Meadow View flowers.

Pollinators are essential to human existence. They contribute to one out of three bites of food we eat. Yet their numbers are dwindling due, in large part, to habitat loss. The call to replant gardens for pollinators has swept across the nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior even designated a National Pollinator Week to help raise awareness of the importance of these busy, necessary creatures.

Meadow View has joined the rally. Our landscape beds are registered as a Monarch Waystation with Monarch Watch. We are also registered with the National Pollinator Garden Network as part of the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. As any good pollinator garden should have, our landscape beds include plants that provide a place for adult butterflies to lay their eggs and provide food for their larvae (HOST PLANTS). Others provide energy sources for adults to sustain themselves (NECTAR PLANTS).

BUTTERFLY HOUSE

Meadow View is pleased to have a Butterfly House you can visit! Get up close and personal with butterflies in all their life stages; egg, caterpillar (larva), chrysalis and adult. Watch them while they slurp the nectar from flower blossoms or warm their wings on a bench. We observed a Painted Lady butterfly as it lay its eggs on a borage plant and then discovered how voracious developing larvae really are! An American Lady caterpillar formed a chrysalis on a helichrysum plant. We can’t wait to see it emerge in its newly transformed body! This is an exciting way to invite children to learn about gardening and the cycle of life.

You can enter our Butterfly House

Monday through Friday: 11am - 3pm and Saturday: 10am - 2pm.

There are butterfly factoids inside or an MVG staff member can give you more information. Please be careful where you step while inside as both butterflies and larvae have been found on the path. The plants inside the house are food for the butterflies. We have additional plants inside the greenhouse you can purchase for your butterfly garden.

Come pick your favorite plants today and start your butterfly garden. You and the pollinators will be glad you did.

For more information about pollinator gardens, visit http://meadowview.com/pollinator-gardens/