A pollinator garden is helpful in so many ways. Sitting and watching the various pollinating insects and birds can be both calming and soothing. Watching their industrious and methodical gathering of nectar can be a great stress reliever. Pollinator gardens also help to maintain important insect populations.
Bees pollinate more than 130 different food crops and 90% of flowers worldwide. With dwindling bee populations, creating spaces for these outstanding little workers to have a safe, insecticide-free place to refuel is more important than ever. Monarch butterfly populations have also been dwindling, and while neither is considered an endangered species yet, many organizations are providing habitat for monarchs, bees, and other at-risk pollinators.
Constructing a pollinator garden doesn’t have to be a huge task. I just love a pretty raised bed garden overflowing with flowering plants. And since many of the top pollinator plants are fast multipliers, containing them makes maintenance so much easier and less time-consuming.
With Memorial Day right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to build a patriotic pollinator garden. There are loads of red, white, and blue flowers that are frequented by pollinators.
In fact, blue is a favorite color for bees, and hummingbirds and butterflies often favor red flowers. Throw in some white accents for depth and contrast, and you will have a wonderful patriotic garden that will bring the pollinators far and wide.
Pollinator Garden Basics
There are a few important keys to building a successful pollinator garden. If you want to draw butterflies, especially, there are specific types of plants that will not only bring them to feed but keep them coming back to lay eggs as well.
This is the most necessary component in a thriving pollinator garden. Flower nectar is the main food source for bees and butterflies, and it provides hummingbirds with the energy they need to forage for insects. Nectar has a high sugar content, and some types of nectar actually improve butterfly fecundity (which means more butterflies).
If you want to keep the butterflies returning to your garden, planting their host plants is a surefire way to make that happen. Each butterfly has one or two plants that serve as larval food, and it is on those plants that they lay their eggs.
You don’t usually plant these host plants because they are pretty. For the better part of the summer, they will be short on foliage. But these plants are what make it possible for butterflies to safely go through their entire lifecycle right in the comfort of your garden.
Having a water source is vital for keeping pollinators happy. If you live near a pond or lake or already have a birdbath nearby, these are great water sources. If not, think about adding a small water feature to your garden.
I use hanging birdbaths filled with river rocks to provide water for my honeybees, and they really appreciate it on hot summer days. All pollinators need water to quench their thirst and cool themselves. If your garden has one on hand, there is no reason for them to look elsewhere.
Most popular pollinator plants prefer full sun, and they produce the most flowers with this type of exposure. Try to choose a spot that gets a lot of sunlight early in the day. The morning sun offers all the same benefits without the harsh heat of afternoon sunlight.
It’s a good idea to include a variety of plants, particularly ones that bloom at different times. The ideal pollinator garden will have blooming flowers continuously through the spring, summer, and fall.
Pollinators expend a ton of energy flying around collecting nectar. If they find a place where they can collect a lot of nectar without having to fly around a lot, they can conserve energy, and they will continue to choose that place to feed.
Think about keeping many plants close to one another. Using a raised bed makes this easy, which is another benefit of this type of gardening.
There are tons of plants that feed bees and butterflies. Honeybees, in particular, are not native to the United States, so they have no specific need for native nectar. This is not the case for butterflies.
Butterflies tend to thrive best in spaces where they have access to native plant species. Butterfly host plants are usually native species. Adding native species of plants to your pollinator garden means less work in the long run, as many of these plants are reseeding or perennial and adapted to your specific climate.
This is integral to maintaining a healthy pollinator garden. Most pollinators are insects, so using insecticides will harm and potentially kill them.
Red Flowering Pollinator Plants
To start off, pick a pollinator plant with red blooms. The following plants have beautiful red flowers and will attract many different types of pollinators to your garden – butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds, to name a few! But be forewarned, red won’t bring most bee species to your garden as they cannot see that color; we’ll have other flowers meant specifically for them later.
