Pollinator Garden

CURATORS: Charlotte Albers and Debbie Page

The Perennial Garden was redesigned by UVM Plant and Soil Science student Hanna Brill in 2015 as a class project and renamed the Pollinator Garden due to its focus on showcasing native plants that attract beneficial insects, notably bees. Much reduced in size, the new garden is intended to be an outdoor classroom for multi-age learning, with maintenance workdays earning volunteer hours for the UVM Extension Master Gardener Program. Mixed borders include deciduous shrubs and ornamental grasses indigenous to the central and eastern U.S. such as chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa ‘Viking’) and little bluestem. An arbor built by Brian Gluck of Rustic Cedar separates the long bed and provides a framework for climbing honeysuckle vine. We have selected a red flowering cultivar called ‘Major Wheeler’ for the structure. 

In an effort to provide for extended bloom late into the season, a variety of plants were chosen, with many forms of coneflower, Black-Eyed Susans, and asters to attract insects. The goal is to have plants form large clumps to create drifts, intermingling stems and foliage. No soil supplements or mulch are used and the beds are organically maintained. Below is a partial list of plants, many supplied by Full Circle Gardens, a nursery in Essex which offers a wide selection of native plants and cultivars.

Amsonia tabernaemontana (bluestar)
Asclepias tuberosum (butterfly weed)
Penstemon digitalis (hairy beardtongue)
Thermopsis caroliniana (Carolina lupine)
Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ (honeysuckle)
Helenium autumnale (sneezeweed)
Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida (Black Eyed Susan)
Rudbeckia subtomentosa ‘Henry Eilers’ (sweet coneflower)
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England aster)
Echinacea paradoxa (yellow coneflower)
Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ (switchgrass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)

The Friends are grateful to our supporters Sarah Salatino for her donation of plants, time and expertise, and curator Charlotte Albers, who recruited Hannah Brill, then a UVM undergraduate. Together, their careful planning and hard work have provided us with another wonderful educational resource at the farm.

Charlotte is a landscape designer – visit Paintbox Garden to learn more about her work.