Planting A Pollinator Garden

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Planting A Pollinator Garden

It’s a great time of year to plant a pollinator garden. Honey and native bees do the bulk of the pollination in the orchard. If you want full crops of fruit you’ll need to help build up the pollinators in your area. Many of the native bees travel farther than 50 feet to a half mile to find food. Providing habitat and year round food for them will go a long way in making sure they will be in the orchard when you need them.

Create Habitat There are several factors that make a garden a welcoming place for the bees. It has been found that bees are strongly attracted to gardens that have a wide diversity of bee friendly plants; it’s best to have over 10 types. Planting a large patch of one type of bee plant will work better than a patch of mixed varieties. Patches at least 5 foot by 5 foot draw the most pollinators. Try to plant flowers that bloom at different seasons to provide a steady supply of food. Bees also need a source of water, such as a dripping faucet, birdbath, or large-leafed plants that collect rainwater.

Many of our best pollinators are native ground dwelling bees; these need open bare ground to nest in. Avoid mulching and tilling, which will increase your chances of having them close at hand to pollinate your orchard. Other native bees live in holes in wood. Leave dead wood and standing snags, drill holes in dead wood, and put out bundles of bamboo twigs of nesting pollinators.

Plants That Work There is a wide range of plants that make great bee plants; some are more attractive than others. Natives are by far the best as these are natural forage plants, but many of our colorful ornamental trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials make fantastic bee plants. The exception to the rule is plants that have been hybrizied to create double flowers these are hard for bees to work. Color plays a factor too; blue, purple, violet, yellow and white draw the most bees. Red is great for attracting hummingbirds, but looks like black to bees, so they are often not looked at as a good food source.

Undesirable Plants White Titi (Cyrilla racemiflora L.) often called summer titi is undesirable because the nectar and pollen are responsible for a condition known as “purple brood”, which kills the brood of honey bees. This plant should not be confused with spring titi which is found in the same areas, but is an excellent honey plant.

Yellow Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens (L.) Ait. f.) is a woody vine, which blooms February to March. It is toxic to honey bees and responsible for reducing colony strength.

Leave the Wild Plants Many common plants we think of as weeds are great bee forage plants. Be sure to leave wild areas within your garden. Some of these plants are the very best plants the bees exist on when the plants in your garden are no longer in bloom.

Here’s a list of some of the very best bee attracting plants that will grow well in the southeast.

Type	Bloom Season	Native	Plant Name
Tree	Early Spring	X	American Holly, Ilex opeca
Tree	Summer	X	Basswood Tilia
Tree	Summer	X	Cabbage Palm Sabal palmetto
Tree	Spring	X	Carolina Laurelcherry Prunus caroliniana
Tree	Summer	Â	Chaste Tree Vitex negundo L.
Tree	Summer	Â	Crepe Myrtle Lagerstroemia indica
Tree	Spring	Â	Fruit Trees citrus, apple, pear, peach, plum, all berries, persimmon, kiwi, mayhaw, loquat
Tree	Spring	Â	Jujuba Ziziphus jujuba Mill
Tree	Summer	X	Native Crabapple Malus angustifolia
Tree	Late Winter	X	Red Maple Acer rubrum L.
Tree	Spring	X	Redbud Cercis
Tree	Spring	X	Savannah Holly Ilex x attenuata ‘Savannah’
Tree	Summer	X	Sourwood Oxydendrum arboreum L.
Tree	Summer	X	Southern Magnolia Magnolia grandiflora
Tree	Spring	X	Spring Titi Tree Cliftonia monophylla
Tree	Summer	X	Sweetbay Magnolia Magnolia virginiana
Tree	Spring	X	Tuliptree Liriodendron tulipfera
Tree	Spring	X	White Tupelo Nyssa ogeche Bartr. ex Marsh.
Tree	Spring	X	Willow  Salix carloniniana Michx.
Shrub	Spring	X	Blueberry Vaccinium
Shrub	Summer	Â	Bush Clovers Lespedeza bicolor and L. thunbergii
Shrub	Spring	Â	Chinese Holly Ilex cornuta
Shrub	Spring	X	Fetterbush Lyonia lucida
Shrub	Spring	X	Gallberry Ilex glabra
Shrub	Summer	Â	Glossy Abelia Abelia grandiflora
Shrub	Summer	X	Gopher Apple Chrysobalanus oblongifolius Michx.
Shrub	Summer	Â	Privets and Ligustrums Ligustrum spp
Shrub	Summer	X	Saw Palmetto Serenoa repens
Shrub	Spring	X	Yaupon Ilex vomitoria
Ground Cover	Spring	Â	Clover Red and White Trifolium
Ground Cover	Summer	Â	Cowpeas Vigna unguiculata
Ground Cover	Summer	Â	Cucurbits cucumber, pumpkins, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe
Ground Cover	Fall	Â	Garlic Chives Allium
Ground Cover	Fall	X	Goldenrod Solidago microcephala
Ground Cover	Summer/Fall	X	Spanish Needles Bidens pilosa L.
Ground Cover	Winter	Â	Vetches Vicia
Vine	Summer	Â	Coral Vine Antigonon leptopus
Perennials	Fall	X	Aster Symphyotrichum
Perennials	Summer	Â	Basil Ocimum Majoram
Perennials	Summer	X	Beardtongue Penstemon
Perennials	Summer	Â	Bee Balm Monarda didyma
Perennials	Summer	X	Blanketflower Gaillardia
Perennials	Summer/Fall	X	Blazingstar Liatris
Perennials	Summer	Â	Catnip Nepeta
Perennials	Summer/Fall	Â	Cosmos Cosmos
Perennials	Summer/Fall	Â	Giant Hyssop Agastache
Perennials	Summer/Fall	X	Giant Ironweed Vernonia
Perennials	Fall	X	Goldenrod Solidago
Perennials	Summer	Â	Guara Gaura lindheimeri
Perennials	Fall	X	Joe Pye Weed Eupatorium
Perennials	Summer	Â	Mexican Sage Salvia leucantha
Perennials	Summer	Â	Mexican Sunflower Tithonia
Perennials	Summer	X	Milkweed Asclepias
Perennials	Summer	X	Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum
Perennials	Summer	Â	Oregano Origanum
Perennials	Spring/Summer/Fall	Â	Pincushion Flower Scabiosa
Perennials	Summer/Fall	Â	Pineapple Sage Saliva elegan
Perennials	Summer	Â	Purple Coneflower Echinacea
Perennials	Summer	Â	Rosemary Rosmarinus
Perennials	Summer	X	Rosinweed Silphium
Perennials	Summer	X	Sunflower Helianthus