Scarlet Beebalm
Botanical Name: Monarda didyma
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: June-August
- Height: 2’-3’
- Zones: 4-9
This member of the mint family is more appealing to hummingbirds and butterflies than honeybees because of its color. Most honeybees don’t see red, so it appears black to them, which indicates danger. However, it’s quite beneficial to a few native bee species that do see red!
Beebalm has fragrant foliage and brilliant crimson tubular flowers arranged in tufts. These tufts resemble fireworks, and they will bloom just in time for the 4th of July.
Salvia x ‘Maraschino’
Botanical Name: Salvia x ‘Maraschino’
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: 3’
- Zones: 6-10
Most types of Salvia have long and prolific blooming seasons. This hybrid, a cross between Salvia greggii and Salvia microphylla, begins in early summer and blooms through the fall.
It is cold hardy and produces bright red flowers on tall spikes that attract many hummingbirds. It is fast growing and flowers freely. This pollinator-friendly plant is quite drought-tolerant as well.
Rajin’ Cajun Ruelia
Botanical Name: Ruelia elegans ‘Rajin’ Cajun’
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: May – First Frost
- Height: 12”-16”
- Zones: 8-10
Rajin’ Cajun is a flower powerhouse. In USDA zones 9-10, it can almost bloom year-round if the temperature doesn’t drop below 28 degrees. However, in hardiness zone 8, it is a perennial that dies back in winter but comes around in spring and blooms early and for a long period. In much of the rest of the US, it’s grown as an annual.
Hummingbirds and butterflies love this long-lasting nectar source. While not a native plant in the US (it’s native to Brazil), it’s a common sight in pollinator gardens because it has the tubular flowers that hummingbirds love most!
Red Clover
Botanical Name: Trifolium pratense
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: May-August
- Height: 2”
- Zones: 4-11
Red clover is a prolific bloomer that is food for bees and butterflies alike. Clover is a nitrogen fixer, so it enriches the soil for other plants, making it a very desirable plant for the pollinator garden.
In addition to being a nectar plant, it is also one form of larval food for the Eastern Tail Blue and Common Blue Clouded Sulphur butterflies. While native to Europe, Asia, and part of the African continent, it is widely naturalized in the United States and is a common cover crop choice!
Common Poppy
Botanical Name: Papaver rhoeas
- Plant Type: Annual
- Bloom Time: April -June
- Height: 9”-18”
- Zones: 2-10
It wouldn’t seem right to leave out the Common Poppy while discussing a Memorial Day garden project. After all, these flowers have held a special place in the Memorial Day tradition for more than 100 years.
They are also very appealing to pollinators as both an ample source of nectar and pollen as well. Although they are annuals, they freely self-seed, making them likely to reappear each year. These are not a native species in the US, but they are extremely popular plants and widespread in the garden trade.
White Flowering Pollinator Plants
There are a number of different pollinator plants that bloom with beautiful white flowers. The following are some of our favorite white blooming pollinator-friendly plants added you can add to your pollinator garden.
Wild Carrot
Botanical Name: Daucus carota
- Plant Type: Biennial
- Bloom Time: Spring-Fall
- Height: 1’-4’
- Zones: 3-9
Also known as Queen Anne’s Lace, wild carrot is one of my favorite cut flowers. The lacy clusters of flowers are a good source of pollen and nectar, making them popular among most types of pollinators. Their delicate, fernlike foliage adds a nice textural effect to the garden and is also a larval food for the black swallowtail butterfly.
Zinnias
Botanical Name: Zinnia
- Plant Type: Annual
- Bloom Time: Late Spring – First Frost
- Height: 6”-4’
- Zones: 3-10
Zinnias come in many colors, but if you’re looking for a striking white flower that demands attention, zinnias fit the bill. These easy-to-grow annuals have a long blooming season. Beginning in the late spring, they can flower until the first frost. Bees and butterflies both love zinnias for their abundant nectar.
