Plant a Pollinator-Friendly Garden: Tips to Attract Bees, Hummingbirds & More!

Most gardeners realize how important natural pollinators are for our

gardens. When it comes to human food & survival, pollinators such as bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, bats, hummingbirds, etc. can be called our true heroes. After all, pollinated flowers produce our food: fruit, vegetables, nuts, & seeds. In addition, the seeds hold the future for those plant species.

Natural Pollinators and Our Food

So exactly how important are pollinators? Well, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, about 35% of our entire world’s food crops depend on insects & animals, & three-fourths of our world’s flowering plants rely on natural pollinators for their very survival. That makes pollinators extremely important.

Tips for Attracting Pollinators to the Garden

So how do we get these insects & animals to show up & do what they do

best? We can plant gardens & simply hope that pollinators crash the party, which can & does work – sometimes.

But we can also send out an engraved invitation & let them know that they are at the top of the guest list for our yards & gardens. There are many ways to set a welcoming stage for our natural pollinators:

• Stagger the Blooms. Pollinators show up at various times of the season, so
  

  bougainvillea

  the ideal plan would be to have our plants blooming at various intervals all season long, for example, in early spring, mid- to late spring, early summer, mid- to late summer, early fall, & mid- to late fall (depending on your region).

• Create a Diverse Habitat by planting a wide assortment of nectar- & pollen-rich plants. Blossoms with various colors & shapes present a veritable smorgasbord.
  

  lavender can be used for it’s scent. It is calming & can help you sleep better & attracts bees…

  Include pollen-laden, old-fashioned flowers & wildflowers. Be generous with food sources, & you should plant as many as possible. It’s easier for pollinators to spot large displays of flowers than a random blossom here & there.

• Give Their Kids a Home. They might show up for the food, but they’ll stay for their kids. Consider providing food sources for caterpillars (baby butterflies). Research the
  

  Caterpillars make cocoons in the canna leaves so you’ll have butterflies. These are in my yard…

  species that live in your area & plant for a baby caterpillar’s appetite. For example, monarch caterpillars need milkweed and black swallowtail caterpillars love fennel. Bats will take up residence in a bat house, and blue mason bees will raise their young inside a wooden block or stump with pre-drilled holes (of the correct size).

• Provide a Water Source. Most of your pollinating friends will need a water source. A birdbath that has some small rocks or a small pile of sticks in it is ideal. Small critters such as
  

  Butterflies are so pretty…

  bees & butterflies need help to keep from drowning as they drink. Butterflies will also enjoy a few mud puddles around for some “puddling” time. Butterflies enjoy alighting next to mud puddles & sucking up the minerals & nutrients.

Honey Bees vs. Native Bees

Both honey & native bees have their human fan base in our gardening

world. However, the truth is that they emerge at different times & they each specialize in specific plants. None of these bees compete with each other for available pollen resources. Rather, these industrious little guys work in tandem to pollinate the plants in our world.

The following is a list of honey bee & native bee facts.

• We don’t have native honeybees in North America. Honeybees that we keep in hives for honey production are all imported from Europe.
• Honeybees are the only insects that produce food eaten by humans.
• Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, & water.
• The honeybees’ sense of smell is so precise that they can tell the difference among hundreds of flower varieties, as well as which flowers carry nectar & which carry pollen, from meters away.
• There are approximately 2,000 to 6,000 bees in in a single colony – plus one queen.
• Female worker bees work for the entire 6 weeks of their lives, while the queen lives up to 5 years & lays up to 2,500 eggs a day.
• Male honeybees (called drones) have only one job: to breed. They die soon after inseminating a queen, as their abdomens are ripped from their bodies because they are still connected to the queen. Surviving drones (which have not yet bred) are driven from the hive during extreme winters if food become scarce.

Information on native bees:

• There are 4,000 native bee species in the United States.
  

  Bees pollinate so we can have food…

• Most of our native bees are solitary bees & don’t live in hives.
• Some native bees fly in cooler weather, so they visit flowers earlier in the season & are more likely to pollinate  our early-blooming fruit trees.
• Native bees (& other insects & animals) do most of the pollinating. Honeybees supplement the pollinating work of the native pollinators.
• Like a mother hen, a queen bumblebee incubates her eggs while sitting in her little nest of straw. Her abdomen controls the egg temperature, which speeds up the development of her larvae. Even after they have hatched, the queen will keep her daughters warm until they are old enough to leave & forage for food on their own.
• The native blue mason (orchard) bee is a solitary bee that has no hive or honey to defend. Therefore, they are quite non-aggressive & gentle. Only the female has a stinger, & it’s rare for her to use it. Her “stinger” is an egg tube & holds no venom to inject.
• Bumblebees live in small colonies (compared to honeybees) of between 50 and 500 bees. They usually make their home underground in holes that have been abandoned by the rodents that originally made them.

Plants Pollinators Can’t Resist

The fact that flowers fascinate, delight, & amaze us humans is, quite frankly, a happy coincidence. From a plant’s point of view, flowers are a functional vehicle for reproduction. They have had millions of years to perfect their individual seductive flower style & pollinators are attracted to a variety of flower structures depending on the species. Planting a mixture of annual & perennial plants can help provide a diverse assortment of blossoms for you & the bees to enjoy.

For example, a wide assortment of bees (honey & native species) are attracted to flat & open flowers with easy access to the pollen, such as

Queen Anne’s lace, zinnias, daisies, & asters. Monarda, larkspur, lavender, salvia, mint, & oregano will attract long-tongued bees & hummingbirds. Be sure to add some native plants to your pollinator garden. They are important to the survival of your regional native pollinator species.

Perennial Plant List for Pollinators

• Allium
• Aster
• Bee balm
• Blanket flower (annual & perennial depending on variety)
• Blazing star
• Borage (annual & perennial depending on variety)
• Butterfly bush
• Calendula
• Coreopsis (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Cosmos (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Daylily
• Delphinium
• Dianthus (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Dill
• Fennel
• Flax (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Four o’clock
• Gaillardia
• Geranium
• Giant hyssop
• Globe thistle
• Goldenrod
• Hollyhock (biennial)
• Hyssop
• Joe-pye weed
• Lavender
• Lovage
• Lupine (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Marjoram (tender perennial)
• Mint
• Mullein
• Musk mallow
• Nasturtium
• Oregano
• Paint brush (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Phlox
• Poppy (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Purple coneflower
• Rosemary
• Rudbeckia
• Sage
• Scabiosa (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Shasta daisy
• Skullcap
• Stonecrop
• Sunflower (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Sweet Cicely
• Tansy
• Thyme
• Verbena
• Wallflower (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Wild rose
• Yarrow

Annual Plant List for Pollinators

• Coreopsis (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Cosmos (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Dill
• Marigold
• Queen Anne’s lace
• Alyssum (long-blooming annual)
• Basil
• Blanket flower (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Borage (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Dianthus (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Flax (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Lupine (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Paint brush (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Poppy (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Scabiosa (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Sunflower (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Wallflower (annual or perennial depending on variety)
• Zinnia

Attracting natural pollinators to your yard & garden is especially helpful in

urban & suburban areas where many plant species have been displaced by city buildings & homes. If you have a garden with a diverse environment, you will keep pollinators happy & at home.

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I enjoyed this information as I like to garden, & would love to know who out there also gardens, & plants to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc?  This kind of gardening not only helps our environment, but it is also pretty for us to see, & in some cases, you can use some of these plants for medicinal purposes…

Have a great day!