Education Spotlight

Did you know that every third bite of food you take is there because of a pollinator?

-Ann Fleener, PhD Education Spotlight

By Dr. Ann Fleener, Director of Education

Did you know that every third bite of food you take is there because of a pollinator? Additionally, the monarch population has declined by about 90% in recent years. While that statistic is staggering it’s not too late! There are many things we can do to prevent further decline of pollinator populations and to even encourage regrowth of the population. At the Gardens we’re partnering with many other organizations around the city this year to focus on these important creatures. That’s why this year has been dubbed The Year of the Pollinator in Oklahoma City.

Already this year we’ve done some behindthe-scenes work with other organizations and also hosted an event that focused, in part, on pollinators:

• In January: We joined with the National Wildlife Foundation and around 25 other organizations for a day of considering how to save the Monarch. We’re continuing our work with them in these efforts.

• In February: We hosted a Pollinator Meet & Greet for organizations around the city who were making an effort to protect and attract pollinators. At this Meet & Greet, individuals who might never have met were able to discuss their efforts, and in many cases, form partnerships to produce events together, promote existing events, and educate one another. • In March: We hosted the 16th Annual Oklahoma Gardening School and this year focused on the Prairie Garden, a garden that is very pollinator friendly. One of our speakers, Marilyn Stewart, spoke about plants to attract pollinators and other steps you can take to attract and protect them.

UPCOMING EVENTS THIS YEAR

April

• Cocktails and Conversation with Mike McGrath: Only You Can Protect Your Native Bees • Earth Day Birthday Celebration

June

•National Pollinator Week, June 20-26 ~ Beautiful Butterflies ~ Pollinator Workshop ~ Monarch Exhibit Sneak Peak and Celebration

September

• Pollinator Garden Tour • Monarch Festival at the OKC Zoo Look for these events in our upcoming calendar!

We hope to see you this spring and the rest of 2016 for all the exciting happenings!

Myriad Gardens’ Pollinator Prairie Garden By Maureen Heffernan, Executive Director

When I moved to Oklahoma City from Maine over four years ago, I was captivated by the Great Plains’ endless stretches of wild prairie landscapes. Rolling in the winds that blow as constantly as ocean breezes, the prairies are like the oceans of the Plains. These vistas of grasses and flowers are stunningly beautiful and the plants are stoic and tough to thrive in such a challenging climate. When the summer heat meets up with drought, these plants still appear seemingly joyous as they bask and sway in the brilliant sunshine and shimmering Plains’ heat and winds. Their bright flower colors dot the fields like red, yellow, purple and pink stars.

The Myriad Botanical Gardens is smack dab in the middle of a region richly blanketed with prairies. Last year, when we decided to create a new garden in a sunny, south facing site near our south entrance, we quickly decided on a prairie theme. It met all our wants for a new garden. Botanical sense of place? Check. Outdoor classroom to teach about heat and drought tolerant plants? Check. A garden to help sustain bees, butterflies, (especially Monarchs) and other pollinators? Check.

Indeed, a Prairie garden solves most challenges that gardeners face in this region. The weather in Oklahoma is a meterological rodeo. Very rough and unforgiving. But like many gardening problems, observing what grows well naturally where you live, is a good place to start in order to solve them. Oklahoma gardeners can look out at prairies and see plants that thrive in hot and dry summers and red clay soils.

While we wanted a natural looking prairie, we didn’t want it too wild. We were after an ‘urban prairie’ result. This aesthetic could inspire home gardeners to install such a landscape yet not draw the wrath of neighbors or municipalities with a too ’weedy’ look.

To date, there are a total of 55 different (taxa) kinds of plants and a total of 5,082 were planted. Grasses formed the backbone of the plantings and included: Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) Switch grass (Panicum virgatum) and Mexican Feathergrass (Nasella tenuissima). Sweeps of flowers included: Coneflowers (Echinacea sps.), Handsome Blazing Star (Liatris aspera), Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) Large Penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus) Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii ‘Pink Preference’) Prairie onion (Allium stellatum) Helen’s Flower (Helenium autumnale) Yellow Wild Indigo (Baptisia sphaerocarpa), Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida) and more. We carefully prepared soil by amending ph to make it less alkaline before planting. Prairie plants don’t need a highly fertile soil but they do need well-drained, wellworked so their roots can grow deep to access water which helps them withstand drought. A few inches of new compost and topsoil were worked down to a depth of about 8” in the planting area to improve texture and drainage. The site had previously been a parking lot and building site, so it wasn’t possible to cultivate soil much deeper than 8.” A more ideal depth would be 18”- 24.” After planting, all plants were mulched and then deeply watered for the first few months as roots got established. Careful and frequent weeding of this type of garden is critical so weeds don’t choke out the grasses and flowers.

Coming into its second year, our Prairie Garden is developing into one of our more popular gardens by visitors and butterflies.

For visitors who would like to plant their own prairie plants, we are planning a Prairie Plant Sale May 27-28 at the Gardens. Prairie plant experts will be available to help answer questions and help you select plants for your gardens.