What's Blooming Right Now? A Late Summer Pollinator Garden in Ohio
- Cathy Tiffany
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
As I'm writing this blog post, I can't believe we're already in mid-August. Kids are going back to school, it's getting darker earlier and I'm starting to feel like I'm losing my summer!
But, all hope is not lost. There are loads of flowers in bloom and to make things even better, the monarchs have arrived en masse: the magic is still flitting and buzzing around the yard!
Every season and month has its own flowers that bloom, and August is no different. I feel like August is actually when the yard is poppin' the most! Allow me to share with you some possibilities for Zone 6 (b)...
sneezeweed flowers
Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
☀️ Light: Full sun, though it can tolerate some part shade
📏 Height: About 3–5 feet
🦋 Attracts: Bees, butterflies and other insect pollinators. Despite that unfortunate name, the flowers aren't called sneezeweed because their pollen causes sneezing.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
☀️ Light: Full sun
📏 Height: About 1–3 feet
🦋 Attracts: Butterflies and other pollinators; the seeds are also valuable to birds later in the season.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade, with best flowering in sun
📏 Height: Usually 2–4 feet
🐝 Attracts: Bees, butterflies, beetles and other insects, plus goldfinches and other seed-eating birds if you leave the seedheads standing.
Blue Sage (Salvia azurea)
☀️ Light: Full sun is best
📏 Height: About 3–5 feet
🐝 Attracts: Bees and butterflies. Those gorgeous blue flowers are especially valuable in late summer and fall.
Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade
📏 Height: About 1½–3 feet
🦋 Attracts: Butterflies and other pollinators. One warning from the garden trenches: it can spread enthusiastically when it's happy.
Large-leaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla)
⛅ Light: Part shade to full shade, with best flowering in part shade
📏 Height: About 2–4 feet
🦋 Attracts: Butterflies and bees, and provides a valuable late-season nectar source.
Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium spp.)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade
📏 Height: Often around 5–7 feet, depending on species
🦋 Attracts: Butterflies, bees and other pollinators. This is one of those plants that can become an absolute pollinator party when it's blooming!
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade
📏 Height: About 4–6 feet
🐝 Attracts: Bees and butterflies, including monarchs; it's also a host plant for several moth species, and birds may eat the seeds.
Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade
📏 Height: About 3–10 feet, so this one can become a skyscraper
🐝 Attracts: Bees and butterflies; American Goldfinches eat the seeds, and its hollow stems can provide nesting habitat for native bees.
Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade, best in sun
📏 Height: About 2–5 feet
🐝 Attracts: Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and birds. It's an especially good nectar plant for bees.
Ironweed (Vernonia spp.)
☀️ Light: Full sun to part shade
📏 Height: Tall ironweed can reach roughly 3–12 feet, although size varies considerably by species
🦋 Attracts: Loads of bees and butterflies, and the dead stems can provide nesting sites for stem-nesting bees.
White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
⛅ Light: Part shade is ideal, though it tolerates full sun
📏 Height: About 3–5 feet
🦋 Attracts: Butterflies and other late-season pollinators. It's especially useful for adding blooms to shadier parts of a habitat garden.
The best and most economical time to plant these flowers is by seed, this fall, before the ground freezes. I like to spread seed in early October, after my flowers have died back and I can see where I may want to add or change something around. Native perennials need what's called cold stratification - a fancy way of saying it needs a cold snap to force the seed to break its dormancy and germinate. This is why oftentimes your perennial seeds don't sprout when you plant them in spring - they haven't had their "cold snap" and the seed can end up rotting. Second choice is by buying a plant and planting it in late spring. This is the more expensive way, but I've often forgotten to plant my seeds, or I just discover a plant and want it...so I buy it. No wrong choice here, I just want you to know the difference in timing so you don't waste your time or money.
These options aren't an exclusive list, and I've forgotten to add a few, but definitely and in general, what's blooming in our Ohio yard right now!
For more ideas, click HERE for the National Wildlife Federation's list for central Ohio (or you can add your zip code and begin a new search).
Happy planting!
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