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Name the top plants in your yard for bees.

Marty Mitchell

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posted 9 years ago

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Sharla Kew wrote:Hey everybody. I'm doing a series of images based on advice, etc. from the forms, and I did one from this thread! It's from the second (or third?) post in the thread.
Thanks, John!

That is Awesome Sharla!

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Destiny Hagest

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Location: Little Belt Mountains, MT

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posted 9 years ago

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Sharla Kew wrote:Hey everybody. I'm doing a series of images based on advice, etc. from the forms, and I did one from this thread! It's from the second (or third?) post in the thread.
Thanks, John!

Oh my, that is lovely! Simple, informative, eye catching, and I like that it used a permaculture theme that is actually pretty mainstream (disappearing bees issue).

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Vera Stewart

pollinator

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Location: 7b at 1050 feet, precipitation average 13 inches, irrigated, Okanagan Valley

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posted 9 years ago

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Yesterday I was out and there were small bees and a couple of big bumblebees having a fun time around the Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium.)
Sadly this is really all I have to offer them at this time.

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Marco Banks

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posted 9 years ago

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Simple question for me to answer:

African blue basil. I get tons of bees on it 12 months of the year. In fact, in the spring when I want my trees pollinated, I cut it way back because the bees would rather attend to the blue basil than my fruit trees.

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Joseph Lofthouse

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posted 9 years ago

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This week, the most popular flower for honeybees in my garden was breadseed flowers.

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Joshua LeDuc

pollinator

Posts: 208

Location: King William, VA

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posted 5 years ago

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My 10 foot tall hibiscus (rose of sharon) is completely loaded with all kinds of bees right now! I am enjoying watching the bumblebees burrowing down into the flowers and getting covered in yellow pollen!

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Benjamin Peterson

Posts: 3

posted 5 years ago

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Figwort, borage and comfrey for both honey and bumbles.

Krissa Lee

Posts: 10

posted 4 years ago

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Bronze fennel - all kinds of wasps, tiny beetles, honeybees, and swallowtail butterflies

Cornflowers, Lamb's Ears, Blackberries - lots of honeybees

Scabiosa Atropurpurea 'chile black' - seems popular with honeybees but is also the favorite for monarch butterflies right now

For sheer diversity of smaller pollinators, the native Coyote Brush on our fence line is the definite winner. I don't know what most of them are, but seems to be a good mix of tiny bees, wasps, flies, and even some beetles.

J Nuss

Posts: 58

posted 4 years ago

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I have this type of mint I call “fuzzy mint” that perfumes the air with the slightest touch. It grows about 3 feet tall, and when it’s in bloom it’s absolutely swarming with a myriad of species, it’s something to behold. I’ll take a pic and post it here later this year when it’s blooming

Casie Becker

gardener

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Location: Just northwest of Austin, TX

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posted 3 years ago

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Despite this photo, the squash isn't my top pollinators plant. Depending on the time of year I always have an abundance of native wild flowers and I always let my herbs flower. They seem to prefer tiny masses of flowers to big showy blooms like these. Even the sunflowers are actually masses of tiny flowers growing together.

I'd give you a sunflower photo if any had started blooming yet. We're nearly there.

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Marty Mitchell

gardener

Posts: 860

Location: Coastal Chesapeake, VA - Zone 7b/8a - Humid

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posted 3 years ago

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It has been a long while since I started this thread. Still learning!

I believe I have moved 5 times since the thread was started. Many different ecosystems.

At the new place here in Chesapeake, VA I have some very large fields that have been absolutely covered in white and red(pink) clover for a very long time along with the native flowers.

Because of this the bumble bee population has absolutely exploded this year!!! Now that my garden is in bloom…. I have bumble and honey bees absolutely everywhere. Along with Pensilvania soldier beetles and many types of solitary bees.

There has to be many dozens of bumblebee nests within their flight range. They are all over my clover, wall of cucumbers, wall of melons, and wall of scarlet runner beans.

I even caught two honey bee swarms in my single swarm trap this year. Awesome!

Also, my field borders are surrounded by Sour wood trees. I was about to order a bunch online to plant for the honey… but mot now. They are about $15 each online.

~Marty

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May Lotito

gardener

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Location: Zone 6b

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posted 3 years ago

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I didn't see anyone mentioning an old fashioned, easy to grow annual that bumble bees love: balsam!
It comes in many colors, flowering profusely, fast growing and self seed readily.

Other plants in my garden that bumble bees love are: red clover, partridge pea and luffa

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Anne Miller

steward

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Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 3 years ago

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I would have to say Two leaf senna, verbena, and mealy blue sage. Because these are the only plants blooming this year at this time.

So they are the only ones I can "Name the top plants in your yard for bees."

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Heather Staas

pollinator

Posts: 773

Location: Western MA, zone 6b

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posted 3 years ago

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Squash blossoms, hyssop, catmint, zinnia, lemon basil all very popular flowers with many larger type bees

"The world is changed by your example, not your opinion." ~ Paulo Coelho

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Elsa Hayden

Posts: 3

Location: Boston

posted 3 years ago

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HoneySuckle
Rose rugosa
Sunflowers
Mint
Lavender
False Indigo/Baptisa
Peas
Muskmelon
Stone fruit trees (peaches, plum, apricots, cherry)
Blueberries
Sweet alyssum
Anisie hyssop

I saw these recommended in this article https://bestbees.com/2021/05/24/tips-for-a-summer-garden/, and it's a summary of a video event that a horticulturalist did where she talked about how to have the best, most pollinator-friendly summer garden. She also mentioned having an easy water source for the bees, like a birdbath, but making sure to put stones or shells in it, so that the bees have something to rest on while they drink!

