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The Four Layers Every Pollinator Garden Needs! - Plant for Pollinators!

  • 11 hours ago
  • 3 min read
Orange coneflowers with two bees on a bloom, against a blurred green garden background.
Echinacea is a champion in any pollinator garden, and comes in endless colors and textures!

Welcome back to Bountiful Gardens! Joe here, and now that we’re cruising into June, it’s time  to celebrate Pollinator Month by planting for all those crucial critters that keep our world buzzing! 

Sunlit garden bed with pink and white native flowers among dense green shrubs and leafy plants.
Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) layered into our Native display

But what’s the secret to the perfect pollinator garden? One word: layers! 

Pink Echinacea coneflowers and yellow Rudbeckia bloom in a lush green garden, with sunlight and a stone planter at right.
Echinacea, Rudbeckia and Monarda in a native cottage garden setting

A few scattered perennials may offer a quick snack, but a well-layered native garden provides pollinators with both the food AND the habitat they need to thrive for generations to come. 

White dogwood blossoms fill a lush garden, with a brick house and green lawn in the background.
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), providing a canopy to the rest of the garden

For our first layer, we’re starting at the top, or in this case, the canopy. 

Red Buckeye flower clusters and glossy green leaves in a lush garden, with a stone bench and path in the background
Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia), reaching out along a woodland path

Native trees like Flowering Dogwood, Redbud, Buckeyes, and Black Cherry offer pollinators essential early-Spring sustenance and a shady retreat from the Summer heat. 

Sunlit suburban garden with pink flowering dogwood trees, trimmed shrubs, and a white house in the background.
Pink Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), providing a focal point in the Spring landscape

For us, they serve as visual anchors in the landscape, guiding the rest of your plantings. 

Sunlit Ninebark shrub with white blossoms and burgundy leaves against a blurred green lawn.
Our native Ninebark (Physocarpus) blooming in a late Spring park

Moving down a bit, now we’re in our second layer, the understory. This is where you’ll find shrubs like Itea, Clethra, Ninebark and Viburnum, which start blooming in late Spring and Summer after the canopy leaves unfurl. 

Lush green Clethra branches with clusters of white buds against a soft blurred woodland background.
Summersweet Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), reaching out to bloom from under the canopy

Our native shrubs are absolutely relied upon by bees and butterflies each year, and they even serve as host plants for a vast array of native caterpillar species.

People browse colorful Perennials at a garden nursery.
Our perennial selection is unmatched!

The third layer is where the real magic happens–we’re talking perennials! 

Bright scarlet bee balm flower amid purple wildflowers and green leaves in a sunny garden, with a lush blurred background
Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma), waiting for its next hummingbird guest

New Jersey is home to an endless array of native perennials both you AND pollinators can count on year after year from Spring through Fall. 

Dense field of yellow black-eyed Susans with dark centers blooming against lush green foliage.
A swath of Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) in full bloom

By planting with bloom times in mind, you can orchestrate your own seasonal symphony and watch the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds dance across your Summer swaths of Echinacea, Black Eyed Susan and Beebalm. 

Colorful annual flower market with rows of pink, yellow, and orange blooms; blurred shoppers browse in bright sunlight.
Bring an instant splash of color to any garden with our enormous selection of annuals!

Finally, we’re down to our fourth layer, annual plants!

Colorful garden bed of purple-blue annual Salvia flowers and bright green leaves, with blurred red and pink blooms in the sun.
Annual Salvia is the go-to for hummingbird superfans.

While you’re waiting for your favorite perennials to bloom, you can add instant nectar sources to any gaps in the garden with hummingbird magnets like Salvia, Cuphea and Lantana. 

Colorful purple, pink, and orange Cuphea and Lantana flowers bloom in a sunny garden nursery with lush green foliage.
Cuphea and Lantana are beloved by butterflies, hummingbirds and more!

Annuals provide the perfect finishing touch to the landscape, and keep pollinators coming back through the first frost. And you’re not going to find a better selection anywhere but here at Bountiful Gardens. 

Sunny garden filled with white Penstemon flowers, green foliage, and red-tipped plants under a blue sky.
Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), providing some height to the perennial layer of our native display

So there you have it–if you want to plant for pollinators, plant in layers, and whenever possible, plant native!

White landscaping van with green garden logo and text, parked by shrubs; overlay reads Landscape Services and Submit a Landscaping Inquiry Now!
Don't put it off any longer--get your landscape pro

If you’re feeling daunted, we’ll do the work for you! Just fill out a landscape inquiry form on our website to get your project started today. 


 
 
 

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