Fall is my favorite season in the garden. The cooling air and increase in rain make everything perk up after the sweltering summer. For pollinators, it’s a busy time that they spend preparing for winter. If you want to keep pollinator populations strong, plant some fall flowering plants to help them out in autumn.
There are many types of pollinators. In addition to bees and butterflies, this group includes bats, beetles, birds, and wasps, among other various insects. Winter looks different for each of these animals, but for all of them, fall nectar is an important key to survival.
Tiny hummingbirds store up fat for the winter, so they eat a lot during this time. In winter, they feed on insects and tree sap. Many bees hibernate, rationing out the nectar and pollen they store during the fall. Butterflies have different methods of surviving winter, with some migrating and others overwintering in their larval or pupal stages.
One thing they all have in common is the need to feed capaciously in the months leading up to winter. If you’ve noticed that you don’t have many fall bloomers, I’d love to share some wonderful pollinator plants you can add to your garden. Let’s look at how we can give back to these tiny garden helpers in their time of need.
Black-Eyed Susan
Violet Queen Salvia
Violet Queen Salvia Seeds
Crimson Clover Cover Crop
Crimson Clover Cover Crop Seeds
Goldenrod ‘Fireworks’
Goldenrod is a fall-blooming pollinator plant native to most of the United States. In all but a few North Eastern states, it grows wild, which means it’s incredibly low-maintenance. It’s also simply stunning, with a fringe of tiny yellow flowers topping each stem.
Honeybees collect a lot of pollen and nectar from goldenrod. Interestingly, the honey that results has an odd smell, so most beekeepers gladly leave it on the hive for the bees. This makes excellent food for the colony through the winter dearth. Other pollinators appreciate the abundance of nectar, too.
In most places, goldenrod begins blooming in August and continues until November. Some cultivars bloom up to the first frost. ‘Fireworks’ is one such variety, and it has a unique and spectacular form. Rather than tall spires, this goldenrod has a shrubby growth habit and looks like a big yellow firework.
Black-Eyed Susan
You will find Rudbeckia on many fall-blooming pollinator plant lists. In most places, it is, but I have a note for my fellow Zone 9 gardeners. Rudbeckia is a perennial that pops up earlier in the year here. It blooms through the summer but burns up before the fall unless you give it a lot of water. Elsewhere, it will begin flowering during the summer and continue until frost.
Rudbeckia is always hopping with pollinators when it blooms. Those cheery yellow flowers are exceptionally attractive. I find that native bees are especially fond of these flowers. I love to see the little green metallic sweat bees on their dark brown disc. ‘Black-Eyed Susan is the most common, wild-growing variety. It self-sows beautifully.
New England Aster ‘Purple Dome’
New England aster is another great fall flowering plant native to the United States. It’s a great nectar source; many bees use it as a late-season food source. It grows well in moist soil and produces large quantities of purple blossoms through the fall months.
Blue and purple are bees’ favorite colors. They have different vision than we do, without receptors for the color red, which appears black. They do have receptors for ultraviolet light that we lack, which makes shades in the blue family very appealing to them.
Asters can be pink, white, purple, or blue. If you want to attract and feed more bees, choose a purple variety like ‘Purple Dome.’ Most pollinators will be just as pleased with the other colors.
Coneflower ‘PowWow Wild Berry’
Coneflowers appeal to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds—everyone’s favorite elusive pollinators. Their spiky, nectar-rich cones are a bullseye in the center of brightly colored ray petals.
In cool climates, these usually finish their season in September. In warmer climates, they are a good fall food source. They like well-drained soil and plenty of sunlight.
You can deadhead these to collect seeds, but make sure to leave a few intact. Overwintering birds love to eat the seeds. PowWow ‘Wild Berry’ is a prolific bloomer that flowers more robustly than most varieties.
Salvia ‘Violet Queen’
Salvia is a sturdy perennial that blooms for a significant period of the year. Depending on your climate, it may start in late spring to early summer and continue until frost. The brightly colored, tubular flowers are popular with hummingbirds and bumblebees.
Salvia is easy to grow, and some types can be aggressive spreaders. ‘Violet Queen’ is a smaller variety that minds its own garden space. It has an abundant supply of bright violet flower spikes. It also blooms in the first year from seed, and deer won’t bother it.
Crimson Clover
Crimson clover is a wonderful plant that doubles as pollinator food and a fall cover crop. When you clear out your annual beds at the end of summer, sow these seeds there. They are nitrogen fixers, so they help replenish the soil for next spring.
Here is the catch: to feed the pollinators, you’ll need to let your clover flower. If it flowers, it goes to seed and will readily self-sow. If this is a problem in your beds, try planting some in a section of your yard where shade prevents grass from thriving.
