NH Audubon expands plant sale with Pollinator Festival
For most non-specialists, knowledge of pollinators begins and ends with honeybees. Honeybees are certainly important, said Diane DeLuca of New Hampshire Audubon.
“They do a lot of the pollinating of our agricultural crops and fruit trees and things like that. But the native pollinators include hundreds of species of native bees in New Hampshire. We’re still learning about the native bees in New Hampshire. … We have over 100 species of butterflies in New Hampshire and we’re still learning about those as well. So in terms of pollinators we’re talking about native bees, butterflies, flies, beetles and ants. The hummingbird is really the only bird that would probably be considered a pollinator in New Hampshire.”
For many years one of the missions of NH Audubon has been to educate the public about the importance of native species. Pollinators — species of animals that carry pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing them to produce the next generation of plants — are some of the most important of those native species, DeLuca said.
“For years we’ve been having a native plant sale,” she said, “where we’ve invited native plant nurseries to come and share their plants at New Hampshire Audubon. And in the last couple of years we’ve joined that with a spring craft fair. And so up until now there’s been the native plant sale outside, and the craft fair has been inside the building. But this year we’re expanding and having what we’re calling a Pollinator Fest. It will include native plant vendors and our spring crafters and a number of pollinator conservation organizations. New Hampshire Audubon will also give garden tours and have informational tables about pollinators and gardeners. The whole thing is going to take place outside in the fields near [NH Audubon’s] McClane Center. This will be our first Pollinator Festival, and we’re pretty excited.”
“There will be activities for families,” DeLuca said, “for children. There’s going to be a story hour with crafting for children, and the nature lab’s going to be open, and there will be an hour or two of an educational staff person sharing out the animals that we have. There will also be food trucks and live music as well.”
Different species of plant blossom throughout the year, DeLuca said, so it’s possible to see many different species of pollinators at different times of the year, but June is a particularly good time to pay attention to them.
“Our spring ephemerals — our early bloomers — many of the trees are blooming or even past bloom at this point, so it’s an important time of year for blooming. It’s also an important time of year for many of the pollinators. For instance, the bees are out and about right now because the queen bees are actually gathering food so they can lay eggs and raise young, and they’re going to be doing that underground for the most part. Some of them nest in like pithy stems or woody areas and stuff, but a lot of them are just nesting underground. So it is a really important time for many of the native pollinators.” This will provide an excellent opportunity for visitors to learn about some of the hundreds of area pollinators first-hand, she said.
NH Audubon Pollinator Festival
What: There will be native plants for sale, as well as a wide variety of handmade crafts by local artisans. Experts will be on hand to discuss pollination and native pollinator species.
When: Saturday, June 6, with a rain date of Sunday, June 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: NH Audubon McClane Center, 84 Silk Farm Road, Concord, 224-9909
Admission: free
More: nhaudubon.org/event/pollinator-fest-2026