Planting a Pollinator Feast
The Secret to a Thriving Garden
Picture your garden buzzing with life—a vibrant scene where colorful butterflies dance among fragrant blooms and the air hums with the activity of busy bees. This isn’t just a feast for the eyes; it’s a pollinator feast that brings your garden to life! By intentionally planting flowers and herbs that attract these essential creatures, you’re creating a beautiful sanctuary and a thriving and productive garden.
Inviting pollinators into your garden offers a wealth of benefits beyond just a beautiful display. These hardworking helpers, including bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds, are crucial to your fruits, vegetables, and flowers. As they flit from flower to flower, they transfer pollen, ensuring successful fertilization and leading to larger, more abundant, and tastier harvests. A pollinator-friendly garden enjoys natural pest control as beneficial insects, attracted by the diverse plantings, help keep unwanted pests in check. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll get to see these fascinating creatures up close, adding daily enjoyment to your garden. Whether you have a spacious backyard, a balcony container garden, or a few pots on your porch, you can grow a thriving pollinator-friendly garden and reap the rewards.
Choosing the Right Pollinator-Friendly Plants
Gardening should be a joy, not another chore. That’s why we’re focusing on low-maintenance plants that attract pollinators and thrive with minimal needs. These resilient wonders adapt to a wide range of conditions, from diverse soil types to unpredictable weather patterns, tolerating heat waves and downpours with ease. Once established, they require little watering or feeding, giving you more time to relax and enjoy their beauty.
These plants offer more than just convenience and pretty faces. They play a vital role in supporting a healthy and sustainable garden. They provide essential food sources and habitats for beneficial insects, birds, and other wildlife, creating a balanced and thriving environment where nature’s helpers work in harmony to keep pests in check and your garden flourishing. With these easy-to-grow plants as your foundation, you can create a thriving garden teeming with life that requires less effort.
To save you time, we’ve hand-picked these highly attractive varieties, which are easy to grow, low maintenance, and extremely hardy, and created a special seed collection from them.
Pollinator-Friendly Plants
Low Maintenance and Easy to Grow
Bees on coneflowers
Purple Coneflower
(Echinacea purpurea)
This cheerful wildflower is a mainstay in pollinator gardens. Its vibrant purple blooms, which appear from June to August, attract a variety of butterflies, including Monarchs and Painted Ladies. Coneflowers are also a favorite of bees and songbirds, who feast on the seeds in the fall. These hardy perennials tolerate a range of conditions and require minimal care. Plant them in full sun to partial shade and enjoy their beauty and benefits for years to come.
Bloom Time: June – August
Attracts: Butterflies (Painted Lady, Monarch, Fritillary), honeybees, native bees, songbirds (seed heads)
Benefits:
- Attracts pollinators
- Drought tolerant
- Deer resistant
- Long-lasting blooms
- Attractive seed heads for fall and winter interest
Growing Conditions: Full sun to partial shade, well-drained soil, drought tolerant once established.
Beyond the Basics:
- Purple Coneflower is a native wildflower with medicinal properties, traditionally used to boost the immune system.
- Leave seed heads in the fall to provide food for birds.
- To encourage bushier growth, pinch back stems in late spring.
Bee on Maximilian’s Sunflower
Maximilian’s Sunflower
(Helianthus maximiliani)
A versatile plant with benefits beyond its beauty. Experienced gardeners often place it near patios and doorways to deter mosquitoes. Its mature height and density make it an excellent choice for hedges and natural screens. Organic growers appreciate its ability to filter out invasive weeds, preventing their spread. The smaller flower heads add a delicate touch to cut flower arrangements. This sunflower plays a crucial role in conservation efforts, helping in habitat development and restoration.
The large, composite flowers are particularly attractive to bumblebees, but they also draw in a wide variety of other pollinators, including butterflies and hummingbirds.
Once the seeds mature, flocks of finches and other birds descend upon the flower heads, delighting in extracting the seeds.
Bloom Time: Late Summer – Fall (often continues blooming after the first frost)
Attracts: Butterflies, bees (long- and short-tongued), beetles, and birds (seeds)
Benefits: Its strong root system controls erosion, adds vertical interest and late-season color to gardens and offers food and shelter for wildlife.
Growing Conditions: Thrives in full sun and well-drained soil. Drought tolerant once established.
Beyond the Basics
- Maximilian’s Sunflower seeds are a valuable food source for birds, while the tall stems provide shelter for beneficial insects and nesting sites for birds.
- This sunflower’s strong root system helps stabilize soil and prevent erosion, making it an excellent choice for slopes or areas prone to runoff.
- Maximilian’s Sunflower extends the beauty of your garden into the fall, providing vibrant color when many other plants have faded.
- This sunflower was named after Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, a German explorer who encountered it during his travels in North America in the 1800s.
- Plant Maximilian’s Sunflowers in masses or along borders for a truly spectacular display to create a “living wall” of golden blooms.
Bee on Lemon Bee Balm flower
Lemon Bee Balm
(Monarda citriodora)
This charming native annual has a vibrant personality and a knack for attracting a delightful entourage of pollinators. Its showy clusters of tiny, cheerful pink to purple-lavender flowers, clustered around square stems, create a tapestry of color that’s as pleasing to the eye as it is to the nose. With a gentle lemon-mint fragrance, this beauty draws in pollinators and adds a refreshing scent to your garden.
