Honey Bee & Generalist Pollinator Garden Kit

A garden kit is a collection of plants pre-selected by our nursery to make gardening goals easy. This kit contains an exuberance of nectar plants with large clusters of florets useful to many pollinators, but geared toward honey bees and other generalist feeders.  For supporting specialist bees, please see our Specialist Bee and Pollinator Garden Kit.   
 
Honeybee kits contain a more select list of species and a greater number of each plant grouped together to attract pollinators and allow for more efficient feeding.  Plants are selected for all-season bloom time.  This garden kit is designed for full to part sun, medium soil.  It will contain 2 to 5 of each species (if a larger shrub is included, it may be just 1). 
 
A typical kit would contain the following mix of plants, but one way we keep the per plant costs low on garden kits is by reserving the right to substitute plants based on our current inventory. Your kit is likely to differ from the list below in exact species, however, the plants included will meet the stated goals of the kit, in this case, a full season of easy nectar plants. If you need specific plants for your garden goals, you can supplement your garden kit with quarts.
 
Pale Agoseris,
Lanceleaf Coreopsis,
Foxglove beardtongue or Wild Sundial Lupine,
Pale Purple or Purple Coneflower, 
Butterfly or Common Milkweed, 
Wild Bergamot,
Early, Giant, Pale-leaf, or Maximillian Sunflower,
Northern, Rough, Marsh, or Prairie Blazingstar,
New England Aster or Joe Pye Weed,
Smooth Blue or Northern Heartleaf Aster,
Early or Gray Goldenrod,
Showy Goldenrod.
 
If substitutions are necessary, they are likely to include Boneset, Mountain Mint, Ninebark, Meadowsweet, Grey Headed Cone Flower, Cutleaf Coneflower, Fireweed, Black-eyed Susan, Showy Coneflower, Common Yarrow, Blue Vervain, Swamp Milkweed, Hairy Goldenrod, Stiff Goldenrod, Sky Blue Aster, or others (they are called generalist pollinators for a reason!).  These plants are also recommended if you want to expand your garden.
 
This economical kit includes 38 plugs that fill 38 square feet at 1-foot spacing - a 4'x9.5' bed; or up to 86 square feet at 1.5 sq. ft. spacing - a 6'x14' bed. If you need to buy two kits to fill your space, check out our "buy one, get the second identical kit for 25% off" deal. 
 
A matrix plant to fill in around the other plants is recommended instead of mulch. Try a plug flat of Spotted Bee Balm, Wild Strawberry,  or Black-eyed Susans. All three grow fast and will fill in exposed soil but will allow themselves to be crowded out when the larger plants reach maturity.
 
Each kit comes with a planting guide, with bonus tips for a water source. The plants are individually tagged for identification and all tags include height so you can alter the layout to suit your space. Note that the picture here is an example of our plants in a plug tray. We don't have pictures of this actual mix in a plug tray yet and it will differ from the main picture.