I'm also 8a in the piedmont.

For seeds check out sow true seeds from asheville. They take online orders and will ship. Planting from seed is doable, but note that a lot of native pollinator friendly plants should be planted in the fall. Ideally you would get deep plug trays for starting native perennials, but they can be spendy/hard to find.

The university of north carolina charlotte botanical gardens holds a spring and fall plant sale that is a great opportunity to get some harder to find stock. They aren't exclusively native plants, but they habe a better variety of natives than any nursery I've been to.

Things that I've had good luck with and pollinators love: Native perennial: coneflower, butterfly bush, milkweed, black eyed susan, high bush and rabitteye blueberry bushes, passionfruit, raspberry, common daisy, a variety of asters(these bloom when everything else is dying off in the fall and are absolutely covered in pollinators), phlox, mountain laurel(very sensitive to site selection), red bud, blazing star (liatrus), plum, strawberry, holly, mock-orange, some types of hydrangea, clover, dead nettle, magnolia, joe pye weed, meadow rue

Non-native: hibiscus, sweet chestnut(I see so many pollinators on the chestnut catkins and the deer love the nuts, but the burrs are crazy sharp and the catkins smell... funky. Still one of our favorite trees.), rosemary, roses, chaste tree, lilac, japanese pussy willow

Things that do well that I love, but I don't see loads of pollinators on: azalea, camellia sasanqua (great for oct-dec blossomss), camelia japonica(dec-march blossoms), pieris (can be a little finnicky to get established), daffodils, tulips, gladiolus, crocus, saffron crocus, gardenia, dahlia, asiatic lillies, daylillies, iris, bluebells, helleborus, calla lilly, forsythia, peach, hals hardy almond, rhododendron (some are native, but I think most varieties in nurseries are not), yoshino and kwanzan cherry, myrtle, hosta, bottlebrush, fig, rose of sharon

Things I try and fail to elliminate, please never plant them: english ivy, wax leaf privet, english privet, tree of heaven, mimosa, japanese honeysuckle, periwinkle, autumn olive

I tend to focus on perrenials, but when you're starting out, don't be afraid to buy cheap trays of annuals. They fill in space quickly and can bring a lot of life to an area that would take a long time for perennials to fill in.

Don't trust my labels on what is native or not. They aren't well researched.