White Yarrow
Botanical Name: Achillea millefolium
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: April – October
- Height: 2’-3’
- Zones: 3-9
Yarrow is another delicately beautiful plant that comes in several colors, but we will talk about the white variety for our list. Their fernlike foliage provides visual interest in the garden and readily produces clusters of tiny, nectar-rich flowers. Yarrow is drought-tolerant, and bees and butterflies love it!
White Coneflower
Botanical Name: Echinacea purpurea
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: 18”
- Zones: 3-9
Coneflowers are easy-to-grow perennials that are great for pollinators. While the purple variety is the most popular among bees, these pretty white coneflowers resemble daisies and are really quite pretty.
They thrive in hot weather, are drought tolerant, and attract many bees and butterflies. In addition to pollinators, finches love to eat the seeds left behind after their flowers fall.
White Swamp Milkweed
Botanical Name: Asclepias perennis
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer
- Height: 1’-2’
- Zones: 3-9
Swamp milkweed is another native milkweed that will have the monarchs showing up in droves. I have several varieties of milkweed in my garden; this is always the first one to get eaten down to sticks in the spring.
You don’t plant milkweed because it is beautiful, you plant it because monarch butterflies are beautiful, and where there is milkweed, there are butterflies. However, the flowers are quite pretty while in bloom, although the plant itself can have a weedy appearance!
Sweet Almond Bush
Botanical Name: Aloysia virgata
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: up to 15’
- Zones: 8-11
The Aloysia genus is a favorite of mine, and the pollinators, too! Here in the Southeast, Sweet Almond Bush, or Aloysia virgata is a popular variety that grows to about 10’ tall in my zone (8), but south of here, it can survive the winter and eventually grow to 15’ and can be trained into the shape of a tree.
It’s a lovely shrub with panicles of fragrant, white flowers that bloom through the summer and fall. I never see this plant without bees on it, as long as it is in bloom. The fragrance of the flowers is very strong and has the scent of fine, almond-scented soap, where it gets its common name. A native of Argentina, this plant is very popular in the US!
Cow Parsnip
Botanical Name: Heracleaum maximum
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: May and June
- Height: 7’
- Zones: 4-10
It would be easy to confuse this plant with wild carrot, as they come from similar plant families, and their flowers are very much alike. Cow parsnip will grow larger, though, and the flowers have a slightly different arrangement. They are not quite as delicate as wild carrot flowers.
Pollinators love this plant. It draws all types of bees, moths, butterflies, and beetles. It is an exceptional source of nectar.
Blue Flowering Pollinator Plants
Blue flowering plants are perhaps the most tricky. There are not a lot of “true blue” flower types. The following plants have hues of blue, and are all pollinator-friendly.
Smooth Aster
Botanical Name: Symphyotrichum laeve
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Fall
- Height: 1’-3’
- Zones: 3-8
Smooth Aster is one variety of this pretty pollinator favorite that also happens to be blue! Asters, in general, tend to be favored by pollinators like bees and butterflies. In my garden, blue Asters are a favored nectar plant of monarch butterflies. They reseed freely, so in a year or two, you will have plenty of this plant to go around.
This is also the birth flower for those born in September, which tends to be their best blooming month. Mine are already blooming in May, so they have a nice long blooming season. In addition, they are one of the larval foods for the pearl crescent butterfly.
Blue Flame Salvia
Botanical Name: Salvia pachyphylla ‘Blue Flame’
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer
- Height: 2’
- Zones: 5-9
Blue Flame Salvia technically has flowers that are blue and purple, with the purple being the dominant. But they do have a blue cast to the large flower spikes, and since they are so attractive to pollinators, we will add them to the list. True blue flowers can be difficult to find, but those in the blue-violet color family are plentiful.
Salvia are wonderful pollinator plants. They attract many different types of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. They also spread quickly, so planting them in a contained space, like a raised bed, will help to keep them concentrated in one area and more manageable.
‘Blue Flame’ is a popular cultivar, but the species itself is referred to as mountain desert sage and is native to much of the southwestern US.
