What do you think?
Rate this book
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.
256 pages, Paperback
Published March 14, 2023
13 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 24, 2023
It sure is wonderful and also fortunate to have found with Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla's 2023 botany, gardening and strongly conservation themed A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition a book that is specifically focussed on where I live, that provides specific, scientifically sound and useful botanical, ecological and conservation details on how to make, how to create gardens (both large and small) as well as more meadow like un-manicured lawns to attract, to provide shelter and sustenance for native, for endemic to Ontario and the Great Lakes region pollinating insects (for wasps, bees and the like), and using ONLY non invasive, only native to the Great Lakes region plants species to accomplish this (and why this is so essential for biodiversity, for conservation, for protecting native and often very beneficial for plant pollination insect species as well as the plants on which these species rely and depend, and vice versa of course).
For sadly, ALL other similar books I had found on this topic, they were either rather pan North-American in scope (and thus much too general for me) or were in fact meant for British Columbia and Western Canada and thus bien sûr not for the Great Lakes region (so that indeed, finding A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition at my local independent Dundas, Ontario bookstore last Thursday and discovering that Lorraine Johnson is a Hamilton, Ontario based author and Sheila Colla a York University, a Toronto professor and conservation scientist, this all really very much and delightfully tickled my reading fancy).
And yes, I have definitely and majorly enjoyed A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition. For Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla's textual information in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition on the importance of promoting native plants and native pollinating insects is delightfully informative, necessarily enlightening, sensibly shown, but also environmentally speaking often rather saddening, somewhat frustrating, showing, demonstrating that many pollinators and plants endemic to the Great Lakes region are endangered (sometimes even almost extinct), not all that popular in urban gardens and sometimes infuriatingly also not even allowed and expressly forbidden by silly and ridiculous by-laws, that greenhouses and nurseries using non native to the Great Lakes region bumblebees, as well as keeping European honeybees in one's backyard or on one's farm do not in fact really help mitigate conservational issues and may even be causing some environmental damage (are mostly not all that beneficial to and for endemic insect pollinators), and that the how-to gardening suggestions, the extensive section on native Ontario plants to consider for a natural and endemic pollinator friendly garden or lawn are interesting and educational, with lots of botanical and ecological information to be found in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition and a nice accompaniment to Johnson and Colla's text by an aesthetically pleasant combination of photographs and Ann Sanderson's illustrations (and with me certainly not knowing that native Ontario bee species are mostly non communal but solitary, do not produce honey and are much better suited to and for endemic Southern Ontario plant life than invasive insect species and that many ornamental non native plants are actually sterile hybrids which of course would thus not even produce any pollen and are as such pretty well useless for and to insects, simply take up space and provide no food and no environmental and ecological benefits whatsoever).
Five stars in general for A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, and with my only textual complaints regarding what Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla have written being that I definitely would want a bit more in-depth criticism and open condemnation in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition of the fact that creating natural and non-manicured insect and wildlife friendly gardens and lawns in urban and even in suburban areas of Ontario is far too often made very difficult and sometimes even nigh impossible by outdated regulations requiring tidy gardens and meticulously mown short grass lawns (as well as by numerous mandates against native plants that are erroneously considered to be noxious weeds even though they are important food sources for beneficial insect species) and that even though there is supposedly a ban in Ontario against the cosmetic and random use of pesticides, there are (in my opinion) so very many exemptions and a total lack of enforcement of these rules (and with Roundup and other pesticides also being very readily and easily available for purchasing), that well, we might as well not have a pesticide ban in Ontario at all. So frankly, so truth be told, considering how pro conservation and pro creating natural and pesticide free green spaces A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition is supposed to be, Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla really (for me at least) do need to be much more openly critical of the latter examples with and in their text, with their printed words, that in my opinion, the Ontario municipalities with the most restrictive and anally retentive lawn and garden by-laws and the most exaggerated pesticide usage should be specifically singled out and shown in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, as well as providing a list of landscapers that use only or generally native plant species. As I do indeed know from personal experience that many landscaping companies still mostly only work with non native plants, with non endemic plants (and that instead of the five stars I was originally intending for A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, I do think that upon reconsideration, my rating will now only be four stars, although I do still very highly recommend A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition and in particular if you live in or near the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States and want to make your gardens or your lawns wilder, more natural and native pollinator friendly).
