Are their any plants that butterflies and/or bees NOT go to?
Or the smallest amount of pollen/nectar

I'm making my pollinating garden and want to know of which ones they avoid, or you DONT see them going to.

Thank you
Brenden

Big, showy flowers, generally, are less likely to be of interest to bees/butterflies. Stick with natives and things should go well!

Yes, they prefer natives and single blooms, NOT the double blooms of hybrid type flowers that make it difficult for them to get to the nectar and/or pollen.

An interesting question...I have tried to grow mostly native plants for the pollinators...odd thing is (and this is anecdotal...just 1 person's observations), this year the big, showy pollinators, i.e., the bees and butterflies seem to be in greatest numbers on the violets, dandelions and thistle!! I have VA bluebells, columbine, beardtongue etc. all the deer resistant plants I can think of and that are easily grown from seed yet the only pollinators I see consistently on these are, tiny wasps, assorted other small beetles and flies, and ants. So, grow the natives but if you really want to support the greatest number of species, keep your dandelions, the odd thistles (not Canada thistle!), common milkweed and mountain mint. In the fall, make sure you have some Solidago-goldenrods and asters! And...don't forget about the tiny pollinators

Good observations, whereami. I'll add that butterflies seem to enjoy "platform flowers" like coneflowers and zinnias Never see any on petunias. But the mist flowers are always busy with bees and butterflies!

They sure do. I have coneflowers, didnt even think about the butterflies, but they love them.

I love black and blue salvia, the hummers love it, but I do notice that every time the butterflies land on it, it just falls over, they just cant seem to get to the flower. Leaves more for the hummers !!

My black and blue salvia is always covered with bees.

Im trying to get more bees, so thats great to know.

Char, they may not go to the petunias you find at the big box stores, but surely you remember my Skipper that literally crawled into a Carolina Petunia (which is also a host plant for the Common Buckeye). Notice the bee in the first picture, too!



But I will say that daisy-like flowers are very attractive to butterflies. Blanket Flowers, Asters, Coneflowers, etc. Don't they call those kind of flowers "composites"?

Great photos, Melanie. Are those a wild petunia? The bugs and butterflies don't seem to like the native Laura Bush petunias. I grow them anyway because they're pretty.

Yup, they're a native petunia. Carolina Wild Petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis)

Thank you guys. Curious, have any of you ever tasted nectar on plants?
I did in a petunia and my hibiscus haha. I don't know how Coneflower has any, seems spiky and boring haha

Hi Brendan,

Yarrow, chives, aster and beebalm are all great for attracting pollinators also.

http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/re...

http://www.michigandnr.com/pub...

Haha, sort of ironic, chives give me hives.

My asters are about to bust open, cant wait. The flower I did not think anyone would like, but they darn sure seem too, is marigolds. I never thought of them as anything but to keep bugs off tomatoes