#POLLINATOR GARDEN DESIGN FULL#
For the most impact, plant in full sun and design in masses (groups of 3-5 or more plants placed together). Perennials: American native perennials, or wildflowers, with long bloom periods, prolific flowers and colors attractive to pollinators can be combined to provide a pollinator paradise from late spring through fall. Planting a diverse mix of flowering plants that provides a sequence of blooms from early spring to late fall will have the most impact. Here are some guidelines to get you started. By observing the plants in your garden, you will soon learn which are the most visited by bees and other pollinators. Select flowers with abundant supplies of nectar and pollen. What insect pollinators you’ll find on which flowers depends on both the anatomy of the flower (is it open and accessible?) and the insect (how strong is it, how long is its tongue?). In general, bees like white, blue, purple and yellow flowers and hummingbirds love red tubular shaped flowers.
The best resources will be those with local research or observation behind them. There are many other plants you can use as well, and many plant lists are available on the web.
The plants listed here grow well in our region and have been observed to attract large numbers of bees, butterflies or hummingbirds when in bloom. Below are some plants you can add to your garden and landscape to provide these food resources for bees and other pollinators. Pollinators visit flowers to collect food in the form of nectar and/ or pollen.
#POLLINATOR GARDEN DESIGN PATCH#
Even a small patch of the right flowers can help, as it adds to the larger landscape mosaic in which the pollinators live and search for food. Leaf litter, tall grass, stumps, and peeling bark provide pollinators ideal places to spend the night or to overwinter.įor ideas on providing native bee housing, go to Home Sweet Home.Many people want to create pollinator-friendly gardens to support numerous kinds of native bees, as well as honey bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. If your garden is shady but you have a sunny patio, plant containers full of annuals and perennials. You need a sunny spot in your yard for a pollinator garden to be at its best. Mud is the other ingredient that pollinators are seeking when they lay their eggs into the paper tubes that you put out for their use.
Water is essential for attracting pollinators, and something as simple as a birdbath will work. Also, remember to plan for a sequence of blooms, staggering the flowering time of nectar sources so that butterflies will frequent your garden throughout the season. Trees and shrubs not only provide pollinators with food, but also offer protected areas from the wind and predators. It is important to include both herbaceous and woody plants in your pollinator garden. Tubes of any kind can be used, like bamboo, stems of sunflowers, or other thick-stemmed plants. Paper tubes or straws provide nesting areas for mason bees. For example, willows often shelter tiny overwintering Viceroy Butterfly larvae rolled up in a leaf. And caterpillars are the protein-rich food that keeps our songbirds going as it is the primary food that they feed their young. Many of the plants are also host plants for caterpillars that produce butterflies. Mixing shrubs and trees with perennials, annuals, and bulbs creates an all-season show of blooms for foraging bees. Mid-summer is not an issue to have blooming flowers in your garden it is the shoulder season of early spring and late summer/fall that keeps pollinators going. My planting plan for pollinators includes an array of plants that span the early spring time starting with Aconites, Snowdrops, Willows, Crocus, and Scillas, ending with the late bloomers of Aster, Tithonia, and Agastache. Winter Aconites bloom in February and honeybees are active then if the temperatures are above 50 degrees