How to Plant a Pollinator Garden That Blooms All Season

The Rule: Three Species in Bloom Every Season

A pollinator garden blooms all season when you choose plants by bloom time before anything else. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s design standard is a workable target: at least 3 plants each of at least 3 perennial species for spring, for summer and for fall. That comes to a minimum of 27 plants. Set them in groups, in a sunny spot, and add at least one host plant such as milkweed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gives the same instruction in one line: include varieties that bloom from early spring through late fall to support pollinators throughout the year. Colorado State University Extension says a habitat planted for pollinators needs a mixture of species so that bloom times range from early spring to late fall.

Pick a Sunny Site and Plant in Groups

University of New Hampshire Extension advises planting in full sun and designing in masses, meaning groups of 3 to 5 or more plants placed together. Colorado State agrees that most pollinators prefer sunny areas, and that flowering species should be planted as groups or swaths and not as single plants.

Penn State Extension’s Master Gardeners explain why. Pollinators are more likely to find plants in gardens that provide larger drifts of color, so when you buy a plant, buy 3 or more and plant them together. Three groups of three per season is how the Cornell standard reaches 27.

Before buying, check which species belong where you live. Our guide on how to choose native flowers for your region explains how to find them.

Build the Bloom Calendar First

Draw three columns, one for each season, and fill each with three species before you shop. The Fish and Wildlife Service publishes lists of native plants by region and season, and the selections below come from its lists for three eastern and central regions.

Season	Northeast	Midwest	Southeast
Spring	Red columbine, wild geranium, wild lupine	Red columbine, blue wild indigo, golden Alexanders	Lanceleaf tickseed, eastern bluestar, green and gold
Summer	Butterfly milkweed, wild bergamot, Joe-pye weed	Common milkweed, prairie blazing star, yellow coneflower	Butterfly milkweed, black-eyed Susan, dense blazing star
Fall	New England aster, gray goldenrod, cardinal flower	Smooth blue aster, showy goldenrod, common boneset	Smooth blue aster, blue mistflower, swamp sunflower

The service lists eight regions in all, so gardeners in the West and Southwest should use the list for their own area. A plant that is native in one region may be out of place in another.

Spring: Feed the First Foragers

Spring is the first column to fill, since the calendar has to start in early spring to meet the Fish and Wildlife Service guideline. In the Northeast and Midwest lists, red columbine and wild geranium appear for spring, along with wild lupine and foxglove beardtongue in the Northeast.

Woody plants help fill this season. Penn State points out that many trees and shrubs provide early-season nectar and are the primary host plants for many moths and butterflies. It suggests thinking of the whole yard as habitat, not only the flower bed. Bulbs can add color to the same weeks, and our list of fall-planted bulbs for spring covers what to plant in autumn.

Summer: Nectar Plants and a Host Plant

Summer is the easiest season to fill. Wild bergamot is on the summer list for the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast, and butterfly milkweed appears on all three as well. Blazing stars and coneflowers round out the Midwest and Southeast lists.

Milkweed does a second job. The Fish and Wildlife Service states that monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed, and that eggs laid on other plants produce caterpillars that cannot survive. Its advice is to plant a species local to your region and read up on its growth pattern, which it calls a good way to ensure the plant does not take over the yard. Penn State makes the general point: the caterpillars of butterflies and moths feed on the leaves of very specific plants, so a garden needs host plants along with nectar. Cornell’s standard asks for at least three host species.

On other summer perennials, deadheading spent blooms can extend flowering. Leave the milkweed alone so caterpillars have leaves to eat.

Fall: Asters, Goldenrod and Late Nectar

Asters and goldenrods carry the fall column in every eastern list: New England aster and gray goldenrod in the Northeast, smooth blue aster and showy goldenrod in the Midwest. Iowa State University Extension describes smooth aster as easy to grow in full sun, with one of the latest bloom seasons.

Late nectar has a clear purpose. Iowa State notes that monarchs migrate thousands of miles and need good nectar sources along the way to reach their overwintering site in Mexico, and that bees need plenty of nectar to be healthy for the next year. Its fall list for Iowa also includes Joe-Pye weed, whose blooms begin in August and last through September, and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum, which grows in a mound about 2 feet high.

Natives First, With Room for Others

Penn State’s fact sheet reports that native plants have been shown to be four times more attractive to pollinators than non-natives, and it makes regional natives the first choice. That does not rule out everything else. The Royal Horticultural Society, writing for British gardens, recommends a mix weighted toward natives and notes that exotic plants can extend the season, especially with late-summer flowering. Its broader finding applies anywhere: the more flowers a garden offers through the year, the more pollinating insects it supports.

Annuals are another way to add flowers to a gap in the calendar. Our guide to annuals and perennials explains how the two behave in a bed.

Shelter, Stems and Cleanup

Food is half of the habitat. Cornell asks gardeners to provide space for pollinators to live, which could be a bare area on the ground or a brush or rock pile. It also suggests holding off on cleanup of plant material until spring.

For stems, NC State Extension gives exact directions. Trim perennial stems back to a stubble 12 to 24 inches tall, at any time between the first fall frost and the last spring frost, and leave the stubble standing. In its study about 70 percent of gardens had at least one occupied stem in spring, when nests were most numerous, and the stems began breaking down naturally in their second year. The plants in its study included purple coneflower, bee balm, blazing star and goldenrod. Oregon State University Extension gives a shorter figure for fall and winter pruning, an extra 8 to 10 inches of stem left for native bees to nest in the next season.