Blake Lenoir

Posts: 990

posted 3 years ago

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What's going on! I wanna give you Canadian Milkvetch as another good plant for you to look at, as well as Joe Pye, Black Eye susan, common milkweed, violet and many other native plants that help native bees a lot. Hope I helped.

Marty Mitchell

gardener

Posts: 860

Location: Coastal Chesapeake, VA - Zone 7b/8a - Humid

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posted 3 years ago

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This guy named Fredrick Dunn has a YouTube channel about keeping honey bees… and just did a walk around his 8AC property he has planted out for the bees.

Lots of good bits of info. in there.

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See Hes

pollinator

Posts: 539

Location: Ban Mak Ya Thailand Zone 11-12

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posted 3 years ago

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Loong time ongoing post and very interesting.

In tropical (and subtropical of course) climate an absolute honey bomber is the Drunken Parrot Tree.
(Schotia brachypetala)

It blooms almost the whole year BUT if it is full in bloom do not try to shake it.
Have you ever been standing in a honey rain?
It takes hours under the shower to get off this sticky feeling in the hair and over the body.
(So don't grow it anywhere you park your car, walk or sit)

Beside it is loudly humming from all bees a lot of other pollinators will be there.
Even birds and bats chewing off their share of the flowers and still this invasion of insects and animals cannot cope with the abundance of nectar, the tree just keeps dripping.

To fill the gap of little blooming we planted Rainbow Gum (Eucalyptus Deglupta) to add more nectar but also a lot of magic (this surreal colorful trunk) into the food forest.

That's my favorites of all times..

In modern times the only right way forward is to come back to nature.

D Tucholske

pollinator

Posts: 373

posted 3 years ago

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The bees have been doing pretty good lately, after rains. I wasn't paying close enough attention to what they were all focusing on, but I've managed to turn the one flood control ditch on the side of the railway into a thicket of grass & wildflowers over the last couple of years. It's a mix of Native & non-native stuff & all I was really able to add that stuck were flowers. That's where most of the bees & wasps have been hanging out. What I can identify that's in there, I have purple loosestrife, purple ironweed, some kind of boneset & pye weed, downy wood mint, creamy Gentian, jewelweed & there may have been some success in getting some steeplebush growing in there, too, but I'm not sure if that's what I had, or not.

Most of what's available right now, in the general area, is just purple loosestrife & ironweed, mixed with some harvestable fruit, like crabapple & haws. It's really not the best thing ever for the insects. I did see a decent sized praying mantis, next to that thicket, though, which are rare & I never see then get this big, so I figure I must be doing something right.

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Marty Mitchell

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Posts: 860

Location: Coastal Chesapeake, VA - Zone 7b/8a - Humid

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posted 3 years ago

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D Tucholske wrote:which are rare & I never see then get this big, so I figure I must be doing something right.

You are indeed making progress. Thank you for sharing!

Chasing that dream and enjoying every minute of it!
(Usually)

Alex Pepper

Posts: 6

posted 2 years ago

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A customer of mine had these Cup Plant – Silphium perfoliatum. When I saw the extreme amount of bee activity on her plants I had to get some for my garden. She generously gave me several root masses.
When I saw the plants in full bloom, there were swarms of honey bees, bumble bees, yellow jackets, and a handful of butterfly’s just on one plant!
I’m in SE Michigan, but I read this plant does well in most of the Midwest.

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 17627

Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi. Alex, welcome to the forum.

Thank you for sharing about the Cup Plant, Silphium perfoliatum. I had to look it up as I am not familiar with that plant.

It has a pretty daisy-like yellow flower so I can see why the bees love it as bees love yellow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium_perfoliatum

I am glad it does well for where you live though unfortunately Texas is not listed as its region.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=sipe2

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Marty Mitchell

gardener

Posts: 860

Location: Coastal Chesapeake, VA - Zone 7b/8a - Humid

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posted 2 years ago

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I just went for a walk about in one of the pastures.

Asters are in full bloom right now. Each bunch has about one to four bees on average. About three acres of it is really a symphony of life right now.

Instead of cutting with the mower this season I used the brush hog set to 8” tall… and then let the grass grow for the last few months. If I had not… these aster plants would have been as tall as me instead of knee high.

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Crt Jakhel

pollinator

Posts: 359

Location: NE Slovenia, zone 6b

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posted 2 years ago

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From the decorative bushes / small trees category: heptacodium miconioides, also known as h. jasminoides, "seven son tree". An absolute winner, full of every kind of nectar loving insect, dusk till dawn.

Flowers in late summer / early autumn when not much else does apart from agricultural green manures. White flowers with jasmine scent followed by red "flowers" which are actually calyxes but look like another flush of flowering.

Very tolerant of adverse conditions (wind, cold, drought, heavy soil).

-- Wisdsom pursues me but I run faster.

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