Summer Snapshots From Extension’s Pollinator Paradise Garden
Photos by Debbie Roos, Chatham County Cooperative Extension
In late 2008, I planted a demonstration pollinator garden at Chatham Mills to provide forage from early spring to late fall for pollinators such as honey bees, native bees, butterflies, flower flies, hummingbirds, beetles, and other beneficial insects. The garden features over 200 unique species of perennials, 85% of which are native to North Carolina. The garden is a great teaching tool that I use to conduct workshops and tours for hundreds of folks each year. It has taught me so much and I enjoy sharing this knowledge with others.
Below you can see photos of plants that were in bloom from July-September. The pollinator garden averaged 62 species in bloom in any given week throughout the summer!
For more photos, see:
Spring Snapshots in the Pollinator Garden – 2017
Summer Snapshots in the Pollinator Garden – 2016
Fall in the Pollinator Garden – 2015
The Amazing Diversity of Critters in the Pollinator Garden – 2015
The Amazing Diversity of Critters in the Pollinator Garden – 2014
For more information:
Pollinator Paradise Garden website
Slide Show of Pollinator Garden: Take a Virtual Tour!
What’s in Bloom in the Pollinator Garden – updated bi-weekly!
List of Plants in the Pollinator Garden
Top 25 Native Pollinator Plants for North Carolina
Sunflower bee on stemless ironweed (Vernonia acaulis). Photo by Debbie Roos.
A cuckoo-leaf-cutter bee forages on the pink form of blue vervain (Verbena hastata). Photo by Debbie Roos.
Carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee and a honey bee on blazing star (Liatris spicata). Photo by Debbie Roos.
Orange coneflower, Mexican giant hyssop, anise hyssop, hardy geranium, and poppy mallow. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Gray hairstreak on orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida). Photo by Debbie Roos.
Coneflowers and stoke’s aster. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Mason wasp sipping nectar from the bloom of a yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea). Photo by Debbie Roos.
A freshly molted green lynx spider on a buttonbush. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Great golden digger wasp on southern mountain mint (Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides). Photo by Debbie Roos.
The blazing star (Liatris ligulistylis) is one of my very favorites! Photo by Debbie Roos.
Eastern tailed-blue on perennial geranium ‘Dilys’. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Variegated fritillary on joe-pye weed. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Eastern tiger swallowtail on cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum). Photo by Debbie Roos.
A honey bee and a sweat bee enjoy the offerings of a lanceleaf blankeflower. Photo by Debbie Roos.
Lanceleaf blanketflower (Gaillardia aestivalis ‘Grape Sensation’) backed by wild oregano (Cunila origanoides). Photo by Debbie Roos.
Florida predatory stink bug feeding on a carpenter bee on the spotted horsemint (Monarda punctata). Photo by Debbie Roos.
Late summer vignette: goldenrod, little bluestem, and sedum. Photo by Debbie Roos.
This Argiope spider selected a prime spot to spin her web, choosing a lavender plant that received lots of bee visitors. Photo by Debbie Roos.