Explore Native Plant Gardens at Mass Audubon

Butterfly Garden at Stony Brook
Butterfly Garden at Stony Brook © Garden Club of Norfolk

Experience the beauty of a garden buzzing with pollinating insects and hummingbirds at a wildlife sanctuary near you. Then learn how to create your own pollinator garden at home!


Special Gardens & Other Habitats

Black swallowtail at FElix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary
A black swallowtail in the Felix Neck butterfly garden.
 
Garden at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
Garden at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
 
Monarch butterfly at Mass Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary
Monarch butterfly at Long Pasture

Many of our wildlife sanctuaries have specially-managed gardens designed to support wildlife, help manage stormwater runoff, or provide community gardening space.

  • Allens Pond in Dartmouth and Westport features a pollinator garden that is a certified MonarchWatch.org waystation.
  • Boston Nature Center in Mattapan has a butterfly garden, the Boston Food Forest Coalition's food forest, and the Clark Cooper Community Gardens—the largest and oldest community garden in Boston.
  • Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester has butterfly, bird, and rain gardens that provide food and shelter while improving water quality.
  • Broadmoor in Natick has a native cultivars garden featuring a carefully chosen selection of nursery cultivated native plants ("nativars").
  • Drumlin Farm has several wildlife garden areas, including the gardens at the front entrance and the Mass Audubon Shop with native perennials.
  • Ipswich River in Topsfield offers a butterfly garden and a bird habitat garden.
  • Felix Neck in Edgartown has a butterfly garden, bird garden, and a garden with scented plants believed to have mosquito-repelling properties.
  • Habitat Education Center in in Belmont has bee and butterfly gardens as well as herb gardens.
  • Long Pasture in Barnstable offers a butterfly mosaic trail, which is a series of native wildflower plots along a trail through open fields.
  • Moose Hill in Sharon has a small native plant garden and a larger bird garden, both alive with birds, butterflies, and insects.
  • North River in Marshfield has several specialty gardens, including a native plant garden and a rain garden with native plants.
  • Stony Brook in Norfolk has a butterfly garden that's managed by the Garden Club of Norfolk.
  • Wellfleet Bay in South Wellfleet maintains a large pollinator and wildlife garden with plants to feed birds, bees, and butterflies, as well as a native bee "hotel."

How to Support Pollinators at Home

One major way to make a positive impact on pollinators—and beautify an outdoor space—is to replace ornamental, non-native plants with native species. Want to start your own pollinator garden at home?