Spring has sprung, with the blooming of thousands of flowers all over Iowa State’s campus not far behind.
One such area that will see blooms like this is the Elizabeth and Byron Anderson Sculpture Garden, located between Morrill Hall and the Hub. Here, University Museums and the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium have partnered to plant thousands of native and perennial bulbs to promote an increase in pollinator populations in the area.
“At approximately 2,500 square feet and with over 1,200 plants and 5,000 bulbs, the New Perennial Movement Sample Garden will reestablish elements of the historic Welch landscape, incorporating the principles of the New Perennial Movement, which creates biodiverse, maintainable plant palettes of year-round beauty and interest,” according to a press release about the planting of the bulbs, which occurred in October 2024.
Sydney Marshall, curator for the Art on Campus Collection and the Anderson Sculpture Garden, shared the importance of incorporating art with nature on campus.
“Iowa State actually has one of the largest public art collections on a university campus in the country, so no matter what you have art in the campus environment pretty much everywhere,” Marshall said. “[In the Anderson Sculpture Garden] it’s much more concentrated, so you have an opportunity to see many different artists from one viewpoint.”
Katherine Kral-O’Brien, an assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management and member of the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, said one issue on campus that they are trying to address is the accessibility of resources and habitat for native pollinators.
“We’re surrounded by a lot of grass that’s mowed at a very short level,” Kral-O’Brien said. “We do see [pollinators] a lot on campus… so this can be really helpful if those resources are there.”
During an event in the Anderson Sculpture Garden on Monday, attendees discussed with members of both organizations about ways they can create pollinator gardens in their own backyards. One theme that was stressed during the event was the need for more perennial species for pollinators.
One reason that perennials are favored over annuals for pollinators, according to Kral-O’Brien, is because they are adapted to Iowa’s climate conditions.
“They’re a bit hardier, so if we go through a drought we won’t have to water them like a lot of our annuals that you’ll get,” Kral-O’Brien said. “For our pollinator species, they’ve adapted with their native plants so we want to provide their native resources to them.”
Mykayla Hagaman, a program specialist for the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, said one reason why monarch butterflies are highlighted as a pollinator species is because of their “charismatic” nature.
“Lots of people know monarchs,” Hagaman said. “Lots of people have emotional connections to monarchs. They really care about what’s happening to monarchs by helping to protect monarchs. If you create quality monarch habitat, you’re creating quality habitat for all of our different native species.”
