As spring inches nearer ( we ’ ra about there ! ), we ’ re looking advancing to growing our gardens—starting with some tips from Swansons Nursery. We ’ ve been long-time fans of their expansive greenhouse in Crown Hill ( I loved visiting for our DIY cocktail herb garden ), and they ’ ve become our go-to for just about everything thanks to their timbre and expertise—whether it ’ s picking up herbs, grabbing some flowers, or learning how to grow vegetables and fruit in the Pacific Northwest. today, we ’ ra turning to guest writer and ally of Dunn DIY, Aimée Damman, for help on everything you need to know about planting a pollinator garden, so you can have a healthy, happy crop or flower bed—and healthy, glad bugs and insects. Take it away, Aimée !
What Is a Pollinator?
A pollinator is an animal or worm that helps pollinate plants by transferring the pollen from one character of a plant ‘s bloom ( the stamen ) to another separate of the flower ( the stigma ). This can occur on either the flowers of the lapp plant or on flowers of unlike plants. The work international relations and security network ’ t all that different from human reproduction : once the pollen is transferred to the establish ovary, fertilization occurs, which finally produces a seed that holds all the genetic information of the plant .
Some plants are self-pollinating, but most want pollinators to transfer the pollen amongst plants in order to reproduce—so pollinators are significant ! The most common pollinators are bees, butterflies, moths, wasp, beetles, bats, hummingbirds, and other flying insects.
Are there Flowers that Attract Bees and Other Pollinators?
recently, there ’ randomness been more conversation about dwindling pollinator populations ( particularly bees ). There are many theories as to why these populations are becoming less prevailing. regardless, it ’ sulfur crucial to create goodly habitats to attract and foster pollinators like bees—particularly in cities, where there are fewer greens spaces .
Pollinators seek out the nectar and pollen in the flowers of pollinator-friendly plants ; the by-product of this procedure is the pollen getting stuck to the pollinator ‘s body ( such as a bee collecting pollen on its legs ) and being transferred to a different flower. This action leads to the pollination of your plants. Bees and early pollinators are drawn to a act of plants, but in the Pacific Northwest, yarrow, California wild lilac, agastache, and thyme are bang-up options to start with. Planting plants and flowers that attract pollinators does duplicate duty—you ’ re not lone giving a wide array of food and protection to significant insects, but you ’ re reaping the benefits of pollination .
The more we can have these spaces where pollinators can travel ( even through dense, urban areas by creating green patches and pathways ), the more it allows them to thrive .
Speaking of Bees—Which Kinds Are Best to Raise?
For beginners or those looking for bees to pollinate but not to produce beloved ( therefore making them less labor-intensive ), I like mason bees. They ’ ra great because they by and large don ’ metric ton sting, so people feel more comfortable having them around—even in highly traffic areas in their garden or in a yard with kids. When it comes to pollinating, one mason bee can do the make of 100 beloved bees —they visit about 700 flowers a day and have a pollination rate of 99 percentage, which is pretty incredible. Mason bees are most active voice in the early on spring, making them a great pollinator for early leap flowers, yield trees, and berries. You don ’ t need much distance to host mason bees, and they don ’ t require the like amount of manage or tending that honey bees do—all you have to do is put out a house and fill it with larva tubes and they ’ ll do the remainder for you. You can even hire people to take care of your freemason bee house—clean it, populate it with larvae each year, etc.—so it can be wholly hands-off if you ’ five hundred choose .
Honeybees are a commodity choice if you are concern in ( and have the prison term to tend to ) bees. You can besides hire people to set up hives and tend to honeybees in your yard—and some flush share the beloved that is produced !
What Should I Plant in my Pacific Northwest Pollinator Garden?
first base and first, it ’ randomness important to implant a shuffle of species so you can attract as many different pollinators as possible. It ’ mho besides important to include species that are native to your region and will attract pollinators that are native to your region, excessively. Washington in particular has sealed butterflies such as the western Tiger Swallowtail, the Purplish Copper, and the Mourning Cloak. It besides has a lot of moths and hummingbirds such as Anna ’ sulfur hummingbird and the Rufous hummingbird. Some species to consider in Washington include those in the Asteraceae family, such as aster, marigold, yarrow, coneflower, Joe Pye weed, and helenium. As mention previously, bees love yarrow, California wild lilac, agastache, and thyme .
Besides having a beneficial kind of plants and reading the tags on each to ensure the plants you ’ re implant have what they need in terms of unhorse, soil, space, and more—there are no real rules. You could have a few different pots with a shuffle herb garden ( yep, pollinators love thyme, rosemary, and marjoram ), or you could scatter a seed blend across a big patch of unsheathed dirty. There is no specific recipe, therefore get creative !
What Plants Are Best for Beginners?
Both perennials and annuals are big for beginners. Perennials come binding year after year so you merely have to implant them once, while annuals offer up flowers over a solid season. Aim to do a mix of plants that bloom at unlike times so you ’ ll constantly have something that ’ ll attract pollinators. here are a handful of perennials that do truly well in our area :
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Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
yarrow is drought kind, comes in many colors of flowers, and attracts bees and butterflies. It makes an excellent cut flower ( fresh or dried ), and is one of the most carefree perennials. Plant it in entire sun and well-drained soil, and cut back after blooming to encourage newfangled blooms .
Delphinium (Delphinium staphisagria)
This bloom plant is one of the most romanticist of them all—its tall spires of blue sky, lavender, loss, pink, purple, or white flowers not alone look beautiful, but they attract hummingbirds. delphinium species ( there are more than 400 entire ) love sun, rich dirt, and unconstipated fertilizer. To encourage more blooms, remove spend flowers .
Penstemon (Penstemon palmeri)
Bumblebees, hummingbirds, and butterflies adore these tubular flowers. Penstemon thrives in blistering, cheery conditions and prefer well-drained dirty and regular water. They ’ ra available in a assortment of colors and sizes and make for a dainty fresh-cut flower .
Hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica)
When it comes to plants that attract hummingbirds, this is a good one : it has long, tubular flowers that hummingbirds love. Most varieties bloom from late form to frost—sometimes with motley flowers. Grow these in part sun to light shade depending on the variety, be certain to keep the dirty regularly damp, and feed them in early give .
Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
These frilled flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to the garden. besides known as Oswego Tea, this plant ’ south dark k leaves have a fantastic orange-mint aroma when crushed. The flowers can be loss, purple, ashen, lavender, or pink, and the plant does best in wax sun to character shade with well-drained soil .
Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii)
A proportional of catmint and a member of the mint kin, catmint ’ s unaffixed spikes of lavender, white, or pink flowers attract bees from late spring through summer. For best results, grow in full sun to separate shade and cut faded stems to the ground to encourage rebloom .
Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)
A front-runner of butterflies, this perennial has vanilla-scented leaves and big domes of small, nectar-rich flowers ( in pink, empurpled, or white ) in former summer and fall. It can grow up to 8 ’ improbable and is even deer-resistant. It prefers wide sun and evenly damp, well-drained land.
Have more questions about starting your own pollinator garden ? Visit us at Swansons Nursery—we have an entire section dedicated to pollinator plants and are here and glad to help. You can besides reach out to us on social media using # heyswansons !
Aimée Damman is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Swansons Nursery and an avid vegetable gardener. Some of her darling aspects of the subcontract are being the editor-in-chief of Swansons ’ garden web log, planning community projects and events, and taking photos of interest plants. When she ’ s not working or gardening, she loves yoga, cooking, photography, and exploring the Pacific Northwest .
For more helpful articles, visit the Swansons Nursery web log, which has a section devoted to comestible gardening .
