The pollinators are here! Bees hum in the flowers and flowering shrubs, hummingbirds have returned, and butterflies and moths flutter from blossom to blossom. There are lots of wonderful perennials and annuals that attract pollinators and benefit your gardens as well as those of your neighbors and our mother earth.
Monarch butterfly on a coneflower. This pollinator-popular perennial is hardy and easy to grow.
Now is a great time to enhance your garden with pollinator perennials and annuals that you can enjoy all season long. You’ll find a good selection of pollinator plants at your local garden center. Check that the perennials and annuals have not been treated with insecticides containing neonicotinoids, which can kill bees and linger in the soil for plants to systemically take up in roots, causing death and lasting harm to bees and other pollinators.
Gardens in open, sunny areas are attractive to pollinators. Using native plants that are suited to our New England habitat will ensure that your plants will survive times of drought as they send down deep roots. Plant a variety of perennials with bloom times from spring to fall, that attract different pollinators, with a diversity of flower shapes, and you will have a garden of beautiful flowers filled with happy bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds.
Plant native New England asters for late season pollinator food and garden color.
Annuals in pots and gardens are also attractive to pollinators. If you don’t have or need more garden space you can plant pots full of annuals that pollinators will visit to feed on plants in pots your steps, walkway, deck, or patio. Hummingbirds, butterflies and bees will visit. Pots of annual salvias, both purple and red are especially attractive to hummingbirds. It is fun to watch them fly from pot to pot sipping nectar!
A pollinator container buffet: zinnias, bacopa and marigolds.
Perennials for pollinators: Coneflower, milkweed, turtlehead, Joe Pye weed, catmint, cranesbill geranium, Columbine, Sedum, Yarrow, Phlox, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, blazing star liatris, bee balm, New England aster, Echinacea, lupine, Penstemon, Sneezeweed, goldenrod, Baptisia (blue), Cardinal flower, Golden Alexanders.
Long – blooming Annuals for pollinators: Allyssum, Bacopa, Calendula, Cosmos, Euporbias, Lantana, Laurentia, Marigolds (open types), annual Lobelia, Osteospermum, Portulaca, Salvia, Verbena (blue), annual sunflowers, Zinnia, herbs and Dusty Miller, if both are allowed to blossom.
A garden abloom with pollinator flowers: lobelia cardinalis, annual cosmos and cleome.
Learn more: eResources for pollinator plantings/information:
Xerces Society www.xerces.org
United States Department of Agriculture www.nrcs.usda.gov/pollinators
New England Wildflower Society (NEWS) www.newenglandwild.org
UNH Cooperative Extension https://extension.unh.edu/resources
University of Vermont Extension Master Gardener: www.uvm.edu/mastergardener
Hummingbird magnet lobelia cardinalis.