National Pollinator Week was June 16-22.

By understanding the bloom color preferences of different pollinators, gardeners can choose flowers to draw them into the garden.

Generally, pollinators prefer brightly-colored flowers. The color of a flower is not its only attractive characteristic.

The flower’s shape, form, floral timing, depth of the corolla (collective ring of all the petals), amount of pollen and nectar, quantity of blooms and sometimes scent also play a role in bringing pollinators to plants.

Bees

Bees use their vision to find appropriate flowers.

Bees see color in combinations of blue, green, and ultraviolet (UV). They cannot see red, but they can see yellow and orange.

The flowers that bees are attracted to often appear violet-purple-blue, yellow, or white, or have petals that contain UV patterns.

Bees tend to prefer disk-shaped flowers that have easily-accessible nectar.

Some small and long-tongued bees like tubular flowers.

Butterflies

Butterflies have the broadest range of spectral vision of any insect or animal, from UV, violet, blue, green, through red.

The weakness of their eyesight is distance. They are near-sighted, seeing only up to 100 feet away.

Their blurry vision means that a large stand of color, such as a large drift of the same plant, will be more easily identifiable to butterflies.

Butterflies are attracted to bright colors such as red, orange, yellow pink, and blue-purple.

Butterflies need to land to feed, so specific shapes are critical, either large, flat flowers or flowers that are small but densely clustered.

Flies

Though they seem to get little attention, flies are the second most important pollinator after bees.

A variety of flowering plants are attractive to flies. They tend to prefer flowers that have open structures that are easy to access.

Blooms of white, cream, yellow and green are preferable.

Flies are not as efficient at pollinating as bees, but they are prolific.

Flies use their sense of smell to find food and can be found on flowers that are musty-smelling or smell like decomposing material.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds use their sense of color to find food. They can see the entire color spectrum from ultraviolet through red, and many combinations, like ultraviolet and red together.

The colors of flowers preferred most by hummingbirds are bright red, pink and orange. Yet, they can be found eating from flowers of most colors.

Hummingbirds prefer flowers that are tubular-shaped, such as columbine, trumpet honeysuckle, cardinal flower and wild bergamot.

Plant a large swath of the same plant to entice hummingbirds to your garden.

Color is one critical component of design. The good news is that your use of color to meet your design preference need not be mutually exclusive with meeting the goal of providing food for pollinators.

Choosing what works for you and your home-landscape combination can also work for a variety of different pollinators, including hummingbirds, bees, flies and butterflies.

“Growing Green” is contributed by Diane Dorn, Lehigh County Extension Office Staff, and Master Gardeners. Information: Lehigh County Extension Office, 610-391-9840; Northampton County Extension Office, 610-813-6613