A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition

An inspiring and practical guide to creating beautiful habitat gardens full of life

A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee provides all the information gardeners need to take action to support and protect pollinators, by creating habitat in yards and community spaces, on balconies and boulevards, everywhere!

With more than 300 native plants of Ontario and the Great Lakes region profiled in detail, along with sample garden designs, ideas for beautiful plant pairings and numerous tips for success, this fully-illustrated guide helps gardeners discover the crucial connections between native plants and native pollinators, and learn how to cultivate patches of pollinator paradise.

“What a valuable, comprehensive, timely, and beautiful resource! Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla provide the rationale, urgency, and detailed know-how for restoring essential pollinator habitats, not only for the rusty-patched bumblebee, but for all of Ontario’s pollinators. Just a fantastic contribution!”

“Combining the extensive knowledge of a renowned author and bee researcher, this engaging and accessible book showcases multiple ways to enhance or convert a garden into a thriving habitat for wild bees. This book has it all—sample garden plans, beautiful illustrations and photographs, a comprehensive section profiling native plants and the specific pollinators the plants support, answers to common pollinator gardening questions, and a discussion about the critical link between native plants and pollinators. With its broad appeal, Ontario gardeners will treasure this extremely informative book.”

“Johnson and Colla bring us a glorious manifesto about gardening for bumblebees, and other pollinators. Profusely illustrated, it highlights dozens of pollinator-worthy flowering plants for home and community gardens. An encyclopedic but highly accessible book that belongs with every gardener and naturalist.”

“This book is beautifully written, wonderfully illustrated, and essential reading for any gardener interested in supporting pollinators and the ecosystems in which they find themselves. Seldom is there a reference that is so delightful to peruse. It gives even a beginning naturalist a sense of hope, a feeling that even a simple gardener can do something both meaningful and beautiful for their gardens, for their garden’s pollinators, and ultimately, for their whole community.”

“Saving the bees requires planting native plants, lots of native plants! This gardening book distills critical information about wild, native bees while offering abundant detail, photos, planting guides and references for gardeners. It’s a book I highly recommend for planting season and for the dreaming season, too, in winter.”

“A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee is a call to action from Johnson and Colla that will inspire you to look, think, and act differently in your garden. You’ll get a primer on pollinators and learn why native plants matter. They’ll walk you through the simple steps of turning lawns into gardens or an existing garden into a pollinator paradise. Even urban and balcony gardeners will discover how to make a difference in the smallest of spaces.”

“…[Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee] is the perfect handbook for anybody wanting to approach their garden with an ecological bent…The authors offer the reader a thoughtful journey in the first half of the book that explores why native pollinator habitats are so important, and how to create them. This book is accessible, enjoyable and is worth revisiting for its “A-ha” moments you are bound to experience as you read it….If you aren’t already an avid native-plant gardener, this book will be the revelation that opens a new world of gardening to you. For many long-time gardeners, Johnson and Colla offer a complete re-education on a world of plants you thought you knew. Drawing on Johnson’s deep knowledge on the topic, this is as complete a guide to gardening for beneficial nature that we have encountered.”

“This book’s a winner…Johnson may be Canada’s best known gardening writer.”