Every garden needs pollinators and bees are among the best. Without them there would be limited flowers and even fewer fruits and vegetables.
Bees are basically looking for 2 things when they visit your plants:
- Nectar - netar is loaded with sugars and it’s a bee’s main source of energy.
- Pollen - pollen provides the balanced diet of proteins and fats.
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| Agastache, Anise Hyssop |
Many popular flower varieties are hybridized for features that are valued by the gardener, like disease resistance, flower size or color and bigger, longer blooms. Unfortunately much hybridization has reduced the production of nectar and pollen and sometimes leaves the resulting plant completely sterile and useless to bees and other pollinators.
Another factor is that the amount of nectar secreted is dependent of climate conditions such as temperature, humidity and moisture in the soil. Contact the Xerxes Society for more information on plants to draw bees to your garden.
Choosing the Right Flowers
To help bees and other pollinator insects—like butterflies—you should provide a range of plants that will offer a succession of flowers, and thus pollen and nectar, through the whole growing season. Patches of foraging habitat can be created in many different locations, from backyards and school grounds to golf courses and city parks. Even a small area planted with good flowers will be beneficial for local bees, because each patch will add to the mosaic of habitat available to bees and other pollinators.
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| New England Aster attracts |
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Native plants are usually best for native bees, and can be used in both wild areas and gardens. There are also many garden plants—particularly older, heirloom varieties of perennials and herbs—that are good sources of nectar or pollen. Together with native plants, these will make a garden attractive to both pollinators and people.
Following are lists of plants that bees love. One lists
native plants, the other
cultivated garden plants. They are not an exhaustive listing of suitable plants for all areas and you may have to research which species are local to your area, but they provide a good starting point. These lists, combined with the notes below, will help you choose the right plants for your area. A field guide will tell you which species from these lists are local to you. Your local chapter of the Native Plant Society and native plant nurseries are worthwhile contacts for advice on choosing, obtaining, and caring for local plant species.
General Gardening Advice for Attracting Bees and Other Pollinators
- Don’t use pesticides. Most pesticides are not selective. You are killing off the beneficial bugs along with the pests. If you must use a pesticide, start with the least toxic one and follow the label instructions to the letter.
- Use local native plants. Research suggests native plants are four times more attractive to native bees than exotic flowers. They are also usually well adapted to your growing conditions and can thrive with minimum attention. In gardens, heirloom varieties of herbs and perennials can also provide good foraging.
- Chose several colors of flowers. Bees have good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.
- Plant flowers in clumps. Flowers clustered into clumps of one species will attract more pollinators than individual plants scattered through the habitat patch. Where space allows, make the clumps four feet or more in diameter.
- Include flowers of different shapes. There are four thousand different species of bees in North America, and they are all different sizes, have different tongue lengths, and will feed on different shaped flowers. Consequently, providing a range of flower shapes means more bees can benefit.
- Have a diversity of plants flowering all season. Most bee species are generalists, feeding on a range of plants through their life cycle. By having several plant species flowering at once, and a sequence of plants flowering through spring, summer, and fall, you can support a range of bee species that fly at different times of the season.
- Plant where bees will visit. Bees favor sunny spots over shade and need some shelter from strong winds.
Plant Lists for Attracting Bees
Native Plants for Bees
Native plants should be your first choice to help our native bees. Listed below are some plants that are good sources of nectar or pollen for bees. Both the common and Latin names of the plant genus are given. This list is not exhaustive; there are many other plants good for bees. Individual species have not been included because we hope the list will be useful across the U.S. Not all of these genera will have species in your local area, but they do represent plants that will grow in a variety of environments. Use a wildflower guide or contact local nurseries to find your local species.
Aster Aster
Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia Caltrop Kallstroemia
Creosote bush Larrea
Currant Ribes
Elder Sambucus
Goldenrod Solidago
Huckleberry Vaccinium
Joe-pye weed Eupatorium
Lupine Lupinus
Oregon grape Berberis
Penstemon Penstemon
Purple coneflower Echinacea
Rabbit-brush Chrysothamnus
Rhododendron Rhododendron
Sage Salvia
Scorpion-weed Phacelia
Snowberry Symphoricarpos
Stonecrop Sedum
Sunflower Helianthus
Wild buckwheat Eriogonum
Wild-lilac Ceanothus
- Willow Salix
Garden plants for bees
Flower beds in gardens, business campuses, and parks are great places to have bee-friendly plants. Native plants will create a beautiful garden but some people prefer "garden" plants. Many garden plants are varieties of native plants, so this list only includes plants from other countries--"exotic" plants--and should be used as a supplement to the native plant list. As with the native plants, this list is not exhaustive.
Adapted from the fact sheet produced by Matthew Shepherd, Pollinator Conservation Program, Xerces Society April 2004 (The Xerces Society, 4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97215. Tel: 503-232 6639)
