Great Pollinator Plants for Tennessee - Native Picks for Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds
Tennessee stretches from Mississippi River bottoms to the Plateau and the Smokies, which means a long growing season and a huge menu of native plants that fuel bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects. The recipe is simple and friendly to any yard size: go native, stack bloom from spring through fall, match plants to sun and moisture, and skip pesticides. Everything below is distilled from the Southeast native list and tailored for Volunteer State gardens.
Whether you garden in Memphis heat, Nashville neighborhoods, or Knoxville hillsides, you can build a pollinator corridor with the plants below. Use these quick picks as building blocks and mix freely to extend bloom and structure.
These sun lovers power the summer engine and keep color rolling into fall
| Native Plants | Southeast, Tennessee, United States |
|---|---|
| Attracts | Birds, Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Bees |
Morning sun plus afternoon shade is perfect for these bloomers
Slow and sink stormwater while feeding wildlife
Hot, lean soils need plants that love it rough and dry
Monarchs and queens need milkweeds for caterpillars plus a rich nectar bar for adults. Mix several species to match your conditions.
Aim for overlapping, tubular blossoms from spring to fall and give bees broad landing pads in the same bed. Add a few shrubs and vines to create flight lanes and windbreaks.
Flowers get the headlines, but structure turns a bed into habitat. Add grasses for nesting and perches, shrubs for cover and early bloom, and keep a brushy corner for winter shelter.
Blend early, mid, and late bloomers for a seamless runway of nectar and pollen. Try this high impact mix for a typical sunny Tennessee border.
About a 10 by 14 ft bed. Repeat in blocks for larger spaces and weave shrubs along the edges.
Mix long blooming wildflowers with shrubs and grasses. Great picks from the list include purple coneflower, black eyed Susan, wild bergamot, spotted beebalm, gayfeather, goldenrods, asters, ironweed, mountainmint, buttonbush, coral honeysuckle, and little bluestem.
Choose 3 species per season. Spring – beardtongue, spiderwort, lanceleaf coreopsis. Summer – coneflower, gayfeather, wild bergamot. Fall – wrinkleleaf goldenrod, smooth blue aster, blue sage. Plant in clumps of 3 to 5.
Coral honeysuckle, wild bergamot, beardtongue, mountain azalea, and cardinal red tints from rosemallow. Add Chickasaw plum for very early bloom.
Mountainmints, beebalms, sunflowers, coreopsis, partridge pea, asters and goldenrods. Provide continuous bloom and some bare soil for ground nesters.
Host plants include passionflower for gulf fritillary, various trees and shrubs like Chickasaw plum for early nectar, and all three milkweeds listed for monarchs. Nectar mainstays include coneflower, ironweed, Joe Pye weed, buttonbush, and gayfeather.
Yes. Favor natives like aquatic milkweed, butterfly milkweed, and redring milkweed. Avoid tropical milkweed or cut it to the ground every winter if it sneaks in.
Pick 8 to 12 species that match your sun and moisture. Plant in generous clumps so pollinators can navigate easily, and include larval host plants like milkweeds and passionflower if you want to raise the next generation of butterflies. With Tennessee natives you are building a living pantry and a nursery, not just a pretty border. Have fun, keep notes on what blooms when, and add a couple of new species each season to widen the buffet.
Updated: November 2025 • Reviewed by Gardenia Editors
Kev Chapman, Flickr
| Native Plants | Southeast, Tennessee, United States |
|---|---|
| Attracts | Birds, Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Bees |
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Becoming a contributing member of Gardenia is easy and can be done in just a few minutes. If you provide us with your name, email address and the payment of a modest $25 annual membership fee, you will become a full member, enabling you to design and save up to 25 of your garden design ideas.
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