Home yard pollinator plants

[Bowsnbucks]

Thought I'd post about some of our home yard winners for attracting lots of pollinators. When my wife and I step out into our yard, we can hear the buzzing and see loads of all kinds of pollinating insects. Butterflies, moths (including hawk moths), hoverflies, so many kinds of bees - from bumblebees down to tiny ones that are hard to see, and hummingbirds - all frequent our yard plants. Following are what we have planted:

Various colors of coneflowers
Butterfly weed
Catmint
Daylilies
Various colors of Garden phlox
Black-eyed Susans
Obedient plant
Calibrachoa's in various colors
Hosta's
Bee Balm
"Little Joe" Joe Pye weed (a shorter variety)
Verbena in various colors
Penta's in various colors
Blanket flowers
Salvia
Astilbe
Impatiens

I suspect a bee-keeping neighbor about 300 yards from us has his honeybees hitting our stuff.

 

[Badgers80]

Great job! It’s lots of fun to see all the different species in pollinator habitat. And so much better than just monoculture grass. I’m glad it’s becoming an increasingly prevalent thing locally and across the country. Things like the bee and butterfly fund/project and grants for people planting pollinator areas.

 

[Westwind]

Thought I'd post about some of our home yard winners for attracting lots of pollinators. When my wife and I step out into our yard, we can hear the buzzing and see loads of all kinds of pollinating insects. Butterflies, moths (including hawk moths), hoverflies, so many kinds of bees - from bumblebees down to tiny ones that are hard to see, and hummingbirds - all frequent our yard plants. Following are what we have planted:

Various colors of coneflowers
Butterfly weed
Catmint
Daylilies
Various colors of Garden phlox
Black-eyed Susans
Obedient plant
Calibrachoa's in various colors
Hosta's
Bee Balm
"Little Joe" Joe Pye weed (a shorter variety)
Verbena in various colors
Penta's in various colors
Blanket flowers
Salvia
Astilbe
Impatiens

I suspect a bee-keeping neighbor about 300 yards from us has his honeybees hitting our stuff.

I love this! I feel like my yard is a better place due to pollinators!

It seems like we don't have as many humming birds this year.

 

[Barndog56]

Excellent list. A couple more are Early Figwort, which is not visually impressive at all but the bees adore it, and Giant Hyssop, which along with Bee Balm has to get the most use here. Delphinium is an early one that hummingbirds love and is ready right when they get here in spring. Common Milkweed is a must have for monarchs, and several other pollinators use it as well.

 

[KY wild]

An annual Zinnia bed will bring in the butterflies and hummingbirds, also hard to beat the bright variety of colors.

 

[Telemark]

I have all of those except Verbena and Joe Pye weed.

I appreciate the list. I'm currently trying to wipe out about an acre of teasel, which the pollinators love. I'll start ordering some pollinator plant seeds to add to my food plot and native grass seed blend.

 

[Catscratch]

Nice!!!

 

[Double Creek]

I love this as well and I’m trying to find what grows well in my sandy soil and shady yard. I’ve tried a lot on your list and I don’t think I have enough sun. Cardinal flower, coreopsis, sweet Joe pye and some milkweeds flower pretty well in my environment. I’d love some native suggestions that can thrive on a few hours of direct sunlight.

 

[rocksnstumps]

According to the prof met last year doing a bumblebee study, they go nuts for Culver's root. And yes they do have the endangered rusty patch bumblebee at the John Muir state natural area. Dude got all excited.

 

[fishin coyote]

I also have everything on that list plus
Gooseneck loosestrife
Crocosmias
common milkweed
Iron weed
cardinal flower both red and blue
Hyssop
asters
plus a ton of annuals that the wife collects seeds from every year for the purpose of reseeding them the next spring. I’m sure I forgot some also.

Although I know I can never have enough to supply the 6+ hives I keep in the backyard
we typically have some sort of pollinator plants blooming from March through October.

 

[Westwind]

Is there some way to do this with a drill? I took out a fence row I think would look pretty cool blooming

 

[Teeder]

I have a couple of acres of crop field that I plan to make into a pollinator / natural area interspersed with various bushes for the birds.

 

[marlin]

Is there some way to do this with a drill? I took out a fence row I think would look pretty cool blooming

You don’t need a drill. Really good weed control before planting helps a lot. Broadcast seed in the middle of January. There’s a lot of information on the Bee & Butterfly Habitat funds website on pollinator fields establishment, and maintenance.

 

[rocksnstumps]

For more info on the pollinator topic I see local chapters of the following organizations mentioned at times at nature centers and such.

Wild Ones ( native plants mostly for the backyard homeowner types) with a site at wildones.org

And Xerces Society ( lotta bee and insect pollinator focus) at site Xerces.org

Again, never joined them for any activities but their volunteers seem to partner and donate time at nature centers and such. Those places all seem to have hiking trails and prairie plantings that tie into the pollinator topic. I'm a member of a Meetup group that hikes at places like that once in awhile.

 

[The Fishman]

The National Wildlife Federation has a web site that allows you to type in your zip code and it provides a list of plants native to your area. It also ranks the plants based upon insect use. Goldenrod is the number 1 plant in my area with 82 species using Goldenrod. The site is at https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/Plants.

 

[fishin coyote]

The view from my living room window at just a small part of the yard.

 

[john volkman]

You don’t need a drill. Really good weed control before planting helps a lot. Broadcast seed in the middle of January. There’s a lot of information on the Bee & Butterfly Habitat funds website on pollinator fields establishment, and maintenance.

great advice here, ive had much better success with good site prep and frost seeding than using a drill (even on frozen ground), i think a drill puts most of the forb seed to deep

 

[rocksnstumps]

Well that was cool. Went to go retrieve my garbage can after trash day and have a patch of wild bergamot in the ditch right at the end of the driveway. Saw a hummingbird moth up close for the first time. Dwarfed the nearby bumblebees. Sorry no pics cause well no phone at the time.

But as others mentioned have not seen any actual hummingbirds around yet although the hostas have been blooming awhile. Previous homeowner planted em at least 26 yrs ago and I haven't managed to kill them with neglect yet