Bloom Time: June – September (October in warmer climates)
Attracts: Hummingbirds, hummingbird moths, bumblebees, and a variety of butterflies.
Benefits: The leaves and flowers are edible and have a delightful lemon-mint flavor. They can be used for teas, culinary creations, and potpourri. Lemon Bee Balm also has traditional medicinal uses, known for its soothing properties and ability to relieve coughs and sore throats.
Growing Conditions: Thrives in full sun but tolerates partial shade. Adaptable to different soil types, but well-drained soil is best.
Beyond the Basics
- The citrusy-mint fragrance of Lemon Bee Balm adds a refreshing touch to bouquets and floral arrangements.
- Brushing against the leaves releases a burst of lemony fragrance, creating a refreshing aromatherapy experience.
- Add chopped leaves to salads, fruit salads, and cold drinks for a zesty twist. The flowers make a beautiful and flavorful garnish for desserts.
- Lemon Bee Balm is a favorite of bumblebees. To further support these important pollinators, provide a shallow water source nearby with pebbles or stones for them to land on.
- If you want to control its spread, deadhead (remove spent flowers) regularly to encourage continuous blooming and prevent self-seeding.
Pollinators on Butterfly Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed
(Asclepias tuberosa)
A vibrant burst of sunshine in the garden, Butterfly Milkweed lives up to its name, drawing in a flutter of butterflies with its clusters of fiery orange blossoms. This North American native perennial is not only a beauty but also a vital food source for Monarch butterflies, providing sustenance for their caterpillars as they transform into majestic winged wonders.
Bloom Time: June – August
Attracts: Monarch butterflies (caterpillars and adults), Queen butterflies, Grey Hairstreak butterflies, a variety of bees, beetles, other pollinators, and beneficial insects.
Benefits: Historically used for medicinal purposes, particularly lung ailments (hence the nickname “Pleurisy Root”). Its bright color and unique flower structure add a striking visual element to gardens.
Growing Conditions: Flourishes in full sun and well-drained soil. Drought tolerant once established.
Beyond the Basics
- Butterfly Milkweed is a must-have for any butterfly garden, especially for supporting Monarch populations. It also supports many pollinators and beneficial insects, contributing to a healthy garden.
- While Butterfly Milkweed is generally pest-free, it may attract aphids. Encourage natural predators like ladybugs or use a gentle soap spray to control them if needed.
- Milkweed seeds have a natural coating that inhibits germination. To improve germination rates, cold stratify the seeds by placing them in a damp paper towel in the refrigerator for a few weeks before planting.
- The seed pods that follow the blooms add visual interest to fall gardens and can be used in dried arrangements.
Butterfly on Joe Pye weed
Joe Pye Weed
(Eutrochium maculatum)
This majestic giant graces your garden with towering plumes of fluffy pink flowers that sway gently in the breeze. That’s Joe Pye Weed, a native wildflower that deserves a place of honor in any pollinator paradise. This impressive plant, far from being a “weed,” boasts large, dome-shaped clusters of fragrant blossoms that attract a dazzling array of butterflies and other pollinators.
Bloom Time: July – September (or until first frost)
Attracts: Butterflies (especially Swallowtails, Monarchs), hummingbirds, honeybees, native bees, and other beneficial insects.
Benefits: It adds vertical interest and a touch of wild beauty to garden borders and backdrops. It has also been historically used for medicinal purposes.
Growing Conditions: It prefers full sun to partial shade. It thrives in moist, well-drained soil but tolerates some drought once established.
Beyond the Basics
- Joe Pye Weed can reach impressive heights, often growing 4 to 7 feet tall. Provide adequate space for this gentle giant to flourish.
- Joe Pye Weed is a favorite nectar source for Swallowtail butterflies. Combine it with other butterfly-friendly plants like phlox, coneflowers, and asters to create a butterfly buffet.
- Joe Pye Weed provides valuable nectar and pollen resources for pollinators late in the season when many other flowers have faded.
- Native Americans traditionally used Joe Pye Weed for a variety of ailments, including kidney problems and fevers.
- Leave the dried seed heads standing throughout the winter to provide visual interest and habitat for beneficial insects.
Pollinator watering station
Creating Your Pollinator Paradise
Creating a thriving pollinator haven involves more than just planting a few flowers. To truly support these vital creatures, consider these additional tips:
Embrace Diversity: Just as we thrive on a varied diet, pollinators benefit from a diverse selection of plants. To attract a wide range of pollinators, aim to plant clusters of different flower shapes, colors, and sizes. Choose plants with overlapping bloom times, ensuring a continuous source of nectar and pollen throughout the growing season.
Success in Every Garden: Whether you have a sprawling backyard, a balcony container garden, or just a few raised beds, you can create a pollinator haven. In containers, combine plants with varying heights and textures for visual appeal and to attract diverse pollinators. In raised beds, group plants with similar needs, considering factors like sun exposure and water requirements. For in-ground gardens, create layers of vegetation with taller plants at the back and shorter ones in the front, mimicking natural habitats.
Beyond the Blooms: Providing essential resources beyond flowers is crucial to support pollinators throughout their life cycle. Incorporate a shallow water source, such as a birdbath or a tray filled with pebbles and water, for pollinators to drink from. Avoid using pesticides that can harm these beneficial insects. Leave some areas of your garden a little “wild” with leaf litter or brush piles to provide shelter and nesting sites.
By taking these extra steps, you can transform your garden into a true sanctuary for pollinators, where they can thrive and continue their essential work.