Anise Hyssop
Botanical Name: Agastache foeniculum
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Spring – First Frost
- Height: 2’-4’
- Zones: 3-8
Another personal favorite, anise hyssop is not actually a form of anise. It’s actually a herbaceous perennial in the mint family. It has fragrant leaves and spikes of fuzzy, pale blue flowers that are irresistible to bees of all kinds. These are very easy to grow, requiring little to no maintenance once they are established.
Anise hyssop freely reseeds but is not invasive as it doesn’t spread by rhizome. In its second year, you will see many small baby plants popping up around the parent plant. They are simple to pull up and can be replanted easily. This is a late spring/early summer bloomer that will continue to flower through the fall and that draws in butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds.
Starflower
Botanical Name: Borage
- Plant Type: Annual
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: 3’
- Zones: 3-10
This true blue flowering plant has many different uses. Borage flowers freely, and the flowers produce nectar throughout the entire life of the bloom, which is only about one day, but it makes them very attractive to bees.
The color of these flowers, paired with their sheer abundance, makes this a wonderful addition to the pollinator garden. The plant blooms for about two months, and can produce 1,000 flowers on a single plant.
Honey bees and bumblebees both love borage. It is a self-seeding annual, so the parent plant dies each year, but many plants will spring up to replace it next year.
Pincushions
Botanical Name: Scabiosa
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Spring – Fall
- Height: 12”-15”
- Zones: 3-7
Pincushions come in several colors, including a gorgeous periwinkle blue shade that would be perfect for your Patriotic Pollinator Garden. These members of the honeysuckle have a unique appearance and, naturally, plenty of sweet nectar.
With colorful, round blooms that seem to float on the ends of thin, graceful stems, you will certainly enjoy watching these blooms bounce around under the weight of bees. They are loved by butterflies as well, but bees are drawn to these pretty flowers from miles away!
Bachelor’s Buttons
Botanical Name: Centaurea cyanus
- Plant Type: Annual
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: 1’-3’
- Zones: 2-11
Also known as cornflower, bachelor’s button is a wonderful, easy-care annual that freely reseeds. It grows well in zones 2-11, and is native to Europe, although it has been naturalized here in the United States.
The blooms are bright blue with a deep blue center, so they are highly visible and appealing to bees of all kids. They also provide food for butterflies and goldfinches.
Porterweed
Botanical Name: Stachytarpheta
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer, Year Round in Florida
- Height: 4’
- Zones: 8-10 (Annual elsewhere)
If there is one plant in my garden that consistently brings hummingbirds to the yard, this is it. They love this plant’s sweet nectar so much they don’t even mind me sitting nearby to watch. Bumblebees as well seem to flock to this plant. By the end of the summer, there is a bounty of small blue blooms at the end of every stem.
Porterweed is supposed to be perennial in only zones 9-10, however, mine dies to the ground in zone 8 and comes back every year bigger than the year before. It’s a nice, sturdy, low-maintenance plant that doesn’t spread, so it’s easy to manage.
Bluebeard (Blue Mist)
Botanical Name: Caryopteris x clandonensis
- Plant Type: Perennial
- Bloom Time: Summer and Fall
- Height: 3’-4’
- Zones: 5-9
These true blue bloomers are a great addition to the pollinator garden. They get to be about 4’ tall and wide, so give them a starring role in the bed, and come midsummer, they will produce tons of tiny, blue flowers that will have the entire pollinator crew visiting your garden.
Bluebeard is attractive to honeybees, bumblebees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. It blooms into the fall, providing an excellent and important food source for pollinators. While a hybrid rather than a native plant, these captivate a wide array of pollinators and bring them in abundance!
Final Thoughts
Planning and planting a pollinator garden doesn’t have to be a labor-intensive or time-consuming project. Creating a raised bed pollinator garden can be a one-day project that will bring years of enjoyment. What better time is there to create a beautiful patriotic pollinator garden than Memorial Day weekend? You can create a no-fuss, stunning pollinator paradise that will have red, white, and blue blooming through Veterans Day and beyond.
