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This garden was made possible by a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. NH Audubon and the USFWS share a vision for engaging the public in maintaining and recovering pollinator populations.
A dedicated group of volunteers help to maintain and enhance the garden for public education.
Grants from the Walker Foundation, the Robin Colson Memorial Fund, the Gertrude and Benjamin Couch Foundations, and the Cogswell Benevolent Trust have allowed us to add interpretation and outreach in and around the garden space. Get Involved!
For more information about NH Audubon membership, click here. Give Native Plants a Chance!
Native plants are adapted to the local climate and soil conditions where they naturally occur. These important plant species provide nectar, pollen, and seeds that serve as food for native butterflies, insects, birds and other animals.
Unlike natives, non-native and invasive plant species do not provide energetic rewards for their visitors. Invasive species pose an additional challenge as their aggressive growth patterns often make it difficult for native plants and wildlife to cohabitate in the same habitat.
Native plants are advantageous because:
• Native plants provide shelter and food for native wildlife
• Native plants promote biodiversity and stewardship of our natural heritage
• Native plants are beautiful and provide scenic value to our landscape
• Native plants require less water and pest control
• Native plants help reduce air pollution as they help remove carbon from the air
New Hampshire Audubon's Pollinator Garden
Welcome
The McLane Center Pollinator Garden was created to demonstrate a native plant landscape and share:
• The beauty of native plants
• The benefits for native wildlife
• Plant and landscape options for backyards and community spaces
• Gardening practices that benefit pollinators
• Opportunities to learn and grow visitor knowledge on pollinator conservation
Enjoy this virtual experience by exploring each location throughout the garden where you can:
• Hover your cursor over plants to identify them
• Click on embedded media to learn more
• Use your cursor or finger to look up, down and all around
There's good news!
We all can help conserve pollinators. You can make a difference by creating and preserving habitats that include nectar and pollen sources through the growing season, and avoiding the use of pesticides.
The New Hampshire Audubon Pollinator Garden was created to engage everyone in the effort to understand pollinators, and inspire action on their behalf.
Why Pollinator Gardens?
Pollinators are essential to the health of our natural ecosystems and the agricultural economy worldwide.
Over 75% of the world’s flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce and one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of pollinators like bees, butterflies, flies, and birds. Populations of many pollinator species are in decline, with bees and butterflies particularly threatened. While there are many factors involved, patterns point to habitat loss, misuse of pesticides and climate change as the primary drivers.
Protecting, enhancing, or providing habitats are some of the best ways to conserve pollinators. In addition, research is revealing the importance of public participation in helping recover and maintain native pollinators.
To learn more about NH Audubon’s efforts in developing pollinator habitats at our Centers, visit our website here.
The trumpet honeysuckle is a vigorous, twining vine that typically grows to 10-15 feet and benefits from a support structure on which to grow. Large, narrow, trumpet shaped flowers appear in whorled clusters in late spring and persist into the early fall. The flowers are attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and moths.
This plant is a favored nectar source of the ruby-throated Hummingbird. The honeysuckle and hummingbird relationship is a good example of the coevolution of specialized adaptations that benefit both. The hummingbird’s beak and long thin tongue have evolved to fit into tubular flowers. The tongue can extend deeply into the flower to access the nectar. At the same time, the honeysuckle has stamens covered in pollen that protrude from the flower. As the hummingbird probes for nectar, its head gets dusted with pollen. As it moves to another flower, this pollen can be deposited.
The Trumpet Honeysuckle is also the larval host for both the spring azure butterfly and the clearwing moth. Fall fruits attract American goldfinch, purple finch, American robin and hermit thrush.
The coral honeysuckle is native to the eastern US with an orange-red exterior and yellow on the inside. A favored yellow cultivar is often used in garden settings.
• Leave your leaves on the property
• Allow the dried flower heads to stay standing in your garden
• Let the grass grow tall and seed
• Build a brush pile with fallen branches instead of removing them
• Do not use chemicals
• Leave snags on your property
• Native bees use untidy areas of the garden to nest such as open sandy ground, brush piles, and old tree stumps and snags. Consider leaving some of these for wildlife habitat.
• Add nesting opportunities with mason bee house or bundles of hollow plant stems.
• Delay garden clean-up until spring. It is best to wait until after several days of 50 degree days, which allows overwintering pollinators to “wake up” and begin activity in spring
Great Black Digger Wasp
Sphex pensylvanicus
This pollinator is a frequent visitor to the NHA McLane Center Pollinator Garden. It is quite large, and can grow to over an inch in size. We have observed 15 – 20 individuals on one shrub.
The Great Black Digger Wasp is considered a beneficial pollinator. In the Pollinator Gardens at the McLane Center in Concord, we are observing many Great Black Wasps pollinating. They seem to be attracted to white blooms such as the Mountain Mint and Sweet Coastal Pepperbush.
This is a very large wasp with the females growing to well over an inch in size. They have the standard wasp body with large wings, large head and eyes, a very tiny waist, and large black end. Great Black Wasps are generally solitary and dig their nests in the ground. The females are parasitic and sting their prey, primarily grasshoppers and katydids, to paralyze them. After paralyzing, they will drag the prey into their nest and lay their eggs on it. Once the eggs hatch they will use the prey as a food source.
The females can sting, but it is highly unlikely unless they are handled directly.
