After attracting brightly colored butterflies to the Winkler Arts and Culture space on Park Street for several years, the city’s Butterfly Garden is moving to a new location.

Valerie Harder works with the Winkler Horticultural Society. After some deliberation, she says the best scenario they came up with was amalgamating the garden with the Discovery Nature Sanctuary off Eastview Drive.

“They have a large pollinator garden there. So we approached the Discovery Nature Sanctuary [asking] if they would want to purchase our plants. Because they are all Prairie originals, we did not want to abandon the gardens but wanted to see them used.

The Discovery Nature Sanctuary has actually purchased the plants from us,” adds Harder, “And is in the process of replanting them in the pollinator garden.” The garden has proved to be popular with tourists and local residents.

“It's a great interest,” explains Harder. “There are lots of people that are promoting the raising of monarch butterflies, which is so important. A lot of our agricultural lands are being used for other good purposes. But in our backyards, we can create a little garden that offsets what's happening in the world around us.”

The society has already re-planted the existing butterfly plots with a variety of flowering shrubs. As for the 500-pound monarch butterfly statue installed at the WAC location, Harder insists that will be staying in its original location.

“We're wanting to keep it there. It's a tourist attraction, and only last summer and even this summer, already we've seen a number of tourists stop by taking pictures.” Harder says it seems to be the trend. “Especially now during COVID season, families need something to do, and so we want to keep it there because it's kind of like the central hub of all the tourism activities.”

A few butterfly plants have been retained to demonstrate how local gardeners can attract colorful insects to their own beds. Harder says butterflies generally arrive with the emergence of milkweed wildflowers. According to the Explore Morden Winkler tourism website, the butterfly garden is eligible for certification with several organizations, including the North American Butterfly Association, the Monarch Way Station Program and the Fort Whyte Naturescape Program.