Pollinator Garden Seed Mix

Wildflower seed mixes marketed for pollinator gardens are a mixed bag because the concept is good, plant native flowers to support declining bee and butterfly populations. Execution varies wildly depending on whether the seed company actually includes region-appropriate species or just throws in whatever is cheap. A good mix for the northeast includes things like black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower. Wild bergamot, and those plants bloom in sequence across the growing season so pollinators have continuous food from May through October. Generic mixes sold at hardware stores often include non-native species that look pretty but don't support local pollinator lifecycles. Some even contain aggressive growers that can crowd out the natives they are supposed to supplement. Planting a patch of lawn that becomes a functioning system is the right idea, but marketing has outpaced the science in most commercial products.