Pollinator Garden

There are over 900 native bees in Colorado! They are responsible for the health and balance of native flora throughout the varying ecosystems. Many of these bees prefer and require native flowers to retrieve pollen and nectar as a food source. On the flip side, many native plants are shaped in ways specific to certain insect species and cannot be pollinated unless those species visit the flower.

The pollinator garden was built to assist our native pollinators as much as possible. If you sit on one of the benches and wait, you’ll see many buzzing bugs visiting the plants in the garden, including many of the honey bees that call the Standley Lake hives home.

As many pollinating insects arrive at the park at varying times of the summer, it’s important to have plants that bloom as early as April and as late as September. The Butterfly Pavilion and the City of Westminster Greenhouse have provided numerous plants that flower throughout the season. Within the garden, you can spot Penstemons with bright purple flowers growing on one side of the stem, bright red and yellow Gaillardia, sunflowers that provides both nectar and pollen for pollinators, golden columbines, which are a hummingbird favorite, and many more that all provide unique benefits to insects.

A few bees found in Colorado are considered “social,” meaning they have a hive similar to a honeybee hive. The rest are typically solitary finding shelter in crevices, burrowed in wood, or under leaves. Throughout the pollinator garden, you'll see a few honeycomb structures filled with sticks, pinecones, mulch, and reeds. The hexagonal structures are rooms in a bug hotel, where bees, other insects, and arachnids can protect themselves from the elements.

We encourage you to take some time exploring the numerous native plant species and consider that beneath your feet, there are likely hundreds of beneficial insects that help balance the Front Range's ever-changing ecosystems.