Memorial Day Challenge

This weekend, many of us will make a pilgrimage to a Veteran’s burial site, to pay our respects.  Boy scout troops will distribute flags, which is a very fitting way to remember those who served.  I would like to add a new twist: Plant A Pollinator Host. 

Those who served were members of many generations.  My family has representatives of the First and Second World war. They lived and died in an era when nature was not at a tipping point.  Now, we have an urgent need to help our pollinators.  Climate Change may be our newest war.  Why not honor our dead and do for the living by putting a pollinator plant at a gravesite ?  

I appreciate the tradition of laying wreaths.  I have no argument with that. But if you are going to visit a grave this weekend, why not plant something that gives back ?  The model for that ethic is buried beneath you.  

Imagine a countryside where our cemeteries are visited by butterflies and other beneficial insects. They stop to harvest the pollen that has been intentionally left there, with care and solemnity.  They are fighting for the species.  Graveyards are waiting to give, again. 

Here is a list of Pollinators plants that you might consider using, depending on the shade/sun conditions.  Also bear in mind that some cemeteries have rigid rules as to what can be planted.  The two I visit do not.  One already hosts violets, iris and ditch lilies.  I planted swamp milkweed there in the fall.  It is time to check and see if they survived the brutal winter.   That plot has some shade.  The other is in full sun.  The weather over the next few days will include rain, which gives transplants a great start.  I may have to go and water a few times over the summer, but it will be worth it. 

The Farmer’s Almanac is not so encouraging about planting now that the moon is waning. For this purpose, I am going to try to prove them wrong.

Here is the website Wild Ones hosts for Wild For Monarchs: http://www.wildones.org/learn/wild-for-monarchs/.   The following is an excerpted list from Wild for Monarchs, of mid-season nectar plants that would be suitable for a gravesite planting:

NECTAR PLANTS 

Nectar plants provide food for adult monarchs and other 

pollinators throughout the season. Pick from early, mid- and 

late-flowering species and have at least three different kinds 

of plants in bloom at any time. Include the mid-season flow- 

ering milkweeds. Not only will you offer a dependable food 

source to the monarchs, but your butterfly garden will have 

visual interest all year long. 

Try growing some of these native plants:

MID-SEASON NECTAR PLANTS 

Nodding wild onion (Allium cernuum) 

Dogbane (Apocynum cannabium, A. androsaemifolium) 

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) 

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) 

Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) 

Wild blue indigo (Baptisia australis) 

Partridge pea (Cassia fasciculta) 

Tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum) 

Swamp thistle (Cirsium muticum) 

Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata, C. tripteris, Coreopsis spp.) 

Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) 

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) 

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) 

Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum, E. purpureum) 

False sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) 

Roundheaded bushclover (Lespedeza capitata) 

Blazingstar (Liatris spicata, L. liguistylis, Liatris spp.) 

Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) 

Dotted horsemint (Monarda punctata) 

Common cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex) 

Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) 

Yellow prairie coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) 

Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida) 

Blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) 

Wild senna (Senna hebecarpa) 

Purple-stemmed aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) 

Hoary vervain (Verbena stricta) 

Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) 

Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) 

(I would add fleabanes, but you probably will not find them for sale, I have some here that would be happy to move along, if you are interested)

Wouldn't it be great if all of our cemeteries were butterfly and pollinator habitats? 

That is my challenge.  We can make this happen !

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Feel free to re-blog this with attribution any where, and to leave a comment if you planted for pollinators. I hope to read that folks did it in cemeteries. Doing it in your own yard works for nature too ! Next time I will write on How to Garden for Wildlife.  

Happy Planting.  And have a lovely Memorial Day Weekend.

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Shamefully, I suggested we plant insects in my original post.  Please do not plant bees or moths or butterflies !  Please put pollinator Plants in. :)