Environment

Sandy Hill gardener’s labour of love promotes native plants for pollinators

Dean Pallen

It is early fall and the garden is full of life with bees, butterflies, wasps, flies and other pollinators swirling about with the colours beginning to reach a crescendo. Arriving here has involved years of trial and error.

Before this version of the garden, the theme was cacti plants. Then a number of thefts of the rarer species nudged me towards prioritizing native plants that are much better at stabilizing the ecosystem and are essential to the well- being of pollinators. Annual zinnias have always been a constant part of the garden in its different incarnations with a number of varieties planted each year for their visual impact and their value to bees, butterflies and other beneficial bugs. The zinnias have proven to be a worthy complement to the native plants that are slowly crowding out non-indigenous species. This is all to the delight of wildlife in general including small mammals like rabbits and groundhogs that have refined palettes when it comes to native plants, but that is a story for another day.

The native plants are chosen on the basis of their bloom periods and ability to respond to the shifting needs of pollinators. In the last few years there has been an increasing focus on adding plants designated in Ontario or Quebec as endangered. There are now about eight such plants, including the white wood aster, rue anemone, Canada lily, wood poppy and eastern prickly-pear cactus. The wood poppies are hidden away in the darkest corners of the garden. This is a modest contribution to protecting a plant that now only grows in the wild in two small areas outside of my hometown of London, Ont.

One other threatened species in the garden has a special connection to Sandy Hill. Longtime Sandy Hill residents and sisters Catherine Major and Margaret Dawson were raised on Marlborough Avenue where their mother, Margaret Herbert, who was an exceptional gardener grew a subspecies of the alpine aster in the family garden. Daughter Catherine has continued this tradition and has taken it a step further, sharing the plant with neighbours to the point where the plant can be found in gardens along Marlborough Avenue and Range Road. This subspecies of the alpine aster is possibly the one which has been designated by NatureServe as being “critically imperilled” in Ontario, the highest level of concern in the organization’s conservation categories, other than plants identified as on the path towards extinction. The University of Waterloo has also gone on record stating the alpine aster subspecies may be the only true indigenous aster plant in North America.

The alpine aster is a showy, multi-coloured plant with a mind of its own that is thriving, in my garden, alongside the zinnias and other native plants that include an array of fall asters and goldenrods now coming into bloom.

Creating this garden has been a labour of love. Gardeners should welcome including more native plants, especially those that are highly attractive to pollinators. This can be done with originality integrating other ideas such as planting the arresting colours of the zinnia throughout the garden.

Le jardin devant la maison de Dean Pallen sur l’avenue Marlborough offre un vrai paradis pour nos insectes pollinisateurs qui se régalent du nectar de plusieurs plantes indigènes, dont les zinnias et l’aster alpin.
Photo Dean Pallen