POLLINATORS AT WORK: The gardens throughout the Bloor Annex BIA have been mindfully planted, with support from the City of Toronto’s Live Green Toronto program (livegreentoronto.ca), to encourage biodiversity and pollinator health in the urban core.
The goal of this project is to:
- Provide food sources for a wide variety of pollinators throughout all seasons.
- Create habitats that will support the life cycles of multiple species, including larval host plants.
- Manage habitats for nesting and overwintering species.
Here are the details and information on our pollinators:
Blazing Star Liatris (Liatris Spicata)
| Bloom: Mid-Late Summer Legend: Larval Host, Pollinator, Songbirds Wildlife Value and other Information: Blazing Star is a treat for gardeners and pollinators alike. These tall, bright, spikes of flowers are a magnet for butterflies, bees, rare moths and hummingbirds. Blazing Star serves as a host plant to various moths who will feed on everything from the flowers to the seeds to the stems. Later in the season, the seeds provide forage for wildlife in winter months and are a particular favorite of the goldfinch. |
Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum Cordifolium)
| Bloom: Fall Legend: Larval Host, Bees, Butterflies, Birds Wildlife Value and other Information: These daisy-like flowers are a good source of nectar for butterflies and other pollinators. Aster pollen is also collected from the flowers as a late season food source to help wild bees overwinter. Many Aster species are considered larval host plants supporting the full life cycle of many species of butterfly and moth. |
Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias Tuberosa)
| Bloom: Mid-Late Summer Legend: Pollinators Wildlife Value and other Information: Sweat bees and various bumblebees can often be found digging in the flowers of a blooming Boneset. Their delicate fragrance will also pull in butterflies and moths from all around. |
Canadian Anemone (Anemone Canadensis)
| Bloom: Spring Legend: Bees Wildlife Value and other Information: These low growing spring flowers pack a lot of pollen for their size. It is not uncommon to see bees and beetles of all sizes feasting on Canadian Anemone pollen because it is an early season |
Common Boneset (Eupatorium Perfoliatum)
| Bloom: Mid-Late Summer Legend: Pollinators Wildlife Value and other Information: Sweat bees and various bumblebees can often be found digging in the flowers of a blooming Boneset. Their delicate fragrance will also pull in butterflies and moths from all around. |
Foam Flower (Tiarella Cordifolia)
| Bloom: Early Spring Legend: Habitat Pollinators Wildlife Value and other Information: An early bloomer, Foam Flower is loved by pollinators for its early nutritional value after a long winter. Foam Flower is also good groundcover in the winter for ground nesting bees. |
Goldstrum/Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia Fulgida)
| Bloom: Late Summer-Fall Legend: Medicine, Larval, Birds, Bees Wildlife Value and other Information: This songbird friendly plant provides nectar in the summer months and seeds in the fall- winter. It is also a larval host plant to Wavy-lined Emerald moth (Synchlora aerata) |
New England Aster (Aster Novae-Angliae)
| Bloom: Late summer/fall Legend: Songbirds, Pollinators, Butterfly Wildlife Value and other Information: This tall variety of aster can grow 2-6’ tall. Aster are a critical autumn nectar and pollen source for pollinators, including Monarchs as they stock up on energy for their travels to Mexico. |
Nodding Wild Onion (Allium Cernuum)
| Bloom: Late summer/fall Legend: Songbirds, Pollinators, Butterfly Wildlife Value and other Information: This tall variety of aster can grow 2-6’ tall. Aster are a critical autumn nectar and pollen source for pollinators, including Monarchs as they stock up on energy for their travels to Mexico. |
Pasture Rose (Rosa Carolina L.)
| Bloom: Spring/Summer Legend: Larval Plant, Habitat, Butterfly, Bee, Birds Wildlife Value and other Information: This thorny rose bush provides good cover for small birds year round. It’s thorny branches and leaves also provide structure and materials for native bees who may nest at the base of the bush, or nearby. A Pasture Rose will offer pollinators such as flies, native bees, and beetles nutritious pollen in spring. Many moth larva will also feast on the leaves of the pasture rose in the early season, while songbirds will snack on rose hips later in the fall. |
Prairie Dropseed Grass (Sporobolus Heterolepsis)
| Bloom: Late Summer/Fall Legend: Larval Host, Habitat, Birds Wildlife Value and other Information: The light and airy flowers that bloom late summer-fall will drop to present seeds for insects, sparrows and other songbirds to feast on from late summer into winter. Grasshoppers, caterpillars and leafhoppers will also eat fallen seeds. The dried grass from Prairie Dropseed will provide small songbirds materials to build their nests. |
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea Purpurea)
| Bloom: Late Summer Legend: Medicine, Pollinator, Butterfly, Birds Wildlife Value and other Information: This tall attractive coneflower makes a perfect landing spot for butterflies and bees who love the nectar of the flowers. Pollen is also readily available for insect pollinators. Later in the fall, songbirds (especially goldfinches) can’t help but flock to the seeds, so don’t rush to cut back faded flowers in the winter. |
Smooth Aster/’Bluebird’ (Aster Laevis)
| Bloom: Late Summer/Fall Legend: Songbirds, Pollinator, Butterfly Wildlife Value and other Information: Butterflies and other pollinators love asters for their late season nectar and pollen stores, but caterpillars are also drawn to these host plants for their foliage. Some caterpillars will and pupate and hibernate for the winter on or next to the aster. |
Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago Rigida)
| Bloom: Late Summer/Fall Legend: Butterfly, Bees, Birds Wildlife Value and other Information: Sometimes confused for common ragweed and blamed for seasonal allergies, goldenrods are an incredible butterfly magnet. This wildflower is an invaluable late season food source for pollinators and bees providing both nectar and pollen. They are also excellent hostplants and a good food source for the larva of butterflies and moths. Plant Goldenrod and you will allow butterflies and moths to complete their life cycles in your garden. Then leave the dead plants standing through fall and winter so the birds can eat the seeds. |
Turtlehead (Chelone Glabra)
| Bloom: Late Summer/Fall Legend: Pollinators, Larval Host, Butterflies, Caterpillars, Bees Wildlife Value and other Information: Often found in natural woodlands, this plant and its turtlehead shaped flowers, are a favorite nectar source for bumblebees. You can often find the fluffy-end of a bumblebee sticking out of these turtlehead shaped flowers. Butterflies are also drawn to this nectar source, some even breeding here. The tall green foliage of this plant is a feast for sawflies and other Lepidoptera caterpillars. |
Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis)
| Bloom: Spring Legend: Pollinator, Hummingbird, Butterfly, Larval Host Wildlife Value and other Information: This perennial from the buttercup family will drop flowers early spring and hold them for weeks. The tubular flowers are a favorite nectar source for hummingbirds but also enjoyed by butterflies and especially bumblebees. Several insect larvae eat Aquilegia canadensis foliage putting it in the Larval Host Plant category. |
Wild geranium (Geranium Maculatum)
| Bloom: Spring/Early Summer Legend: Pollinators Wildlife Value and other Information: Spring flowers are important for all pollinators after a long Canadian winter. This low maintenance geranium will do all the work and draw various pollinators in with its bright early flowers. |
Yarrow/ Achillea ‘Moonshine’
| Bloom: Mid-Late Summer Legend: Medicine, Butterfly, Pollinator Wildlife Value and other Information: Yarrow come in many colors, from yellow to pink, orange, red and white. These small clumps of long lasting flowers do an excellent job of attracting many types of pollinators mid-summer. Deadhead fading flowers after the bees have stopped visiting and you are likely to get a second bloom giving your pollinators a second feed. |