 come into bloom. As summer approaches there is a yellow gaillardia or blanket flower and then as mid-summer approaches we have some coneflowers and other native grasses that begin to be in their prime. In the fall we will be adding some asters.
Sometimes, native gardens get a bad reputation or are not the preferred style of garden because it is not a formal type garden that you would have in your landscape. Native gardens are part of our history here, our heritage. Before we disturbed the land and built highways, this is the way our landscape appeared. But keep watching as the season changes from spring to summer to mid-summer to fall, old plants go to seed and new plants emerge and flower. In between, there are some down times. The garden may not look at its peak. It is important to remember that a variety of flowers are necessary to address the shortage of pollinators in our world today and keep our environment healthy with biodiversity. While we may care about neatness, our pollinators only want something in bloom. Native grasses mixed in with the wildflowers are helpful to pollinators for the shelter they provide. Also, we have left some annual sunflowers from time to time. Why? These attract Painted Lady Butterflies. Last season, many residents noticed Painted Lady Butterflies because they were in great numbers. The caterpillar of the Painted Lady Butterflies rely on sunflowers for food. They too have their cycle and maybe in a couple of years they will back in those large numbers again. They have been able to reseed over the years and spread.
So why aren’t there more native wildflowers along our highways? Many have thought that the wildflowers should be mowed, and mowed regularly. The only time that wildflowers should be mowed is at the end of the season to remove the seed heads and spread the seed. To mow a wildflower before it sets seed will actually diminish the food source for butterflies, moths, flies, insects, bats, and birds all of which are pollinators and destroy the plant’s much needed food source - leaves. The second reason there may not be as many native wildflowers along the highways is because a wildflower seed takes four to six months to germinate. There needs to be optimal conditions. During very wet seasons and/or high precipitation of snow in the previous winter, then we may see more wildflowers, if they are not mowed. More plantings of wildflowers are being planned along the I-76 corridor in the near future.
You might ask, why does the Welcome Center Pollinator Garden have no native grass in it? It sits within a close proximity of native landscape. The Welcome Center Pollinator Garden has both native wildflowers and hybridized flowers. All hybridized flowers are bred/hybridized from native flowers and were their parent plants at one time. This is also a future Citizen Scientist Project to observe and record specific data of the visitation of butterflies and moths on both native and hybridized flowers. We want a slightly more controlled environment and to showcase these flowers against their more native backdrop.
If you would like to volunteer to help CSU Extension and other community volunteers with this garden, we welcome you. If you have questions about the garden, please feel free to call Linda Langelo at Sedgwick County Extension at (970)474-3479. We are here to raise awareness about issues on gardening and environmental science along with Family, Consumer Science, 4H, Agronomy and Weed Science, Water and Community Development. All of our information is research-based information.