7 Pollinator-Friendly Gardens to Inspire Your Summer Borders

1. Cottage-style border in the United Kingdom. This overflowing bed in Hampshire bursts with cottage-style garden blooms in a classic pastel color palette of lemon yellow, lavender and pink. The showiest flowers are pollinator-friendly, including masses of beebalm, yellow yarrow, purple catmint and mounds of lavender farther back along the stone patio.

2. Bursting with blooms in Ohio. Layers of colorful perennials, flowering shrubs and billowing ornamental grasses make for a standout backyard pollinator garden in Cleveland. Growing nectar- and pollen-rich flowering plants that bloom at different times can be a great way to ensure that you always have something to enjoy in the garden and that pollinators have a steady food source.

Consider this mix of plants that feature successional bloom times: Spring-blooming salvias, late-spring blooming lavender, summer-blooming beebalm and catmint and late-summer into fall-blooming coneflower and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.

Plants in this garden bed include:

• Beebalm (Monarda sp.)
• Coneflower (Echinacea sp.)
• Salvia
• Hydrangea
• Ornamental grasses

3. Wild garden in New York. This pollinator garden bordering woodland in New York provides a colorful landing spot for native birds, bees, butterflies and other insects. The designer used a mix of North American natives like beebalm and coneflower and introduced species like bluebeard — a bee magnet — and butterfly bush.

Plants in this garden bed include:

• Coneflower (Echinacea sp.)
• Bluebeard (Caryopteris sp.)
• Beebalm (Monarda sp.)
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia, USDA zones 5 to 9) find your zone
• Butterfly bush (Buddleja sp.)
• Ornamental grasses

4. Colorful urban garden in London. To wild birds, bees and butterflies, this lush, colorful flower garden in East London looks like a safe, food-rich haven. While the designer used some evergreens for structure and reserved room for a small patch of turf, the majority of garden bed space was reserved for pollinator-friendly plants like ‘Blackbird’ penstemon (a hummingbird favorite), bee-attracting ‘Caradonna’ sage, pink masterwort and ‘Rozanne’ cranesbill.

Plants in this garden bed include:

• ‘Blackbird’ penstemon (Penstemon ‘Blackbird’, zones 8 to 10)
• ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, zones 4 to 9)
• ‘Rozanne’ cranesbill (Geranium ‘Rozanne’, zones 4 to 9)
• Bush morning glory (Convolvulus cneorum, Zone 8)
• Masterwort (Astrantia major, zones 4 to 7)

5. Desert oasis in Arizona. Providing a reliable water source for wild birds, bees and insects is as important as choosing plants that will help provide them with food sources. The designer of this arid garden in Arizona laid out beds to include two sources of water: a shallow birdbath and a recirculating urn fountain.

Low-water, desert-friendly plants include bee- and butterfly-favorite lantana and red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora), which has tubular pink flowers that hummingbirds favor.

See birdbaths and outdoor fountains

6. Native plant garden in Northern California. Drifts of California native flowers, such as lavender-blue Cleveland sage and foothill penstemon, create a colorful, low-water border in this Northern California backyard centered around a wooden gazebo.

It’s easy to make the mistake of writing off native plants if you have a small garden border and want lots of color, but there are plenty of garden-sized, beautiful native bloomers for every region that also offer benefits to wildlife.

7. Lavender corridor in the United Kingdom. Even a formal ornamental garden creates an opportunity for using pollinator-friendly plants. In this garden in Surrey, the designer laid out symmetrical rose beds on either side of a stone walkway leading to a garden room. Instead of using the classic choice of boxwood, the designer edged the beds with dozens of bee-friendly lavender plants.

Find a landscape designer near you

Houzz readers: Which plants do pollinators love to visit in your garden? Upload your best photos in the Comments.

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