Check out our tips for growing a high-quality pollinator garden with easy to find, easy to grow native plants.
Step 1: Plant Native Plants for Native Pollinators!
Native plants have strong relationships with wildlife, people, water, soil, and climate in local ecosystems. They support and thrive with native pollinators in a variety of ways, having co-evolved with these species over thousands of years. Native plants are also key to our food system by supporting the wild pollinators that sustain food crops. Several crop plants, such as tomatoes, melons, and blueberries, can only be pollinated by native bees, not domestic, non-native honeybees. (1)
Check out our Native Plant Sources List or buy a Healing Garden Kit to get started today!
Step 2: Plant a Pollinator Buffet: Nectar & Pollen
Nectar and pollen are important food sources for pollinators. These resources help pollinators gain the energy they need to carry on between resting spots and serve their important role in the ecosystem. Native plants in the mint family, such as Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum), are excellent nectar sources for butterflies and attract other insects due to their strong fragrance.
Step 3: Plant Host Plants
Many pollinators rely on specific host plants to complete their life-cycle. While some non-native species provide nectar for pollinators, native plants support both adult and larval stages. For example, Pussytoes (Antennaria spp.) and Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) are host plants for painted lady butterflies, and the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly. (2)
Step 4: Diversify Your Blooms: Colour, Shape, & Size
Planting species with blooms of different colours, shapes, and sizes will help attract a diversity of pollinators with different flower preferences. For example, hummingbirds like bright coloured flowers, often red, and prefer long, tubular flowers, such as Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Scarlet Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), and Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). Some insect pollinators, on the other hand, may prefer flowers that have a flatter, open shape with more surface area to land on, such as Oxeye Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) and Asters (Aster spp.).
Step 5: Year-Round Blooms
Choose a diversity of plants that flower at varying times of year. That way, you can support pollinators across the seasons by providing year-round food and habitat for a diversity of species. For example, Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) and Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus) have spring blooms, Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) and Ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata) bloom throughout the summer, and New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) and Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) bloom in the fall.
Bonus Step: Track Your Garden with In the Zone!
You can be a part of the collective story of healing the land and contribute to our growing impact.
If you’ve already got your hands dirty this season and added new plants or made improvements to make your property more sustainable and wildlife friendly, submit an In the Zone (ITZ) tracker!
Whether it’s your first time using the ITZ Tracker or if you’ve tracked your garden in the past, submitting a tracker will capture improvements, reflect changes, compile the most up-to-date data, and amplify your impact by adding your progress along with others creating habitat and supporting biodiversity.
Re-track your garden every season or after adding more native plants to ensure that you are awarded healthy garden points and sharing your great work across the Zone.
Submit a tracker and share your story and you could be the next ITZ Award winner! Let's plant even more native plants and help restore the land.
Track your Garden Today! In The Zone | Carolinian Canada
References
(1) The Economy of Hope: Growing Healthy Landscapes in the Greater Golden Horseshoe in Partnership with Native Plants. S. Winterton, V. James, S. Mullally, A. Hall, S. Weber, M. Kanter. 2024. Carolinian Canada Coalition.
(2) Graham Buck, for Carolinian Canada. Native Butterfly and Host Nectar Plants. https://caroliniancanada.ca/guide/article/native-butterfly-host-and-nec…