POLLINATORS
​
Bees
Our native bumble bees especially love shrubs; they have the longest flight time of the season, with the queen emerging from hibernation in early spring in search of food when most other plants are still covered in snow. Because they are a social bee and living in colonies, their workers collect pollen well into fall to prepare for winter.
​
​
​
Gardening for the Love of Bees
In the past few decades, development has accelerated at an alarming rate. Where there were once natural landscapes there are now massive developments and widening highways. These are not slow and gradual changes that nature can adapt to. These changes are rapid and dramatic, often depleting acres of land within a season. This degree of development has placed habit loss and fragmentation as the primary factors contributing to the decline of insect and bee populations.
One thing that we can do as individuals is bring wild flowers and native plants back into the landscape. Floral food provides essential nutrients to help our native bee species thrive, and native plants help restore ecosystems.
Succession of blooms and seasonality are essential when gardening for bees. The number 'three' is a good reminder; having at least three species of flowers blooming at one time and having blooming plants for three seasons; spring, summer and fall. Native bee populations, especially the bumble bee are active from early spring, well into fall. Native shrubs are also key in providing benefit to bumble bees. They offer small but plentiful blossoms early in the spring when most other plants are often still covered in snow.
​
A SELECTION OF PLANTS FOR POLLINATORS
The following perennials are well suited to the Muskoka region and will provide blossoms through the seasons. They will thrive in a range of soil and light conditions from partial shade to full sun and have been carefully chosen for their availability as a native plant or seed, at quality nurseries in Ontario.
Achillea millefolium, white yarrow
Agastache foeniculum, anise hyssop
Aquilegia canadensis, wild columbine
Asclepias incarnata, swamp milkweed
Chamerion angustifolium, fireweed
Chelone glabra, white turtlehead
Coreopsis lanceolata, lanceleaf coreopsis
Dasiphora fruticosa, shrubby cinquefoil
Desmodium canadense, showy tick-trefoil
Echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower
Eupatorium perfoliatum, common boneset
Eutrochium maculatum, spotted joe-pyeweed
Impatiens capensis, jewelweed
Iris versicolor, wild blue iris
Ilium philadelphicum, wood lily
Liatris spicata, dense blazingstar
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower
Lobelia siphilitica, great blue lobelia
Monarda didyma, beebalm
Monarda fistulosa, wild bergamot
Oenothera biennis, common evening primrose
Potentilla arguta, tall cinquefoil
Rudbeckia hirta, black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia laciniata, cut-leaf coneflower
Solidago altissima, late goldenrod
Solidago canadensis, Canada goldenrod
Solidago juncea, early goldenrod
Solidago nemoralis, grey goldenrod
Spiraea tomentosa, steeplebush
Symphyotrichum cordifolium, heart-leaved aster
Symphyotrichum laeve, smooth blue aster
Symphyotrichum puniceum, swamp aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, New England aster
Tiarella cordifolia, foamflower
Verbena hastata, swamp verbena
Verbena stricta, hoary vervain