The Watsessing Park Pollinator/Butterfly Garden
The Birds and the Bees … and Butterflies
Do you like food? If so, then this is important…
It's estimated that one-third of all of our food depends on pollination by birds and insects. This includes most fruits and vegetables, as well as food eaten by animals that provide us with meat and dairy products. Nearly all wildflowers (around 90%) depend on pollination as well.
Problem: Our pollinators are in danger. The numbers of insects that pollinate plants while gathering their own food – principally bees and butterflies – are declining rapidly, due to a combination of climate change, pesticides and loss of habitat.
Some solutions: Following the old adage to "think globally, act locally," some of the ways we can help include reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides in our yards and growing pollinator-friendly flowers in our gardens. Expansion of habitat in urban and suburban gardens has been shown to have significant positive impact on pollinator populations.
The Watsessing Park Pollinator/Butterfly Garden is a demonstration garden and educational resource that also serves as the southern anchor of the Bloomfield Pollinator Pathway, a network of pollinator gardens extending from one end of town to the other (the Brookdale Park Pollinator Garden is the northern anchor). Established in 2017 and expanded nearly every year since then, the garden provides food and shelter for a wide variety of butterflies, bees and other pollinators. Focused primarily on threatened monarch butterflies, the garden consists mostly of native perennials, selected to provide blooms throughout the growing season, from early-blooming violets to late fall bluewood asters. Click here to see a full list of our plants.
To help monarchs, the garden contains three types of milkweed native to our region – swamp milkweed, common milkweed and butterfly weed. Milkweed is the only plant on which monarch butterflies will lay their eggs and the only food which monarch caterpillars will eat. (Download the New Jersey Monarch Butterfly Conservation Guide here).
Other common butterfly visitors to the garden include black swallowtails (the NJ state butterfly), eastern tiger swallowtails, cabbage whites, orange sulphurs, buckeyes, American ladies and painted ladies; plus a variety of moths, including the amazing hummingbird (clearwing) moth; and many varieties of skippers (which have characteristics of both butterflies and moths). The garden also supports several types of birds and bees, including multiple varieties of bumblebees, carpenter bees, (non-native) honeybees and others.
Bees are our friends! In most cases, they are much more interested in getting nectar and pollen from flowers than in bothering people, and will only sting in self-defense. (Most "bee" stings come from yellow jackets, which are actually wasps, not bees.) Our gardeners regularly work safely with bees all around them. "Bee" respectful and give them space, and you should be fine.
Annual Timeline
The earliest butterflies to arrive in our garden each year are the cabbage whites (small white butterflies with black dots on their wings), frequently followed by the larger swallowtails (black and eastern tiger). Monarchs generally begin arriving in late June to mid-July and are regulars well into October, as many pass through on their southward migration toward Mexico.
Note: We do not cut back our plants at the end of the growing season nor clear out fallen leaves because many "dead" plants provide habitat for overwintering insects and their seeds provide food for birds throughout the winter.
Citizen Science
Our volunteer gardeners are regular participants in citizen science initiatives, submitting information to Journey North and participating in the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz. The garden is certified by the North American Butterfly Association as a Certified Butterfly Garden and Certified Monarch Garden. It is literally "on the map" of monarch conservation efforts developed by Monarch Joint Venture, and is affiliated with the Northeast Earth Coalition.
We also conduct community outreach and education through our annual pollinator festival, milkweed giveaways to area residents, an autumn seed-swap and more. Our volunteers are also active with townwide environmental groups beyond the borders of Watsessing Park.
Come Visit!
Please visit us at any time of year. Our volunteers are generally at the garden most weekend mornings throughout the growing season and will be glad to show you "what's up" in the garden that day. New volunteers are always welcome (we'll find some weeds for you to pull!). If you'd like to volunteer or learn more, drop by or email us.
The Watsessing Park Pollinator/Butterfly Garden is located along Glenwood Avenue in Bloomfield, near the traffic light at Maolis Avenue. Look for the big flagpole in between the playground and the lawn bowling green and you've found it!