lilac Syringa meyeri |
| Wild Bergamont Monarda fistulosa | Pinks Dianthus deltoides |
| Joe-pye Eupatoreum maculatum | Delphinium Delphinium spp. |
| Smooth Aster Aster laevis | Salvia 'Superba' Salvia x superba |
| Stiff Goldenrod Solidago rigida | Globe Thistle Echinops ritro |
| Meadow Blazingstar Liatris ligulistylis | Showy Sedum Sedum spectabile |
*Courtesy of Cynthia Pohl, Living Lands Landscape and Design