Pollinator Garden
Interested in a pollinator garden?
This “Best of the Best” plant list was put together by my native plants mentor, John. He has 50 years experience planting and tending native plants in our Chicago area. Years of observation have clued him in to the top pollinator attracting plants.
We have cultivated an area in the butterfly habitat at Plymouth Place Senior living that’s referred to as the Pollinator Living Library. If you’d like to schedule a tour, please contact me. If you’d like help planning your pollinator garden, just ask for a consultation. If you’re a Do-It-Yourselfer, go right ahead – feel free to use our “Best of the Best” list.
Salt Creek Butterfly Farm’s
Living Library of Pollinator Plants
Wildflowers | |
Common Name | Latin Name |
Anise Hyssop |
Agastache foeniculum |
Black-Eyed Susan |
Rudbeckia hirta |
Blue Sage |
Salvia azurea |
Blue Vervain |
Verbena hastata |
Brown-Eyed Susan |
Rudbeckia triloba |
Bush’s Poppy Mallow |
Callirhoe bushii |
Butterfly Weed |
Asclepias tuberosa |
Culver’s Root |
Veronicastrum virginicum |
Downy Wood Mint |
Blephilia ciliata |
Early Figwort |
Scrophularia lanceolata |
Early Goldenrod |
Solidago juncea |
False Aster |
Boltonia asteroides |
Foxglove Beardtongue |
Penstemon digitalis |
Golden Alexanders |
Zizia aurea |
Great Blue Lobelia |
Lobelia siphilitica |
Hairy Mountain Mint |
Pycnanthemum pilosum |
Lance-Leaf Coreopsis |
Coreopsis lanceolata |
Large-Flowered Gaura |
Gaura longiflora |
Meadow Blazing Star |
Liatris ligulistyus |
Mistflower |
Conoclinium coelestinium |
Nodding Onion |
Allium cernuum |
Northern Blazing Star |
Liatris scariosa |
Ohio Spiderwort |
Tradescantia ohiensis |
Orange Coneflower |
Rudbeckia fulgida |
Pale Purple Coneflower |
Echinacea pallida |
Partridge Pea |
Chamaecrista fasciculata |
Prairie Blazing Star |
Liatris pycnostachya |
Prairie Coreopsis |
Coreopsis palmata |
Purple Prairie Clover |
Echinacea purpurea |
Rattlesnake Master |
Eryngium yuccifolium |
Round-Headed Bush Clover |
Lespedeza capitata |
Royal Catchfly |
Silene regia |
Showy Goldenrod |
Solidago speciosa |
Showy Sunflower |
Helianthus pauciflorus |
Smooth Blue Aster |
Symphyotrichum laeve |
Spotted Bee Balm |
Monarda punctata |
Stiff Goldenrod |
Oligoneuron rigidum |
Swamp Milkweed |
Asclepias incarnata |
Sweet JoePye Weed |
Eutrochilium purpureum |
Western Indian Physic |
American Ipecac (G. stipulata) |
White Wild Indigo |
Baptisia alba |
Wild Quinine |
Parthenium integrifolium |
Wild Senna |
Senna hebecarpa |
Yellow Coneflower |
Ratibida pinnata |
Shrubs | |
Common Name | Latin Name |
Lead Plant |
Amorpha canescens |
New Jersey ea |
Ceanothus americanus |
Shrubby St. John’s Wort |
Hypericum prolificum |
Grasses | |
Common Name | Latin Name |
Canada Wild Rye |
Elymus canadensi |
Dudley’s Rush |
Juncus dudleyi |
June Grass |
Koeleria macrantha |
Little Bluestem |
Schyzachyrium scoparium |
Prairie Dropseed |
Sporobolus heterolepis |
Rough Dropseed |
Sporobolus compositus |
Side-Oats Grama |
Bouteloua curtipendula |