Gardening fever has broken out across the state with homeowners digging, planting, weeding and mulching to avoid missing out on spring rains. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is encouraging homeowners to include pollinator friendly native plants as part of the landscape.
Native Iowa plants are the most beneficial for pollinators and can be designed to look nice, said Stephanie Shepherd, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Diversity Program.
“We prefer native plants over plants that have been genetically modified as the modified versions may or may not produce the same levels of pollen or nectar as the natives,” she said. “Native plants also bloom at the right times, just when our native pollinators are relying on them.”
Part of the design plan should include a mix of plants that bloom during different seasons in order to maximize opportunities for pollinators. Consider a mix of plants like golden alexanders, large flowering beard tongue, or foxglove beard tongue that bloom in spring; butterfly milkweed, which is also a host plant for monarchs, pale purple coneflower and wild bergamot, aka bee balm, that bloom in summer; and prairie blazing star, New England aster and the goldenrods that bloom late summer and fall.
For more information on pollinators, lists of plants and tips for planting a backyard prairie and more, go to https://www.iowadnr.gov/pollinators. Plantings this spring can be supporting bees and butterflies later this summer during National Pollinator Week, June 16-22.
“If the thought of what to plant is too much, then plan to limit the number of different kinds of plants to 6 to 9; 2-3 early spring blooming, 2-3 summer blooming and 2-3 late summer/fall blooming,” she said. Including native grasses like prairie dropseed, little bluestem, and side-oats gramma are useful as host plants for butterflies and moths.
And don’t overlook redbud trees or serviceberry shrubs, in the spring blooming category if there’s space, Shepherd said.
These pollinator plants are likely to attract monarchs, and common eastern and brown-belted bumble bees. Most bees aren’t aggressive; just foraging and want to be left alone,” Shepherd said.
Homeowners who have bumble bees visiting their flowers can help the Iowa DNR with data collection by contributing to Iowa’s Bumble Bee Atlas.
The Bumble Bee Atlas is a volunteer community science project with a goal of learning more about bumble bees in Iowa, particularly what species are here, where they are in the state and what kind of habitat and flowers they like.
Anyone interested in participating will need to complete an online training and optional hands on field training to practice catching and handling bumble bees. The Iowa DNR has Bumble Bee Atlas video online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BTk70i96uw.
More information is available online at https://www.bumblebeeatlas.org/pages/iowa