We are happy to help. 

For your first question, we assume you are asking for possible alternatives to having a turf grass front lawn? There are many beautiful ways to do this and you will need to be sure to match your site conditions (amount of sun, soil, moisture, space) to the plants of choice.

This page from our website will help you plan and also has link to groundcovers to choose from:https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/lawn-alternatives

For your second question we may need more information on what you are actually looking for. We don't list plants by amount of pollen or nectar, but we can help you to find plants (especially natives) that are best suited to nourish and keep pollinators, butterflies, beneficial insects and hummingbirds supplied. Is that what you are hoping for?

These native plant resources are especially helpful: 

https://www.fws.gov/Chesapeakebay/pdf/NativePlantsforWildlifeHabitatandConservationLandscaping.pdf

From the MD Native Plant Society: https://mdflora.org/resources/Publications/GardenersGuidelines/Landscaping-Natives.pdf

and an interactive selector: http://www.nativeplantcenter.net/

For your third question, as far as pruning woody plants, the timing varies because all woody plants do not set buds in the fall. Some plants set flower buds on new wood produced each season while others will only bloom on old wood where buds were set last year. We assume that's what you were getting at, because if shrubs are pruned at the wrong time you could be removing the flowers for the following season. Dead, dying or diseased wood can be removed at any time of year.

Here is our shrub pruning publication, and let us know if you have questions on the timing of particular types of shrubs: https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/pruning-shrubs-and-hedges

Christine