The essentials you’ll need attract pollinators to your garden. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Rather than dyed sugar water in feeders, give hummingbirds the real stuff: nectar. They do love red, so move more towards the pink-purple palette, including tubular flowers that are well-suited for their long beaks and tongues. Try cardinal flowers, fuchsia, lantana, petunia, and salvia.
Butterflies are attracted to red, orange, and yellow flowers, and they tend to go towards open blooms. Try butterfly bush, coneflowers, zinnias, and black-eyed Susan’s.
For your nighttime pollinators, moths and bats, they will need blooms that come out at night. Try wild honeysuckle, pinks, evening primroses, clematis, and flowering tobacco.
Bees are extremely versatile and varied, so there is plenty to choose from. Fruit trees and berry bushes are a great start. They also love different types of culinary herbs. Coneflower, nasturtiums, and sunflowers are other edibles to plant.
Providing fresh water is important too. Something as simple as a birdbath or a nearby stream, or a garden pond. Anything with easy access.
Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.