How to Choose Pollinator-Friendly Native Plants
If you're looking for pollinator-friendly native plants suited to your region, climate, and soil, our best recommendation is the Find Your Roots online plant selection tool from Pollinator Partnership Canada.
For many years, our friends at Pollinator Partnership Canada have researched native plant/pollinator interactions and published a series of Ecoregional Planting Guides to help gardeners, farmers, and habitat restorationists find the most appropriate species to plant. The Guides are available for free, and now you can search the databases behind these guides to make your own native plant lists based on your specific criteria.
Whether you are a farmer of many acres, land manager of a large tract of land, or a gardener with a small lot, you can increase the number of pollinators in your area by making conscious choices to include plants that provide essential habitat for pollinators.
Ecoregions - As Simple as a Postal Code
Temperature, rainfall, and soil types affect which plants will grow successfully. It's crucial to choose native plants that are adapted to your region. With Planting Guides available for 34 ecoregions it can be tricky to select the right one for you.
Fortunately, Pollinator Partnership Canada has made this easy. Just by entering the first three digits of your postal code, Find Your Roots gets you started in the right place.
Looking for Flowers? Trees, Shrubs? Maybe vines or shelter plants?
Find Your Roots has you covered with a wide selection of Plant Types. This is a tool for gardeners designing pollinator-friendly flower beds, but it's also for farmers designing shelter belts, landscapers designing commercial plantings, and restorationists re-establishing entire habitats.
Soil and Sun
Some plants will grow just about anywhere, but sometimes you have specific challenges that require just the right species. Filtering your native plant list according to sun and shade needs as well as the level of soil moisture (dry, wet, or in between) can make the difference between success and failure with native plants.
Flowers!
Find Your Roots even lets you choose which colours of flowers you'd like. Sometimes pollinators prefer certain colours, but even more important is the Bloom Season filter. All pollinators visit flowers to get food, and they need food for the whole season. That means they tend to be well-fed during mid-summer when many flowers are in bloom, but the food is more scarce in early spring and late autumn when there are simply fewer flowers.
If your pollinator planting has a gap in blooming for a certain part of the season, finding flowers to fill that gap can be one of the best ways to help your local pollinators. The Bloom Season filter is a great way to do this, and as a gardener who appreciates flowers, you'll enjoy seeing more blooms during that part of the season too!
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