Favorite Pollinator-Attracting Plants

For our June 2010 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, we asked you to tell us your favorite pollinator-attracting plants.

 

Congratulations to our winners chosen at random:

• Annie Shaw of Greenbelt MD
• Madeline Caliendo of WDC
• Melissa Merideth of Bethesda, MD
• Katie Rapp of Gaithersburg MD
• Wendy Bruno of Silver Spring, MD

They each receive a pair of passes passes to the Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy live butterfly exhibit (each set has two passes and is a $12 value). Running daily through mid-September, from 10:00AM to 4:00PM, Brookside Gar¬dens South Conservatory will feature live butterflies. Come witness the butterfly life cycle as tiny eggs hatch into crawling, chewing caterpillars, which then encase them¬selves in jewel-like chrysalides and emerge as sipping, flying adult butterflies. Learn about the best annual and tropical plants, and hardy shrubs that are used as nectar sources to attract butterflies to your own garden.

 

So what did you tell us your favorite pollinator-attracting plants were?

 

(Here they are in descending order of number of mentions.)

 

~ Coneflower (Echinacea)

 

~ Milkweed

 

~ Butterfly Weed

 

~ Black-eyed Susan

 

~ Monarda

 

~ Lace-cap hydrangeas

 

~ Joe-Pye weed

 

~ Bottle Gentian

 

~ Native asters

 

~ Chaste tree

 

~ Trumpet vine

 

~ Honeysuckle vines

What is your favorite pollinator-attracting plant? Did we miss it on our list?