Wolbach Farm Interpretive Trail, Post 8

Pollinator Garden

SVT’s pollinator garden is located behind the Wolbach Farm office building. This garden was designed to boost the health of pollinators--the native insects that pollinate the plants in our region. In addition to the pollinator-friendly, native plants, the garden includes a bee hotel that provides nesting habitat for solitary wasps and bees.

A good pollinator garden has a diversity of native plants in order to attract a wide range of pollinators. By including flowers or plants that bloom at different times throughout the season, the garden provides pollination opportunities for bees and insects for a longer period of time.

Milkweed

One of the most important plants in the garden is milkweed (Asclepias), a plant that is essential to the survival of the monarch butterfly. It is the only plant that the monarch butterfly will lay its eggs on, and it is the only food source for the monarch caterpillar. Milkweed sap contains cardiac glycosides, a chemical compound that is toxic to most animal species. By ingesting the sap, the monarch caterpillar becomes poisonous to other animals.

You can identify milkweed plants by breaking a small part of the stem or foliage to see if it oozes the milky white sap that gives the plant its name.

Photo: Milkweed plant, photographed by Janet Pesaturo.

Aster

Aster is another group of flowers that greatly improves pollinator activity. New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), Starved calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), and New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) are all found in SVT gardens.

There are over 600 species within the aster family. They have a tight grouping of tubular flowers that give the impression of being a single flower with a disk. Asters are often a prime target for birds, bees, and butterflies because they are fragrant and colorful.

Photo: Sweat bee on New England aster, photographed by Rich Couse.

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