Want to see more butterflies and bees in your garden?
Bring a pen, pencil, or crayon and join us for an hour to learn how!
Date: June 22, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 PM
Location: At one of these six Suffolk Master Gardener supported gardens*:
- Curtis R Milteer Rec Center Demo Garden
- Lone Star Lakes Park Demo Garden
- Seaboard Coastline Trail at Driver Demo Garden
- Seaboard Coastline Trail at Suburban Demo Garden
- Sentara Obici Hospital Demo Garden
- Sleepy Hole Park Children’s Learning Garden
- See participating gardens at https://bit.ly/polinator-day-map
Schedule:
1:00 – 1:45 – tour the gardens with VCE Master Gardener Volunteers to learn what grows there and the pollinators you may see. Volunteers will also share tips to attract more insects to your own garden. Bring a camera and take pictures of any pollinators you see!
About 1:45 – find a flower to watch and help us with a quick 3-5 minute pollinator count so we know what insects visit your flower. We’ll give you a simple form to count what you see. Please bring a pen, pencil, or crayon with you.
About 1:50 – share your results with everyone (if you want), turn in your count sheet (observation log), and pick out a pollinator plant to take home and add to your garden.
All ages are welcome! We’ll also have special goodies for our young visitors.
*Event takes place only in good weather. We’ll keep an eye on the weather that week. Participating locations may change.*
About Pollinator Day
Pollinator Day is an opportunity to learn how to attract more bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects to your gardens here in Hampton Roads. See which flowers get the most visitors. You may want to add those to your own home pollinator garden, whether you want to see more pretty butterflies floating around or to have more bees pollinating your fruits and vegetables.
Pollinator Day is part of Pollinator Week, an annual event celebrated
internationally in support of pollinator health, organized by the Pollinator
Partnership, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems. https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week
Want to do more?
Join the 2024 Pollinator Bioblitz
Are you an iNaturalist user? If so, your pollinator count with us can contribute to a community science project! Sign up in advance to join at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pollinator-week-2024-pollinator-bioblitz, and you can help collect data on the distribution of pollinators across the US, Canada, and Mexico during pollinator week. Learn how to participate at https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/2024-Bioblitz-Toolkit.pdf.
The project is especially interested in learning about and documenting floral resources that support pollinators. Please share photos of pollinators visiting floral resources in your neighborhood. When possible, try your best to identify the pollinator and floral resources captured in the image. Alongside the iNaturalist community, project hosts will help confirm and add identifications. The 2024 Pollinator Bioblitz is hosted by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign’s (NAPPC) Pollinator Communications Taskforce.
Virginia Cooperative Extension is a partnership of Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments. Its programs and employment are open to all, regardless of age, color, disability, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, military status, or any other basis protected by law.
If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Andrea Davis, VCE City of Suffolk at 757-514-4337/TDD 800-828-1120 during business hours of 9:00 am. and 4:00 p.m. to discuss accommodations five days prior to the event.