Native Pollinator Plants

The label means almost nothing on its own

A tag reading "pollinator friendly" tells you that the plant produces flowers. Nearly all of them do. It does not tell you when it blooms, what shape the flowers are, which insects can physically use them, or whether the plant was treated with a systemic insecticide before it reached the shelf.

Those four things are what decide whether a planting feeds insects or merely looks like it does. The species on this page are chosen because they do the job in a documented way, but choosing good species is only the first of three decisions.

Succession matters more than any single plant

Insects need food across the whole season they are active, not during the three weeks in June when most gardens peak.

The hard periods are the ends. In March and April, bumblebee queens are emerging from underground alone, with no workers and no stores, and every one of next year's colonies depends on those individuals finding food. In September and October, the new queens are feeding before they overwinter, and migrating monarchs are crossing the country. A garden with nothing open in April and nothing in October has a gap where it matters most.

Practical version: plant something for each of early spring, late spring, early summer, midsummer, late summer, and fall. Six slots. A garden that covers all six with modest plants outperforms one with a spectacular June and nothing else.

Flower shape decides who can eat

Insects have different tongue lengths and different body sizes, and a flower is a lock that only some of them fit.

Deep tubes such as cardinal flower, penstemon, and beebalm serve hummingbirds and long-tongued bumblebees, and exclude nearly everyone else. Flat open clusters such as yarrow, boneset, golden alexanders, and mountain mint serve the enormous group of tiny bees, flower flies, parasitic wasps, and beetles that cannot reach into anything. Open daisies such as coneflower and blanketflower give butterflies a place to stand.

Most gardens are heavy on showy tubes and light on small flat flowers, which means they feed the visible insects and skip the ones doing much of the work. Plant across the shapes.

Two things that undo the rest

Buy plants that have not been treated with neonicotinoid insecticides. These are systemic, meaning they move through the plant into pollen and nectar, and a treated plant can be actively harmful for a season or more. Ask the nursery directly. Many now label their stock.

Then leave the garden standing. Stem-nesting bees overwinter inside hollow perennial stems, and many butterflies and moths overwinter in leaf litter at ground level. Cutting everything down in fall and raking the beds bare removes the insects you spent the season feeding. Cut back in spring instead.

Sources: Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (pollinator habitat guidance, bloom succession, and neonicotinoid research); US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (pollinator planting guidance); Mt. Cuba Center (native plant trials measuring pollinator visits).