The Best Perennials to Add Around (or
in) Your Vegetable Garden
Adding a few perennial pollinators to your vegetable garden border can really get your garden buzzing. There are so many reasons these flowers made this list. But lush, easily accessible nectar and pollen sources paired with beauty and easy growth were baseline qualifiers.
These plants bring in pollinators, they add beauty to the garden, and all plants listed here are Minnesota native (unless you ask the DNR, then Yarrow is still in the ‘undecided’ category), unless noted so they are quite literally at home in your garden. But really, pollinators are looking to get nectar and anything you plant will help them. There are just a few that do really well here in the Midwest that I want to share.
At this point in the season, we can see where our gardens have some holes. We likely know where we want to fill in or add another layer of color or texture. This is a great time to add perennial pollinators to your mix!
Milkweeds –
Asclepias syriaca
These plants hold a special place in any pollinator lover’s heart because of their direct symbiotic relationship with Minnesota’s struggling State Insect, the Monarch butterfly! I love the common milkweeds shape and form in my garden, which may explain why I let it compete with my potatoes, and the flowers are spectacular! Weed is part of the name 😉 But, with the milkweed comes the monarchs.
Both hunting for eggs and caterpillars and watching them grow in the garden and bringing them inside to raise is part of our routine. Swamp Milkweed is more often suggested for garden use as it is slightly less invasive and the monarchs love them just as much. Our plants just showed up once I started digging our garden beds- so I figure they’re supposed to be there! Here’s an earlier post all about Raising Monarchs with my kids.
Meadow Blazing Star – Liatris Ligulistylis
My Meadow Blazing Star creates this magical draw for ALL the butterflies and bumbles in August, but the Monarchs hold rein here! My boys patiently wait for the monarchs to gather so they can walk underneath them and just “BEE” with them.
“It blooms primarily in August, just when the Monarchs are preparing for their long migration south; a synchronization that has evolved over hundreds of years, and a good example of how native plants and pollinators are deeply dependent on one another.” – From the Prairie Moon Nursery website.
Blue Giant Hyssop – Agastache Foeniculum
Agastache was such a revelation to me. I’d heard of Anise Hyssop, giant Blue Hyssop, Lavender hyssop, but never seen it ‘doing its thing’ until a walk through a friend’s garden and WOW! This pollinator MAGNET is at home in the perennial border, the herb and veggie garden, and the prairie. She’s a true multi-tasker, attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds (I’ve had hummingbird moths visit ours as well!) with its long bracts of flowers. Its leaves make a delicious licorice tea that soothes throats—if you can bear to take away blooms from the insects… A very hardy Minnesota Native, it even boasts deer resistance!
I seeded mine and the plants were off and running first year. I’ve been getting tall flowy stalks of blooms since the second year. The free flowing form and solid later summer nectar make this a natural addition.
Bee Balm – Wild Bergamot – Monarda Fistulosa
With a name like Bee Balm it has to be good. 😉 Well, all the pollinators certainly agree this is one of their favorites. I have a large swath of native bee balm next to the path leading to my vegetable garden, and I dubbed it the pollinator runway (see photo below). All kinds of pollinators are drawn to these beauties—including the hawk moth!
These plants will take over an area, so be ready to pull out the babies that will pop up from underground runners. I rarely throw any plants away, though, usually just tucking them into a spot a little further away or back, adding to my pollinator radius. They have a shorter bloom time than the hybridized varieties of monarda—but some of the hybrids don’t have viable nectar sources for pollinators, which kind of defeats the purpose, right! I’ve got a list of verified pollinator-friendly stores towards the end of this story.
Yarrow – Achillea Millefolium
MN Native and besides bringing in the bees, it also accumulates nutrients, great for growing under fruit trees. It also has those special umbel-shaped flowers which attract so many beneficial aphid eating insects (lacewings to parasitoid wasps). You can also use it as a tea and compress for inflammation. The flowers come in an array of colors, the most common being white, ranging to bright yellows to pinks. Blooms June to September.
Comfrey – Symphytum *Non Native*
This may be a lesser known perennial, but it is making a fast and furious comeback due to its widespread use in permaculture gardens. The sweet little umbels of blue, then purple, then fading to white bell-shaped flowers emerge from a large (mine is over 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide) plant that attracts bees by the hoards. The leaves contain a chemical that jumpstarts composting when added to the compost heap that are most potent if clipped before the blooms open. It is an easy plant to tend that grows almost anywhere, with little disease and no pest issues. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory. Comfrey is toxic if ingested, so even though I have used it on myself I can’t recommend it here. 😉 Non-native from Europe and Asia.
Perennial Pollinators I’m Adding this Summer
Smooth Blue / Sky Blue Aster – Symphyotrichum / oolentangiense
Native to dry fields and open woods these aster take over in the late summer, blooming August through October. I’m adding these to extend my pollinator season a little further. I got a variety that’s close to this froma frien’d raing garen gone crazy, but I’ll grab a few of the Sky Blues this summer.
Who’s Missing?
Where’s the Coneflower (echinacea)?? Well, while I do see tons of pollinators on mine, I think of these as more of a bird flower—as the finches go nuts for the seeds every fall. They are a beautiful multi-tasking plant too.
Where’s the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)? This is also a great perennial pollinator plant and, honestly, I just had to draw the line somewhere. 😉
Where’s the False Indigo (Baptisia)? This is not often mentioned as a pollinator plant, but with this LARGE plant and all its blooms, it brings in the bumbles like mad.
Perennial Pollinators WITHOUT Neonicotinoids
Here’s a short list of my favorite places to buy local, chemical-free plants for pollinators:
There have been tomes written about pollinators and helping plant habitat. My favorite valuable pollinator sites are the Xerxes Society and our local Pollinator Friendly Alliance.
If you’re interested in digging deeper into your native flowers, check out our local chapter of Wild Ones native garden club.
As I was collecting my thoughts on these plants, I kept noticing that many of the perennials that the pollinators are also loved by humans. I get such a kick thinking about flowers + bees + humans all evolving together to be mutually beneficial on this beautiful earth! Let’s see if we can’t be as beneficial as our pollinators someday.
What Are Your Favorite Perennial Pollinators?
Everyone has their own list of favorites flowers… our tastes grow from of a generous friend giving you a plant, memories of grandma’s garden, or maybe you were inspired by a photo on Instagram or in a magazine… I’d love to know, what are your favorites and why? Are you adding any flowers to your vegetable patch this season?
Dig In!
Michelle