Butterflies and other insect pollinators need water to survive. Butterflies also need minerals to stay healthy. They will often gather in mud puddles to get the nutrients they need; a behavior called puddling.
You can create this important resource in your garden by filling a shallow container with clean sand and stones. This gives the pollinators the opportunity to get important nutrients and water while perched safely.
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a native perennial that is a favorite in pollinator gardens.
Each daisy-like flower head has florets that surround a central core of orange disk florets. The rays tend to drop as they age. The coneflower is an excellent nectar source for butterflies but also attractive to bees, flies, and moths.
The cone is like a spiky pincushion.
The genus name Echinacea, which comes from the Greek word for hedgehog, derived from this characteristic. The seeds are a favorite of the American Goldfinch.
Coreopsis, a bright yellow member of the aster family, is a native wildflower that grows in fields and along roadsides. It is also a favorite in pollinator gardens where it blooms from early to mid-summer and may put out blossoms later in the season. Plants in this genus are sometimes called Tickseed in reference to the resemblance of the seeds to ticks.
Coreopsis is recognized by pollination ecologists for attracting large numbers of pollinators including bees, wasps, flies, butterflies and moths. Photo 3 of this series shows a Yellow Collared Scape Moth alongside a Sweat Bee.
The Eastern Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is a native perennial that occurs naturally in open woodlands and clearings and is well suited for native plant gardens. The showy 1-2 inch flowers have 5 yellow petals with upward pointing red tubes. These tubes contain nectar that attract long-tongued insects and hummingbirds.
The Latin translation of the genus name Aquilegia references the shape of the spurs that are said to resemble the talons of an eagle.
In celebration of National Pollinator Week we will be highlighting some of the native plants in our McLane Center Pollinator Garden.
Mountain Laurel is a shade tolerant native shrub with bell-like pink flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer. Pollinated mainly by native bees, the flowers have an unusual way of dispensing pollen. Pockets hold the pollen carrying part of the flower trapped. When a pollinator lands on the flower searching for nectar, the weight acts as a trigger and flings the pollen up and onto the pollinator.
In the images, look for the Common Eastern Bumblebee pollinating the mountain laurel.
Monarch Butterfly
Monarch butterflies from the eastern population overwinter in Mexico and start their migration back north in March. They travel north through Texas and other southern states, breeding as they move northward. This new generation of monarchs will move further north in May and June to colonize the northern states and Canada.
The Monarchs lay eggs only on milkweeds, the monarch’s host plant. Two or three additional generations will lay eggs before the southward migration begins in mid-August and continues through the fall. The final generation of monarchs in New Hampshire and the rest of the Northeast will make the long migration back to the high elevation fir forests in central Mexico. Monarchs at overwintering sites in Mexico and California have declined dramatically since monitoring began in the late 1990’s.
Three species of native milkweeds support the monarch caterpillar in New Hampshire. The Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) spreads easily through underground rhizomes and easily populates open fields and meadows. Once established it grows profusely, reaching heights of 3 to 5 feet.
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) has large, flat-topped clusters of bright orange flowers. The thick rugged leaves present a good place for chrysalis formation. Short stature and clump-forming habit make the Butterfly Weed a perfect fit for most gardens.
Monarchs & Milkweed
Monarch caterpillars need milkweeds to grow and develop. The caterpillars are completely dependent on their milkweed host plants for survival.
The monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed leaves. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed on the leaves until they are ready to form a chrysalis.
Monarchs co-evolved with milkweeds, and as they did, they developed a unique adaptation that allows them to feed on these plants. Milkweed plants contain toxic compounds called cardenolides that most species are not able to digest. The absorption of these toxins also gives the monarch protection from predators.
The adult monarchs, however, need diverse nectar sources for food during their life span, from spring through the fall migration. Providing milkweeds and other nectar-rich flowers during the monarch life cycle is one of the most important actions you can take to support monarch butterflies.
New Hampshire Milkweed
The third species is the Swamp Milkweed, and although the name implies that it requires wet conditions it will grow well in well-drained garden soil. It grows to four feet and does not take over the garden with spreading roots.
The chance to focus closely on any habitat is a gift, and one of the benefits is that quiet happenings reveal themselves. Recently, we were lucky enough to follow a story in our McLane Center Pollinator Garden. Our garden includes a Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), a deciduous shrub that is native to eastern North America. This plant is thought of as the “forsythia of the wilds” because the early spring flowering gives a yellow tinge to the woods where it is common. The leaves, twigs and fruits are very aromatic or “spicy”. Early pollinators such as the mourning cloak and azure blue feed on the nectar of this plant.
The Spicebush is also host to the Spicebush Swallowtail, a species that almost exclusively uses this plant. They lay their single egg on the underside of a spicebush leaf. Newly hatched caterpillars are often likened to “bird poop” which is thought to protect them from predators. The spicebush caterpillar then spins a silk housing to attach to the leaf, effectively rolling the leaf around them, and serving as protection as they grow. They feed at night and return to a rolled leaf during the day.
After numerous molts, they turn bright green with large fake eyes that are thought to mimic a snake and deter predators. Just before they pupate and create a chrysalis, they molt to a bright orange color. Two to three generations of spicebush swallowtails occur each year with the entire process from egg to adult taking about one month. The last group in the fall will overwinter and hatch to adults in the spring. Early sightings of Spicebush Swallowtails are a reminder that they have spent the entire winter in their protective chrysalis!