Dear Editor:
Props this week go to Joanne Hernandez, General Manager, Doric Apartments Corp. for responding to my personal appeal to plant flowers beneficial to pollinating insects like bees and to a lesser extent, butterflies. To my knowledge, Union City does not have one designated Monarch Waystation, a resting and feeding stop for this butterfly. While I did not ask Ms. Hernandez to establish a waystation, I did suggest planting butterfly weed.
In a few brief weeks consulting with the landscaper, flowers were chosen. I had written back to her suggesting planting zinnia if it proved too hard to find local milkweed plants. Last week rows of colorful flowers dotted the beds outside the Doric Apartments scattered around shrubs and evergreens.
Without Ms. Hernandez this would not have happened.
We hope that the flowers will draw wondrous butterflies and help bees down by roughly 30%. My hope is for a domino effect should other large apartment complexes in Union City join the Doric Apartment in planting flowers especially attractive to butterflies such as zinnia, cone flower, salvia, black-eyed Susan, yellow and orange butterfly weed, Indian Blanket, Cosmos, Sweet Alyssum, and Four O’clock, a low maintenance and drought tolerant crowd pleaser. Free Pollinator Wildflower Mix is available via Bayer’s FeedABee.com. A packet contains about 200 wildflower seeds to cover 10 square feet. Property Managers can request free seeds and urge their residents to do so too. Allow about 4 weeks for delivery.
Thanks a million to Joanne Hernandez of the Doric Apartments for her extraordinary effort!
Cordially,
R.Anthony Squire