For sadly, ALL other similar books I had found on this topic, they were either rather pan North-American in scope (and thus much too general for me) or were in fact meant for British Columbia and Western Canada and thus bien sûr not for the Great Lakes region (so that indeed, finding A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition at my local independent Dundas, Ontario bookstore last Thursday and discovering that Lorraine Johnson is a Hamilton, Ontario based author and Sheila Colla a York University, a Toronto professor and conservation scientist, this all really very much and delightfully tickled my reading fancy).
And yes, I have definitely and majorly enjoyed A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition. For Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla's textual information in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition on the importance of promoting native plants and native pollinating insects is delightfully informative, necessarily enlightening, sensibly shown, but also environmentally speaking often rather saddening, somewhat frustrating, showing, demonstrating that many pollinators and plants endemic to the Great Lakes region are endangered (sometimes even almost extinct), not all that popular in urban gardens and sometimes infuriatingly also not even allowed and expressly forbidden by silly and ridiculous by-laws, that greenhouses and nurseries using non native to the Great Lakes region bumblebees, as well as keeping European honeybees in one's backyard or on one's farm do not in fact really help mitigate conservational issues and may even be causing some environmental damage (are mostly not all that beneficial to and for endemic insect pollinators), and that the how-to gardening suggestions, the extensive section on native Ontario plants to consider for a natural and endemic pollinator friendly garden or lawn are interesting and educational, with lots of botanical and ecological information to be found in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition and a nice accompaniment to Johnson and Colla's text by an aesthetically pleasant combination of photographs and Ann Sanderson's illustrations (and with me certainly not knowing that native Ontario bee species are mostly non communal but solitary, do not produce honey and are much better suited to and for endemic Southern Ontario plant life than invasive insect species and that many ornamental non native plants are actually sterile hybrids which of course would thus not even produce any pollen and are as such pretty well useless for and to insects, simply take up space and provide no food and no environmental and ecological benefits whatsoever).
Five stars in general for A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, and with my only textual complaints regarding what Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla have written being that I definitely would want a bit more in-depth criticism and open condemnation in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition of the fact that creating natural and non-manicured insect and wildlife friendly gardens and lawns in urban and even in suburban areas of Ontario is far too often made very difficult and sometimes even nigh impossible by outdated regulations requiring tidy gardens and meticulously mown short grass lawns (as well as by numerous mandates against native plants that are erroneously considered to be noxious weeds even though they are important food sources for beneficial insect species) and that even though there is supposedly a ban in Ontario against the cosmetic and random use of pesticides, there are (in my opinion) so very many exemptions and a total lack of enforcement of these rules (and with Roundup and other pesticides also being very readily and easily available for purchasing), that well, we might as well not have a pesticide ban in Ontario at all. So frankly, so truth be told, considering how pro conservation and pro creating natural and pesticide free green spaces A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition is supposed to be, Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla really (for me at least) do need to be much more openly critical of the latter examples with and in their text, with their printed words, that in my opinion, the Ontario municipalities with the most restrictive and anally retentive lawn and garden by-laws and the most exaggerated pesticide usage should be specifically singled out and shown in A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, as well as providing a list of landscapers that use only or generally native plant species. As I do indeed know from personal experience that many landscaping companies still mostly only work with non native plants, with non endemic plants (and that instead of the five stars I was originally intending for A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating a Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, I do think that upon reconsideration, my rating will now only be four stars, although I do still very highly recommend A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition and in particular if you live in or near the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States and want to make your gardens or your lawns wilder, more natural and native pollinator friendly).
January 5, 2023
I love this book! For anyone who loves wildflowers and wants to grow habitat for native bees and birds and other pollinators, if you live near the Great Lakes, I think this is a must-read resource. It’s as suitable for a new gardener as an experienced one, and for someone with a large property as someone with a corner of a shared balcony.
I especially appreciate the garden layout designs, and that the individual plant profiles include pollinator relationships (which winged creatures to watch for!) as well as suggested companion plants. The illustrations throughout are so beautiful and the garden photos are all real-life examples - inspiring and accessible.
As a gardener who considers herself pretty knowledgeable about native perennials, what is also exciting to me about this book is that it introduced me to plants I didn’t yet know.
