Who'd have thought the growing season, and pollinator season, of southern New England starts this early? But it does.
First, there's that funky swamp-life called skunk cabbage. The odiferous blossoms smell mighty good to particular flies and beetles. Those flies offer something to the skunk cabbage, too--pollination.
A mourning cloak butterfly flies on March 21. Early-blooming red maples provide it with nectar.
Jack-in-the-pulpit appears in late March, attracting its own pollinators--fungus gnats.
If you’re dreaming of this year’s flowers and want to support birds and pollinators, too, see the month-by-month lists in "Planning Now to Help Pollinators All Year."
If you select these natives carefully, you'll not only have continuous flowers, but continuous pollen, nectar, berries, seeds--a friendly habitat for fellow creatures. What's not to like about that?
