By Pamela Sleightholm
Bees, butterflies and birds – they’re central organisms in our natural ecosystem and key to the pollination of all kinds of plants, including those we depend on for food.
This Earth Day, April 22, plan a pollinator garden for your space to help these insects and birds overcome habitat loss and urbanization. Help the environment from your own yard and reap the benefits when your native wildflowers bloom. The pageant of nature will delight you and your family throughout the growing season.
Poster available: High-resolution PDFs available for printing on your own printer (17″ wide x 11″high). Please contact Nancy. Writing: Susan Reel; Illustrations and Design: Nancy Seiler
Blooming Boulevards’ goal is to create a network of pollinator gardens across Mississauga – providing food and shelter as they move about the city landscape.
Check out our resources page to learn which native plants will work in your garden’s conditions and start planning your pollinator garden.
Even if you just have space for a small mass planting of milkweed or native wildflowers, it's enough to make an impact!
Blooming Boulevards will be holding a sale in June if you’re looking for native plants suitable to Mississauga – we’ll post updates to our blog, social media channels and newsletter with final details.
Looking for a great native starter plant? Try one of our favorites – wild columbine.
Wild columbines are easily suited to both formal garden beds as well as informal rock or woodland garden settings. It's happy in sun or part shade. This prairie perennial blooms mid-spring to early summer and its beautiful foliage makes it a good border plant the rest of the season. It lives only 3-5 years, but can spread easily from seed. It is well adapted to survive salt and drought, so is a great plant for your boulevard.
The wild columbine is a favorite source of nectar for returning ruby-throated hummingbirds. Deep nectar tubes attract insect pollinators with long tongues: a wide range of species of native bees, bumblebees, honey bees, butterflies and moths. It also serves as a larval host plant for the columbine duskywing butterfly and columbine borer moth.