Wanting to deepen my relationship with the universe of life in our tiny city yard, I am finding the bee illustrations a real gift, too, making it easy to identify a tricoloured bumblebee or a spring beauty mining bee, and to keep watch for a rusty-patched.
Highly recommend!
I especially appreciate the garden layout designs, and that the individual plant profiles include pollinator relationships (which winged creatures to watch for!) as well as suggested companion plants. The illustrations throughout are so beautiful and the garden photos are all real-life examples - inspiring and accessible.
As a gardener who considers herself pretty knowledgeable about native perennials, what is also exciting to me about this book is that it introduced me to plants I didn’t yet know.
Wanting to deepen my relationship with the universe of life in our tiny city yard, I am finding the bee illustrations a real gift, too, making it easy to identify a tricoloured bumblebee or a spring beauty mining bee, and to keep watch for a rusty-patched.
Highly recommend!
June 10, 2023
I have been a fan of Lorraine Johnson for many years! Her previous books are what introduced me to native plants in the garden. I picked this one up from her at a local Communities in Bloom event where she was the key note speaker. Like her other books, it provides a wealth of information on the importance of using native plants in the garden, provides profiles of native plants and plenty of inspiration! If you are interested in learning about native plants, pick up any one of her books!
April 25, 2023
This is my new reference book for native plant gardening. I have Lorraine Johnson’s earlier books too, which are more narrative-based. This one is more comprehensive, and includes shrubs and trees, and many more perennials and grasses. I love the specialist insect relationships being included for every plant! I’ve heard Lorraine speak in many webinars and she is inspiring. Would have loved to see images of the whole plant, leaves and flowers, but that would have made this a massive book!
September 29, 2022
Great resource
This is an absolutely fantastic book for anyone interested in the relationship we all have with nature, in this case seen through the eyes of a native Bumblebee in an interactive relationship with Ontario gardeners. The book is also rich resource on how to find and plant life suppporting vegetation which is both a joy to the gardener and the bee.
This is an absolutely fantastic book for anyone interested in the relationship we all have with nature, in this case seen through the eyes of a native Bumblebee in an interactive relationship with Ontario gardeners. The book is also rich resource on how to find and plant life suppporting vegetation which is both a joy to the gardener and the bee.
July 7, 2022
Excellent book that emphasizes the important of native plants in our gardens to help not just pollinators but also to sustain biodiversity and all life on earth, including us. I initially borrowed it from the library, but will need to buy my own copy. A very useful and inspiring book.
August 5, 2022
Wonderful resource for growing native plants in the Great Lakes area. I’m glad that it’s so specific to my area. My only quibble would be a more comprehensive index, crossing referencing Latin names, full names and partial names of plants.
January 6, 2023
Lots of good info about gardening with native plants, as well as interesting facts about bees! I still am wondering how to tell all the different bees apart when they rarely are still.
October 17, 2023
Really enjoyed this read and learned a lot from it. I didn't know there were so many types of bumblebees!
I learned that I really have a dearth of native Ontario species of plants growing in my gardens. I thought I had more, but only a few of what I have showed up in this book. So, I will be visiting native plant nurseries near Toronto in future to find more native plants.
I also learned that many of the native plants in this book are ones that I see along roadsides, in fields and in parks until now have considered weeds and not native plants. Reading this book has helped me make a mind shift on this. Value what grows naturally as natural Ontario and don't buy into the non-native species primarily sold by nurseries and garden centres. A big shift.
Another thing I learned is to keep the garden more whole going into winter and don't cut down dead stalks because they provide homes for wintering bees and insects. I tend to clean up the garden in the Fall. Won't be doing that so much going forward.
Not only does this book provide groupings of plants based on when they flower (spring, summer, fall) but it also provides sections on native trees and shrubs which is appreciated. I love that each plant entry includes height ranges because I tend to plant at random and then find high plants in front of low plants. So this will help me plan better for height considerations.
I read the book cover to cover.
The illustrations are wonderful and colourful. Learned a lot about bees and how they look from the illustrations. The cover of this book alone is gorgeous and would make me pick it up.
I learned that I really have a dearth of native Ontario species of plants growing in my gardens. I thought I had more, but only a few of what I have showed up in this book. So, I will be visiting native plant nurseries near Toronto in future to find more native plants.
