Pollinator Plants for the Southeast

As Digital Content Editor Christine Alexander explains, pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystem and we should all be doing our part to support their populations:

“Pollinators play an integral part in the food chain that we simply cannot replicate for impact. They affect all living things, from the green growing variety on up to us bipeds. There’s no beating around the bush—pollinators = food. So whenever you see a happy little bee nosing around your flowers, tip your hat and say thank you very much for their service.”

Whether you have the space to create an expansive, pollinator-friendly landscape or just enough room to pot up a couple plants that are pollinator favorites, we can all do our part in helping these beneficial bugs. A good place to start is seeking out the plants that support the pollinators native to our area. To aid in that search, we asked regional experts to share some of the best pollinator plants for their region. Below, you’ll find four picks for the Southeast. To learn even more about gardening for pollinators, check out Gardening for Pollinators: Everything You Need to Know and Grow for a Gorgeous Pollinator Garden.

Zones: 6–9

Size: 5 to 8 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide

Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to moist, well-drained soil

Native range: Southeastern China

I like the straight species of Chinese abelia mainly for its fragrant flower clusters, which are so heavy that they almost give the plant a weeping effect when it is in bloom from early to late summer. This is a bee and butterfly magnet, and it hums with pollinator activity during this time. After the flowers fade they are replaced by bracts that turn a soft pink (pictured); these hang on right up until we get a hard