Crimson clover grows nicely in partial shade; it prefers these conditions. It blooms throughout the fall and is frost tolerant, so it will stick around all winter in mild climates. Further north, you can grow it annually.
Sweet Almond Bush
What is that incredible fragrance? It’s sweet almond bush, of course! The tiny white flowers on this shrub smell like fine almond soap. It throws a lot of scent, too! You won’t be the only one to enjoy it—sweet almond bush draws bumblebees like no other.
Sweet almond bush needs warm winters. It won’t survive the temperatures north of Zone 8. You can grow it elsewhere as an annual, but it won’t grow as large. In Zones 8-9, it dies in winter and grows over spring. Mine are in full bloom from August until the first frost. If there’s daylight, it is teeming with bumblebees and honey bees.
Anise Hyssop
Anise hyssop is an early fall bloomer that will finish up in September or October, depending on your climate. This member of the mint family has aromatic leaves that smell similar to anise. However, the plants are not closely related. It will spread by rhizomes and self-seeding, so keep an eye on it and keep it in check.
Like many herbs, this herb has edible leaves. The flowers are nectar-rich and attractive to pollinators. Some newer hybrids have white or pink flowers, but the original has lavender blossoms. If you leave the seed heads intact, overwintering birds will appreciate them.
Blanket Flower ‘Goblin’
Blanket flower, also known as Indian blanket, is a cheery little native perennial plant that produces large, brightly colored flowers beloved by pollinators through summer and fall. They typically bloom from summer well into the autumn. The plant needs well-drained soil and doesn’t mind poor and sandy soil types.
Bees, butterflies, and wasps all enjoy the nectar this plant produces. The gaillardia flower moth, or Schinia masoni, is named for the plant. It utilizes this perennial as a host, laying eggs on it. The larvae feed on the foliage. It’s also a host to the painted schinia butterfly. ‘Goblin’ is a popular variety that flowers in the first year.
Coreopsis ‘Double Sunburst’
Coreopsis are pretty little perennials that are highly cold-tolerant. In Zone 9, they are evergreen, as they tolerate a light freeze and, in some cases, a moderate one. They don’t mind the heat, either. They begin to bloom between spring and summer and will continue until frost, sometimes beyond.
‘Double Sunburst’ is a fancy variety with double-petal form. They are drought-tolerant and won’t mind high humidity, either. In terms of pollinators, when I go to the nursery, these always get the most butterfly attention. They can’t get enough!
Lantana Gem™ ‘Ruby’
Lantana is another mint relative with aromatic foliage. The brightly colored flower clusters are nectar-rich and attract various pollinators. European bees (honey bees) are the primary pollinators of lantana. It forms a small shrub and blooms prolifically through summer and fall.
The tubular blooms are also appealing to butterflies and hummingbirds. They appear in small umbels, which make a convenient landing pad for flying insects. Gem ‘Ruby’ has ruby-red blossoms with orange and yellow accents.
Catmint ‘Walker’s Low’
Catmint, also a member of the mint family, is a flowering herb that is more appealing in the pollinator garden than in the kitchen. Its leaves are aromatic but not very flavorful. Most folks grow it as an ornamental perennial.
Catmint is a huge bloomer with purple flowers, so you know the bees love it. Its season lasts from late spring into the fall months. Some varieties grow quite tall, but ‘Walker’s Low’ tops out around two feet tall. It’s great for creating a shrubby, colorful border.
Verbena ‘Lollipop’
Verbena is low-maintenance and nectar-rich. It adapts to different soil types and tolerates dry weather well. Verbenas are a favorite for butterflies and are perennials in warm climates. You can still grow verbena in cooler climates, but it will not survive the winter.
If you plant verbena from nursery starts, it can bloom from planting until a hard frost. ‘Lollipop’ is a tall variety that can, and often does, self-seed. It is heat tolerant, so there is no dormant period in the summer. This plant will feed the pollinators from spring to fall.
Sedum ‘Mr. Good Bud’
Sedum, commonly called stonecrop, is a fall-blooming succulent. Its fleshy leaves come in various shades of blue, green, red, and purple. The flowers are small and star-shaped, growing in clusters on the top of strong stems.
Due to their succulent nature, sedums are drought tolerant and don’t mind poor and sandy soil. They bloom from August to November, making them an excellent food source for pollinators in the fall. ‘Mr. Good Bud’ has mounds of deep pinkish-purple blooms throughout autumn.
Prairie Blazing Star
Prairie blazing star looks beautiful in the garden, with tall, leafy spires topped with purple spikes. Its tightly packed flowers are highly attractive to pollinators, especially butterflies. Prairie blazing star can grow up to four feet tall, making it a nice vertical element.
If you start prairie blazing star from seeds, they will typically bloom the second summer and fall. They’re done blooming by October but provide a good food source in early autumn.
