Seasonal Blooms Offer Food for Hungry Pollinators

The insects around us are in immediate danger. In a recent report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, scientists say most native species have experienced at least a 20 percent loss in overall abundance due to habitat loss since the 1900s. However, this is one statistic that can be quickly changed for the better. 

While pollinators and other beneficial insects come in an almost endless variety of shapes and dispositions, local populations can be easily fostered through considerate gardening. By designing spaces that offer overwintering and nesting habitat, planting flower that bloom throughout the growing season, and providing water sources, it’s easy to make your garden and property an oasis for local wildlife.

Fall is a time of hurried preparation in the natural world, and pollinators are no exception. Unfortunately, fall can also be a time of relatively few floral blooms. Even worse, the areas in which most pollinators prefer to spend the winter are often nonexistent in most developed landscapes. Luckily, there are some pretty simple steps that we can take to help pollinators as they make their final winter preparations.

First and foremost, fall blooms are a great way to keep the pollinators in your area happy and fed. When planting for pollinators, take note of the plants already in and around your area, and try to get an idea of when they are in bloom. Many native pollinators have small foraging ranges of a few hundred yards, so stay relatively close in your observations. In general, most trees and shrubs bloom relatively early in the season, with slow growing wildflowers taking the brunt in late summer and fall. Choose your pollinator plantings so that they fill the gaps in bloom times for the plants already in your area. While fall is normally a time of scarce floral resources, a swath or two of sunflower, goldenrod, lobelia, joe pye weed, ironweed, and/or asters can add some late-season punch to your patch. These taller wildflowers take most of the growing season to slowly grow, building energy for their triumphant blooms, and are usually most dramatic when grown behind lower plants that hide their forms until right before blooming. Place your plants in groups of at least three together, so that they form large and attractive targets for any wandering pollinator. 

A steady supply of flowers throughout the growing season ensures that your landscape will be teeming with hungry beneficial insects in no time. In order to convince these garden helpers to stick around for more than just a bite to eat, a few more subtle steps need to be taken. Pollinators are usually keenly searching for places to rear their young, with each species requiring unique locations or even plants. Leaving dead standing trees and fallen limbs alone will provide some housing to gentle, solitary wood-nesting native bees, while patches of bare soil are prime real estate for solitary ground-nesting bees like the docile sweat and digger bees.

Butterflies are pickier, and each species tends to require specific plants for them to consider settling down. Most native butterflies prefer native plants in order to raise their young. Some beneficial insects make nests in the pithy stems of raspberries, river cane, or other similar plants. When cutting down hollow-stemmed plants in the fall, make sure to leave at least a foot still standing to give these insects plenty of room to make their nests. As the leaves begin to drop in late fall, resist the urge to bag or burn your piles. Identifying a place to leave them on your property is beneficial to your soil as well as your neighborhood pollinators. Bumble bees, moths, and even some butterflies use leaf piles as shelter during the cold winter months.

The last necessity is a source of water. If you do not have a source within a few hundred yards of your property, a pollinator watering hole can be easily created by filling a shallow dish with stones and/or sand. Flood the dish with water so that there are wet spots interspersed with dry or semi-dry areas for pollinator landing pads, and there you have it. 

About the author: Brannen Basham and his wife, Jill Jacobs, are co-owners of Spriggly’s Beescaping, a nature education business dedicated to increasing environmental awareness through interactive exhibits, workshops, garden installations, and other services. With a special focus on the 4,000+ species of native bees in North America, Spriggly’s works to increase appreciation for beneficial insects, habitat restoration, and the wonderful world around us.