Planting Guide for your native pollinator garden
Use the arrangement below to have a continuous garden - spring, summer, & fall
6’
3’
Spring
Summer
Fall
BLOOM SEASON
For best
results, use
multiple plants
of each species.
New England aster
nicholas tonelli
bee balm
usfs
foxglove beardtongue
usfws-rachel sullivan
wild geranium
chelsi burns
white wood aster
fritz flohr reynolds
butterfly milkweed
usfws-rachel sullivan
cardinal flower
thomas barnes
Eastern red columbine
aaron carlson
Joe Pye weed
james gaither
NORTHEAST REGION
CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV
Arrange plants with different seasonal blooms in your plot.
Dig holes twice as large as each plant’s pot.
3 Plant!
1 Identify your garden spot:
Find a 3’ x 6’ plot that gets 6+ hours of sun.
Have a larger area? Include more choices and clump the same
species together.
Remove or smother existing lawn or vegetation.
Enhance hard-packed soil with organic compost.
2
Buy plants at a local native plant nursery, if possible.
Remove the plant from the pot, loosen the roots, place it in
the hole, backfill, tamp soil, and water.
Mulch plot to depth < 1 inch, keeping mulch away from
stems and avoid using hardwood chips and shreds.
Water to keep moist throughout the first two weeks,
then as needed or when plants droop.
Weed as needed.
Avoid using insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides.
4 Maintain your garden:
Be patient - your garden may take a few years to fully
establish and fill in!
Follow these steps to create your beautiful native pollinator garden
Add your garden: www.millionpollinatorgardens.org
NORTHEAST REGION
CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV
All three images in this table are NPS photos.
BLOOM
SEASON
NATIVE PLANT OPTIONS
Your state’s native plant society can recommend additional locally
appropriate native species. See North American Pollinator
Protection Campaign Ecoregional Planting Guides for additional
information: www.pollinator.org/guides.
color dots above indicate bloom color
SEASON
FIRST OPTION SECOND OPTION
Spring
Eastern red columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
squirrel corn
Dicentra canadensis
wild geranium
Geranium maculatum
wild lupine
Lupinus perennis
foxglove beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis
golden ragwort
Packera aurea
Summer
common milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
butterfly milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa
beebalm
Monarda fistulosa
woodland sunflower
Helianthus divaricatus
Joe Pye weed
Eutrochium fistulosum
narrowleaf mountain mint
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
Fall
white wood aster
Eurybia divaricata
cardinal flower
Lobelia cardinalis
gray goldenrod
Solidago nemoralis
wrinkleleaf goldenrod
Solidago rugosa
New England aster
Symphyotrichum
novae-angliae
white turtlehead
Chelone glabra
wild lupine
mountain
mint
white
turtlehead
