When it comes to landscaping, adding pollinator appeal isn’t just the “bee’s knees.” Pollinator gardens offer beauty, structure, and even cut flowers, too! Designed to attract bees, butterflies, and birds, pollinator plantings support your local wildlife and bring an ever-changing display of blooms and colorful foliage right to your doorstep. As with any landscape, however, stressing about where to start can bring that sensation of butterflies in your stomach!
That’s why we’ve taken the buzz-y work out of planning to share this colorful, creative pollinator garden that’s ready to roll out in your yard! Southern Living® Plant Collection and Plant By Number have teamed up to create a vibrant, pollinator-friendly landscape plan that’s as easy to install as it is impactful. With thoughtfully selected plants and a clear, beginner-friendly design, the Pollinator Paradise garden plan is perfectly suited to the Southern landscape and easy to tailor to your specific zone or sun exposure.
We recently rolled out the Pollinator Paradise plan in a curbside garden in Tennessee that was stuck in bad traffic: a tangle of low-growing weeds and unplanted soil meant it was frequently clipped by cars and trucks backing out of the driveway. The homeowners dreamt of an eye-catching landscape with bright colors to clearly distinguish the bed from the paved driveway and blooms to make their space a haven for wildlife. The Pollinator Paradise plan was put into action in three easy steps!
Step 1
We selected a garden plan specifically for pollinators with its mix of nourishing plants and supportive habitats. The plan’s brilliantly-hued shrubs not only lend color to the landscape season after season, but they also offer shelter during the colder months of the year:
- ‘Sunshine’ Ligustrum – This lemony-hued, non-invasive variety adds year-round brightness and contrast without requiring pruning.
- Diamond Spire® Gardenia – A standout gardenia plant with captivating fragrance, long-lasting white gardenia flowers, and unique upright form. This evergreen beauty thrives in warmer zones and adds elegance and pollinator value to any garden. In colder areas, Encore® Azalea Autumn Lilac® can be substituted for its lavender blooms and cold hardiness to Zone 6a.
- White Wedding® Hydrangea – This compact hydrangea delivers crisp white, long-lasting blooms and holds up well to full sun.
- Purple Daydream® Dwarf Loropetalum – An evergreen shrub with deep purple foliage and bright pink spring blooms, offering bold year-round color.
- Suntastic™ Pink Abelia – A compact evergreen with brilliant variegated foliage and petite trumpet blooms that brighten the landscape and serve as a magnet for pollinators.
The pollinator party doesn’t stop there! To fill in the borders and spaces in this garden while the larger shrubs mature, we added:
- Evercolor® ‘Everest’ Carex – A shade-tolerant, evergreen groundcover with arching green-and-white blades, ideal beneath the afternoon shadow of a tall holly.
- Little Lucky™ White Lantana – All summer long until the first frost, this compact lantana will produce clusters of white blooms that attract butterflies and bees – and bonus, it’s deer and bunny-resistant!
Step 2
Printed on high-quality landscape fabric, the Plant By Number Garden Map shows where each plant is optimally placed. Circles ensure appropriate spacing so the plants don’t crowd one another when they mature to their full size.
With the shrubs perfectly spaced on the mat, the garden guesswork is done in a snap!
Step 3
Now for the fun part – planting! Cut holes at the center of each “X” for perfect placement of the plants. Left in place, the landscape fabric of the Garden Map will also serve as a weed barrier as the garden bed grows. Finally, a layer of mulch gives the bed a finished look and helps keep the plants hydrated!
With an oasis for buzzing bees and beautiful butterflies now in place, every season will support vibrant new life in this once ho-hum landscape.
Ready to grow your own? Check out all of our Southern Living® Plant Collection x Plant By Number Plans today!