I also learned that many of the native plants in this book are ones that I see along roadsides, in fields and in parks until now have considered weeds and not native plants. Reading this book has helped me make a mind shift on this. Value what grows naturally as natural Ontario and don't buy into the non-native species primarily sold by nurseries and garden centres. A big shift.
Another thing I learned is to keep the garden more whole going into winter and don't cut down dead stalks because they provide homes for wintering bees and insects. I tend to clean up the garden in the Fall. Won't be doing that so much going forward.
Not only does this book provide groupings of plants based on when they flower (spring, summer, fall) but it also provides sections on native trees and shrubs which is appreciated. I love that each plant entry includes height ranges because I tend to plant at random and then find high plants in front of low plants. So this will help me plan better for height considerations.
I read the book cover to cover.
The illustrations are wonderful and colourful. Learned a lot about bees and how they look from the illustrations. The cover of this book alone is gorgeous and would make me pick it up.
May 21, 2023
We live on an acre and a half on the shore of Lake Ontario, near Kingston. When we bought our home, the gardens were rich and full of non-native plants. We've decided, however, to re-wild our property with native species. It's going to be a long-term project. Getting a new raised-septic bed will allow us to plant prairie species on an area that was formerly grass. We're doing the no-mow may thing to protect hibernating insects. And, as time goes on, we'll be planting more and more native species, while trying to get rid of invasive ones. Eventually, we'll only have strips of grass around the edge of the property, and native species everywhere else. This book is our Bible for finding the right species for our soil/sun conditions, and for planting together with other species, so that we have flowers year round, and lots of bugs! The book is clear, with a helpful overview of such projects in the first four chapters, then lots of short articles about the species you might want to plant. Organized by flowering time, with helpful suggestions about which plants to grow with others and which plants to grow to help certain species of bugs--including the now very rare (perhaps extinct), but once very common, rusty-patched bumblebee. Highly recommended.
July 5, 2023
This is an awesome resource!!!!
Personally, I think that between this book and the Pollinator Partnership Canada's online resources - you've got all the information you will need about Native Pollinators in ONTARIO! This is a highly informative book with a quick reference section called "Profiles of Native Plants" - that is helpfully arranged by season. But the big bonus is Ann Sanderson's beautiful and clear illustrations of pollinator plants and bees. What a great pairing!
There are also photographs of amazing local gardens to show you what you can accomplish is you want to build habitat. This resource should be on every Ontarian gardener's bookshelf!
Personally, I think that between this book and the Pollinator Partnership Canada's online resources - you've got all the information you will need about Native Pollinators in ONTARIO! This is a highly informative book with a quick reference section called "Profiles of Native Plants" - that is helpfully arranged by season. But the big bonus is Ann Sanderson's beautiful and clear illustrations of pollinator plants and bees. What a great pairing!
There are also photographs of amazing local gardens to show you what you can accomplish is you want to build habitat. This resource should be on every Ontarian gardener's bookshelf!
December 4, 2022
Basic. Very little information that is not already well known. So content is really lite. There are little T. pamphlets and TRCA things that contain all this stuff already for a fraction of the price or for free.
The bigger problem is Colla. She has bullied so many students and even profs in Toronto's academic community, this book is going to seem pretty gross and triggering for vulnerable people she attacks.
Lucky this book can be ignored. Giving it 2 stars because of the nice illustrations.
The bigger problem is Colla. She has bullied so many students and even profs in Toronto's academic community, this book is going to seem pretty gross and triggering for vulnerable people she attacks.
Lucky this book can be ignored. Giving it 2 stars because of the nice illustrations.
September 8, 2022
This book is an excellent and comprehensive introduction to native plants. Unfortunately no book is perfect. I found some critical errors in this book such as photos representing the wrong plants and incorrect information about regarding plant behaviours and reproductive functions. Overall I recommend this book and point out the errors I'm aware of.
November 22, 2022
Yes! You CAN make a difference when you make careful choices in your own backyard.
May 2, 2024
For a beautiful pollinator-friendly garden, not specially for a particular bee now extirpated from Ontario. Wonderfully written and illustrated - inspiring.
May 21, 2024
great local plants guide! very detailed and descriptive and well-categorized. good photos too.
May 23, 2024
Great resource for Ontario native plants and insect/plant hosts. Will keep this on hand to reference in future.
July 24, 2023
Fantastic resource book for anyone interested in pollinator gardening with native species.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews