Planting for Pollinators

Butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and even bats and flies are all pollinators that feed off plants in your yard. So when you’re adding new flowers to your landscape, choose those that provide nectar and pollen for winged workers.

“Almost all native plants that rely on pollination rely on these limited numbers of insects,” said Paul Thomas, a horticulture professor at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Plants that attract pollinators provide food for the insects. But they’re not just helping the plants in your gardens. They are helping all native plants.”

Pollinators are vital to agriculture. They pollinate most fruit, vegetable and seed crops. Healthy pollinator populations can improve plant and fruit size and quality. By adding plants to your landscape that provide food and shelter for pollinators through their active seasons, you can help the pollinators and help maintain the biodiversity of native species.

Attracting pollinators

Whether you hope to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your home or provide a food source for honeybees, there are a few things to consider. Pollinators need consistent nectar sources, open roaming areas, tree-canopy cover nearby and a source of moisture and soil salts.
Select a sunny spot for a pollinator garden. “It is tough to plant a pollinator garden in the shade,” Thomas said. “To provide nectar and pollen, full-sun plants are the way to go.”

Salvia, lantana and trumpet vine will take the heat. Echinacea can tolerate drought conditions as well.

To extend the flower season, “plant the perennials you want, fill in with annuals and provide some full-summer blooming shrubs,” he said. “The more varied your garden the better.”

Thomas recommends hardy lantana, blue sage salvia, purple coneflower, verbena canadensis and thrift. A good native butterfly plant is Joe Pye weed, which provides fall blooms.

Pay attention to each plants' height, vigor and space accordingly. Miss Huff lantana and the butterfly bush Black Knight may look small the day you plant them. But each can grow into a 4-foot-wide bush.

Provide a variety of plant colors and shapes to attract multiple pollinators. Hummingbirds are attracted to red and blue flowers while bees tend to prefer white and yellow blooms. Butterflies are happy with pinks and purples.

Bees need rounded flowers where they can more easily reach the nectar and pollen. Butterflies can sip from tubular or cone shaped flowers.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds look for flags or certain plants that signal an appropriate feeding and breeding site.

“If a male hummingbird sees a native horse chestnut, he knows the area is a suitable habitat,” Thomas said.

Males are also attracted to bright red flowers like those on native honeysuckle. Later in the summer, young hummingbirds prefer flowers such as blue sage. Other recommended plants for hummingbirds are red flowering chestnut, abelias, summer phlox, chaste tree, columbine, cardinal flower, bee balm, red hot poker, hibiscus and most salvias.

Butterflies

“For a successful butterfly garden, it’s vital to select nectar-producing plants with accessible flowers,” Thomas said.

He suggests lantana and purple coneflower because they produce nectar and attract butterflies continuously, even during the driest droughts. Choose plants that will bloom in sequence, providing nectar from March 1 to the first killing frost.

Homestead purple verbena will bloom in early spring through early summer and flower again in late fall. This provides nectar for early- and late-season butterflies such as Question Mark, Red Admiral and Zebra and Tiger Swallowtails.

Blue anise sage and purple coneflower will bloom in cycles if you pick off the spent flowers. Verbena bonariensis will stop flowering early, but you can cut it halfway back in early August to stimulate new flowers for fall.

Having a food source for caterpillars is vital, too. To accommodate this early butterfly stage, include an ornamental fennel, the favorite food of Eastern Black Swallowtails. Dill, fennel, carrot and parsley do well, too.

By April Sorrow
University of Georgia

April Sorrow is a news editor for the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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Fayette Front Page: Trained Hummingbirds

After writing a bit yesterday about "my" hummingbirds, I have a short update on their habits. Actually, I have an update on the habits of one particular hummingbird.

I think she's fallen in like with me.

As I type, she's hanging around outside my windows, seemingly watching me. New habit that started yesterday and I don't know if there's something of interest to her outside that I can't see, or if she's keeping tabs on me.

My office is a converted sun room so I'm lucky to have three sides of windows and also lucky to have the windows start at desk level and go almost to the ceiling. That allowed us to build in a horseshoe shaped desk that wraps around the three sides with the windows, without having anyone on the outside able to see the desk. I have computers set up in each corner and a view of woods, deer, rabbits and of course, my hummingbirds no matter where I look.

Hard to work at times!

Yesterday I went out to water a butterfly bush that is just barely limping along. Some nasty ants built a huge home around the base year before last and managed to kill off a large chunk of it before I noticed. I killed the ants, cut back the dead part and have been trying to keep the remainder happy ever since.

As I was watering I caught motion out of the corner of my eye and cut my eyes (rather than making a sudden movement) to see "my" hummingbird. She buzzed around the entire time I was watering, even when I moved. She'd go sit in the closest tree for a few seconds, then come back and watch the water. I've heard that hummingbirds love to fly through sprinkling water so maybe if I do this each day for a while I'll be able to see her take a shower.

Not sure if anyone is interested in what my hummingbird is doing. The rest of them aren't quite as friendly but as I said in a previous post, they aren't as skittish as any of my earlier hummingbirds. I'm thinking these little ones have been somewhere with people around and they have grown accustomed to human habits.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll post some photos of my mom's hummingbirds. She had a Rufus that was banded and I have photos of her holding the hummingbird. Very cool. I want a Rufus but I don't know that they winter in this area. Has anyone ever had one in Fayette County? Anywhere near?

editor@fayettefrontpage.com if you'd like to send your experience with "your" hummingbirds.
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Hummingbirds in Fayette

Each year we see what appears to be three separate "batches" (for lack of a better term coming to mind) of hummingbirds. Each has distinct habits and it's easy to tell when they've moved on and changed regimes!

The first group is usually a bit more skittish and they don't hang out in visible areas quite as much as others. They zoom in for the food and zoom out. They grab "their" territory and defend it heartily.

The second group is a bit more open to visitors and they'll stick around longer. At our house, there are usually fewer in the second group that stays through mid-summer.

I'm not entirely sure, but possibly the mid-group is joined by others later in the year. They may move on, it's hard to tell. I just know that our largest grouping of hummingbirds is always the last.

The last batch is more easy-going and there are more of them. There's always one that finds a perch on the plant holder on the porch and seems to stay the majority of the day.

A friend asked the other day if hummingbirds ever sit still. The answer is an unequivocal yes!

They seem to love the planter (again for lack of a better word... it's early in the morning and I'm racing the clock to write this article!) I put together a few years back. I bought one of those plant hangers from Wild Birds Unlimited in Peachtree City that has metal branches with limbs and leaves to hang plants. Rather than put it in the ground, I bought the round metal stand so it will sit on the porch. I bought a huge pot from Walmart or Home Depot that's made of a strong Styrofoam type material (but it looks like it's made of concrete). I drilled a hole in the bottom, put the round metal stand under the pot with the pole coming up the middle.

I then put dirt in the pot, added a nice hummingbird attracting vine and voila, I had a planter that I could hang hummingbird feeders and plants on.

My dad made a wooden platform with wheels and a rope-pull with wooden handle for the planter so I could easily move it around and now I have what has become my hummingbirds favorite hangout each year.

I keep it right outside my office window so I can watch "my" hummingbird's antics.

Each year one claims the plant stand and it will fight mightily to defend their territory. These little things can be mean! You can hear the "swock" as they bang into each other when they really get mad!

By the end of the year I usually have at least six feeders around the yard in different places. Not sure why, but they share better at the other feeders. The one I have in my vegetable garden will have two or three feeding at the same time. Sometimes they'll fight and sometimes they take turns.

This year the end-of-year vegetable garden group could care less whether I'm there picking tomatoes or not. It's been a lot of fun being inches from the little birds as they feed. They look up, cock their head at me and watch for a minute, then must figure that I'm harmless because they go back to feeding.

I could go on for many more paragraphs talking about "my" hummingbirds. They bring a lot of joy and peace. Sometimes when I'm feeling stressed I'll stop and watch them for a minute or two. They always make me smile and allow me to "chill out" long enough mentally that I am able to get back to work in a better frame of mind. Not sure what it is about them that has that affect, but I know I'm not alone in my sentiments!