“A Garden With Wings,” the popular pollinator exhibit at Smith-Gilbert Gardens (SGG) featuring a kid-friendly pollinator garden and 1,500 square foot butterfly house, opens for the season on Tuesday, June 18. Visitors to the pollinator garden will see an inspiring collection of annuals, perennials and flowering shrubs that attract and support native pollinators like bumblebees, hummingbirds and butterflies. The butterfly house offers an up-close experience with hundreds of butterflies and their host plants that naturally occur throughout the Kennesaw area. “A Garden With Wings” is generously supported by Garden Members and the Smith-Gilbert Gardens Foundation. The exhibit is included with Garden admission and runs through Labor Day.

“We have moved up the opening date in 2019, to coincide with National Pollinator Week” says Mark Wolfe, Environmental Education and Communications Manager at SGG. “The butterfly house is a fun conversation starter to talk about the importance of pollinator conservation, the amazing process of metamorphosis, and even home weed and pest control. Each visitor approaches the exhibit a bit differently, and each has a different takeaway from the experience. It’s a great thing to be a part of.”

Also in celebration of National Pollinator Week, the Gardens will hold a pop-up plant sale. They will be selling pollinator gardens to-go, with a mix of plants to support different kinds of pollinators including butterflies and hummingbirds.

When visitors are finished checking out the butterfly house and pollinator garden, there will be plenty of other things to see and do at SGG this summer as another summer exhibit, “PLAY…In Nature,” continues into September. These creative play structures invite visitors to have fun outdoors. From building and sailing paper boats, to climbing in a human-size birdhouse, to relaxing in the shade and listening to the birds sing, there is something for young and old to enjoy.