The popular online Gardening for Pollinators course is back just in time for your summer Florida gardening season! Our butterfly specialist Jaret Daniels has teamed up with colleagues on campus to offer this approachable, self-paced class to get you started.
Whether you’re new to Florida or a budding gardening enthusiast, you might have observed that our state has a unique variety of plants and insects to learn about. A healthy pollinator garden can invite a dazzling variety of butterflies and bees into your yard when planned and maintained.
To help understand the basics of pollinator gardens, a team of University of Florida experts created this online course for beginners to learn about bees and butterflies. It explores ways to create gardens in backyards and common spaces that support healthy pollinator populations in any space, small or large.
Insect conservation efforts can have a tremendous impact on the overall ecology of a region. Jaret Daniel’s ongoing research with imperiled butterflies has looked at the measurable effects of urban and suburban gardens on important insect populations. Small efforts to support pollinators have been shown to have unexpectedly robust results.
While the numbers show insect decline is a very real issue, there are also creative ways to provide insects the resources they need with a network of gardens and wild spaces that create corridors of respite.
Course
In this course, you will learn all about bees and butterflies, two important groups of pollinators, and how to create and manage gardens to support them.
Gardening for Pollinators topics include:
- Bee and butterfly diversity, biology and identification.
- Garden design and management.
- Plant selection for pollinators in Florida.
The course is completely online through the Canvas Network and self-paced, consisting of short lectures, guided activities and assessments. Register to start now and take up to 45 days to complete the course at your own pace.
Certificate upon completion of course.
Instructors
- Rachel Mallinger, assistant professor of Entomology at UF, specializes in wild bee biology and conservation.
- Jaret Daniels, curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, is an expert in butterfly research and conservation.
- Wayne Hobbs, county extension agent in Clay County, is an environmental horticulture agent and Master Gardener coordinator.
Registration
Fee: $20
Registration info: Sign up by June 30, 2025, and take up to 45 days to complete this course at your own pace.
Info & enrollContact
Questions? Contact Rachel Mallinger at rachel.mallinger@ufl.edu
This course is a partnership between the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, UF IFAS Extension and the Florida Museum.
More
- Florida’s Wildflowers & Butterflies – A guide to 50 of Florida’s most common native butterflies and wildflowers
- Butterfly Brochures & Resources – Download free PDFs of popular brochures, signs and coloring books. Learn about the Wings Over Florida program
- Five Facts: Bees in Florida – Read about the native and agricultural bees in our state
- The Daniels Lab at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity