Plants Pollinators Love

Today Southern Gardening is in Tupelo, MS at the home of Marian Hill, looking at her pollinator plants that are buzzing with activity. Yarrow is a native perennial plant with many small flowers that are combined into a flat-topped flower structure that is very inviting to many butterflies, bees, moths, and other pollinators. The native variety produces white frilly, showy flowers that grow on multi-branching stems. Other varieties produce pink, yellow, red, or orange flowers. The leaves are divided into smaller leaflets, giving them a delicate, fernlike, lacy appearance. A classic annual reseeding pollinator plant is the bachelor’s button, often called cornflower. It reseeds with blooms that may be single or double. Once planted, you will be growing bachelors’ buttons year after year as they reseed freely. They grow well in a full-sun location with minimal care needed. Another great perennial pollinator plant is Purpletop verbena or tall verbena. It is an upright, clump-forming plant with wiry, widely branched stems. The flowers are little purple or rosy lavender-colored tubes in rounded clusters two to three inches across and are highly attractive to butterflies, bees, and other insects. One of my favorite native perennial pollinator plants is Stoke’s aster. Stoke’s Aster is low-growing with a basal cluster of dark green, lance-shaped leaves. The numerous, solitary, flower heads are 2-4 in. across, with deeply divided purple rays and very prominent purple florets from the disc. Trying any of these beautiful plants in your pollinator garden. I am sure you will beeeee pleased with the results. I’m Eddie Smith, and I will see you next time on Southern Gardening.