Blooms in the October Garden

OCTOBER 2026

Oct 5

Keep the Garden Blooming for Pollinators

As the garden begins to slow down in fall, late-season blooms can provide an important final source of nectar and pollen for pollinators. Bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects are still active on mild autumn days, gathering the energy and resources they need to overwinter or complete their life cycles.

Keeping a variety of plants flowering for as long as possible helps extend the garden’s food supply. And when the blooms finally fade, consider leaving some stems, seed heads and leaf litter in place. These can provide valuable winter shelter and habitat for insects.

A slightly less tidy fall garden can be a much more welcoming one for wildlife. By helping pollinators make it through the colder months, you’re also supporting the population that will return to your garden in spring, just as your rhododendrons begin to bloom. More healthy pollinators mean more activity among the flowers, helping support the garden ecosystem that allows rhododendrons and their companion plants to thrive year after year.

Challenge yourself to identify these 30 October blooms; names are listed in alphabetical order, and the flowers’ photos are below. Which ones can you add to your garden?

Click on the image to enlarge it on your screen.

Achillea ‘Summer Wine’ /

Aconite / Monkshood

Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ / Bugbane or Baneberry

Allium tuberosum / Galic Chives

Calluna vulgaris / Summer heather

Caryopteris / Bluebeard

Colchicum autumnale album / White Fall Crocus

Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam' / Moonbeam coreopsis

Crinum x powelii / Swamp Lily

Cyclamen hederifolium / Cyclamen

Daphne odora / Daphne