Planting to Attract Pollinators

Flowers play a key role in our ecosystem because they attract beneficial insects to the garden. This is especially true of pollinators which help produce as much as one-third of our food. Each year we always grow and plant pollinator-friendly annuals and perennials throughout our vegetable garden. Aside from adding beautiful color and fragrance to our gardens, they help attract pollinators to our vegetable beds so they yield the most productive crops.

Here is a list of our 5 favorite plants that attract pollinators throughout the growing season.

Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia)

Lavender is a wonderful perennial plant that looks and smells wonderful, but is also great at attracting pollinating insects to the garden. While bees love lavender, its scent and oil helps to ward off unwanted insects, like fleas, flies, and mosquitoes.

Cosmos (Cosmos Bipinnatus)

Cosmos are a favorite of honey bees and native bees. Among the easiest flowers to grow from seed, they flower profusely throughout the growing season. Cosmos add color and texture to the garden. We prefer the Apollo and Sonata Series since they are lower growing and do not require staking. Aside from adding texture and color to the garden, Cosmos make great cut flowers.

Roses (Rosa Iceberg)

Typically roses require more care than we are able to provide on our working farm. However the Iceberg Rose, which is a shrub variety, requires little care and blooms profusely throughout the growing season. Iceberg roses are extremely fragrant and attract both honey bees and native bees. Iceberg is a very easy care variety that is nearly thornless and extremely disease resistant.

Cleveland Sage (Salvia Clevelandii)

Our favorite variety, ‘Winnifred Gilman’, is a rustic, rounded, aromatic selection of a California native with grey-green leaves and mounds of pale lavender-blue flowers on 18 - 24" stems. Cleveland sage is a prolific bloomer throughout the growing season. The leaves have a wonderful herbal smell and pollinators just love this plant. Cleveland Sage is a drought tolerant perennial that can grow up to 4-feet high and 8-feet in diameter.

Catmint (Nepeta Faassenii)

Our favorite variety, ‘Walker’s Low’, Catmint is an aromatic herb that is commonly grown in the garden. It produces profuse clusters of blue flowers amid mounds of gray-green foliage. Catmint is a spreading plant that is easy to grow. While Catmint attracts beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies, it also helps deter other pests in the garden like aphids and squashbugs.