14 Great Annuals for Pollinators
Butterflies, hummingbirds, songbirds and bees add wonderful movement and great interest to our gardens. Attracting these winged friends to your garden is a fairly simple matter. Provide them with food, water and shelter and they are happy to come and stay awhile. There is a wide palette of plants that will work for both your garden and pollinators.
One of the best things about gardening with annuals is that your plants can change every year. You can go red, orange and yellow one year and decide that pink and purple suits you best the next. Since you are replanting each year anyway, annuals are a great way to get creative and try new things. Over time as you try out different plants, you’ll learn which annuals both you and the winged critters love. You’ll get a great range of colors, flower shapes, sizes and types to consider and see what appeals most to you.
LARGE FIRECRACKER PLANTIf your porch, patio or window boxes are located in full blazing sun, this is the plant for you. This vigorous annual thrives in heat and doesn’t mind if the soil dries out a bit now and then. Its cigar-shaped flowers keep right on coming from spring into fall atop the bushy, green foliage. Try pairing it with the Luscious® Goldengate™ Lantana which thrives in the same conditions. Hummingbirds adore it. 18-28” tall x 12-24” spread. Full sun |
BUTTERFLY FLOWERYou’ll love the vigorous growth of this improved Gaura. Though it is petite by Gaura standards, it holds its own as a flowering thriller for mixed containers and in landscapes where its plentiful pink blooms will appear all season long. Gaura is heat and drought tolerant and requires little maintenance to thrive all season. It is attractive to butterflies. This variety is perennial in zones 6-10. 14-20” tall x 12-18” spread. Full sun. |
GLOBE AMARANTHThis is such a fun plant! It is loaded with small, fluffy pink flowers with yellow-orange stamens and it blooms like crazy in the heat. Gomphrena blossoms attract pollinating bees and butterflies which add color and movement to your garden. This is a fairly large plant that shines best in landscapes, but you could also use it as a filler in large container recipes. 22-28” tall x 22-26” Spread. Full Sun. Perennial in zones 9-11, grown as an annual elsewhere.
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SUNFLOWERSuncredible® Yellow Helianthus hybrid Sunflowers are great cut flowers and Suncredible Yellow is perfect for the home cut flower garden. The plant has multiple stems and will bloom for weeks on end. The flowers are 3 to 4 inches in diameter and are the perfect size to use in cut flower arrangements. If I had to pick a flower emblematic of summer, I’d choose the sunflower. Who doesn’t love cheery yellow sunflowers? These heat loving plants are quite appealing to both bees and butterflies.
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LANTANALuscious® Royale Red Zone™ Lantana 12-26” tall x 12-24” spread. Full sun. |
SWEET ALYSSUMThe pale yellow flowers of this beautiful new sweet alyssum are the perfect color for Easter, fairy gardens and moon gardens. It is a great component in combination recipes and works wonderfully in the landscape as well. While you may be used to sweet alyssum blooming mostly during cooler spring weather, Proven Winners’ varieties all have good heat tolerance and will bloom all summer in most climates. They attract both butterflies and bees. 8-12” tall x 18-24” spread. Part sun to sun. easy, this is the plant for you. |
EGYPTIAN STAR FLOWERSunstar® Red Pentas lanceolata Pentas flowers are umbels created by a multitude of small flowers. Because the flowers are massed together, they create a big splash of color, while giving hummingbirds many tiny flowers to sip from. These richly colored, tough plants love the summer heat and will bloom all summer long. They are great when planted in landscapes as well as when used in containers. Pentas attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. |
SALVIARockin’® Playin’ the Blues® Salvia hybrid We’ve taken this popular super-sized salvia and made its awesome flower power even better. Bright violet blue flowers emerge from purple calyxes which hold their color after the flowers are spent, giving the illusion of being in bloom over a longer period. New flower spikes continue to emerge all season long above the bushy, bright green foliage, even in the hot, humid conditions of the deep south. This plant is the perfect thriller for large containers and a fantastic vertical element for landscapes. Pollinating bees, butterflies and hummingbirds will delight in its flowers from spring through fall. 2-4’ tall x 2-3’ spread. Part sun to sun. |
SALVIAUnplugged® So Blue™ Salvia farinacea If you want to see pollinators in your garden, plant a salvia. This new selection is a nice large blue salvia, forming a dense, bushy clump of silver green foliage topped with true blue flowers all season. Butterflies, hummingbirds and bees delight in their sweet nectar. Planting this medium-sized annual is a quick way to get a lot of color in your landscape in a short amount of time. It works great as a thriller in medium and small container combinations too. 14-24” tall x 12-16” spread. Part sun to sun. |
BIDENSIf your porch, patio or window boxes are located in full blazing sun, this is the plant for you. This vigorous annual thrives in heat and doesn’t mind if the soil dries out a bit now and then. Its deep orange and yellow bicolor flowers keep right on coming from spring into fall atop the bushy, green foliage. Try pairing it with the Luscious® Lantana which thrive in the same conditions and attracts a multitude of pollintors. Campfire attracts bees. 12-18” tall x 18-24” spread. Full sun. |
CALIBRACHOASUPERBELLS® RISING STAR™ Calibrachoa This cheerful Superbells is fun to mix with just about any other color in containers, hanging baskets and window boxes on a sunny porch or patio. Each magenta-pink bloom has a creamy white star pattern. They appear on cascading stems from spring to fall without having to remove the spent flowers, so use it as a filler or spiller. Calibrachoa grows best in containers with good drainage, so make sure there's at least one drainage hole in the bottom. Attracts hummingbirds. 6-12” tall x 12-24” wide. Part sun to sun. |
CANNA LILYTOUCAN™ Coral Canna x generalis If you love the look of tropical plants but need one that is as easy to grow as a petunia, try our Toucan™ Cannas. They grow quickly to make bold thrillers in your large containers and thrive in the landscape too. Their more manageable size makes them more proportional and easier to pair with other plants in combination containers. Cannas flower like crazy all summer in warm climates where they love the heat, and are grown more for their bold foliage in northernmost climates where they bloom late in the season. Toucan™ Coral bears tropical salmon pink flowers that attract pollinators atop its lush green foliage. It appeals to butterflies. 30-48” tall x 18-24” spread. Part sun to sun. |
PETUNIASUPERTUNIA® Royal Magenta™ Petunia Improving on one of the longest standing varieties in our lineup wasn’t easy, but we’ve found a look-alike that grows stronger with a nicer shape and greater flower power. Magenta blossoms with a black throat are extremely eye-catching in combination containers paired with other dramatic colors like black and chartreuse. Expect outstanding all-season performance without having to remove the spent flowers, even in hot, humid climates, like all of our Supertunia petunias. Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. 6-12” tall x 18-24” spread. Part sun to sun. |
PHLOXINTENSIA® Red Hot Phlox drummondii We’ve found the ideal plant to include in your patriotic flower pots and window boxes. This amazing plant is covered in true red flowers from early spring through fall without having to remove the spent blooms. Its mounding shape and vigorous growth makes it a fast filler for hanging baskets, upright containers and landscapes. This species of Phlox is extremely tolerant of sun, heat, humidity and drought, so it withstands the heat of summer with ease at a time when some other plants might struggle. Grow it like you would a succulent, but expect fantastic flower power, too. Attracts butterflies. 10-16” tall x 10-16” wide. Full sun. |
Want to learn more about pollinator plants for the garden? Check out these links:
- Explore Plant for Birds and Butterfly Bushes on Pinterest.
- Find more plants for pollinators on our Idea Boards.
- Browse plants in our plant library that attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.