Pollinators include bees (both introduced honeybees and native wild bees), flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, hummingbirds, bats, and beetles. None of these sets out each day specifically to pollinate plants. Rather, they go hunting for the nectar, pollen, resins and oils that plants produce and that the pollinators eat or take back to nests to feed their young. Pollination is a happy and essential by-product of this search for food, because as the pollinator moves from flower to flower, pollen grains from plants they just visited fall from their bodies into the female reproductive parts of the flower and a seed is formed.
Humans are beneficiaries of the work of these (mostly insect) pollinators. Thirty-five percent of the food crops we eat require insect pollination, and 90% of all plants on earth require insect pollination to reproduce. It would be a desolate world without pollinators. More accurately, it is becoming a more desolate world because pollinators (and many beneficial insects and the birds that eat insects) are in trouble due to habitat loss and pesticide use.
We can help save the pollinators (and the planet) by creating habitat for them, even if we live in an urban area. To create habitat where pollinators and other beneficial insects can live means putting plants in the ground – the right plant in the right place.
The right plant starts with the native plants that have grown here for thousands of years and that have co-evolved with the insects and wildlife that have also lived here for thousands of years. The plants and insects have a mutually beneficial relationship: the plants get pollination and the insects get food. It has been this way for eons.
Below is a partial list of native plants that pollinators love and that will grow easily here in Regina, despite its special urban soil that tends to be compacted clay but that can be improved through the addition of compost. The “right place” for the plants listed here is a sunny location. They are available at specialty native plant garden centres or organizations (e.g. seeds from Nature Regina’s Native Plant Garden) as seeds, plugs, or in pots. I have included the scientific names for these plants because that is the best way to be sure you are getting the native species.
Following the list of native plants is a partial list of non-native plants that have important value to pollinators. These are plants that have been brought over from Europe and Asia (e.g. herbs such as oregano from the Mediterranean region), or that are native to other parts of North America (e.g. purple coneflower from Ontario). These plants are available at most regular garden centres as seeds or in pots.
Native Plants for Pollinators (perennials)
Wild Bergamot (Beebalm) – Monarda fistulosa
Dotted Blazing Star – Liatrus punctata
Low Milkwood – Asclepias ovalifolia
Whorled Milkweed – Asclepias verticillata
Rough False Sunflower – Heliopsis helianthoides
Narrow-leaved Sunflower – Helianthus maximilianii
Giant Hyssop (Anise Hyssop) – Agastache foeniculum
Blanket Flower – Gaillardia aristata
Wild Columbine – Aquilegia Canadensis
Smooth Aster, Lindley’s Aster, etc. – Symphiotrychum leave, Symphiotrychum ciliolatum & others
Three Flowered Avens – Geum Triflorum
Smooth Blue Beardtongue – Penstemon nitidus
Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Stiff Goldenrod and Low Goldenrod, etc. – Solidago rigida, Solidago missouriensis, and others
Purple Prairie Clover – Dalea purpurea
Canada Anemone – Anemone Canadensis
Early Blue Violet – Viola adunca
Native Plants for Pollinators (Shrubs)
Highbush Cranberry – Viburnum trilobum
Nannyberry – Viburnum lentago
Saskatoon – Amelanchier alnifolia
Red Osier Dogwood – Cornus Sericea
Shrubby Cinquefoil – Dasiphora fruticose
Bush Honeysuckle – Diervilla lonicera
Prairie Rose – Rosa arkansana
Non-native Plants for Pollinators
Herbs (allow to flower): Oregano, Dill, Coriander, Borage, Basil, Catnip, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme, Chives
Annuals: Cosmos, Scarlet Runner Bean, Annual Tickseed, Sweet Allysum, Bachelor Button, annual Salvia (blue variety)
Perennials: Russian Sage, Salvia nemerosa, Clover (White Dutch, Crimson, Alsike), Globe Thistle, Stonecrop (sedums), Catmint, Purple Coneflower (Echinacea)
Shrubs/vines: Ninebark, shrub Roses, Spirea, Nanking Cherry, Haskap, Scarlet Trumpet Honeysuckle