Thanks for bringing up this timely topic. I have attached a link to the good old Las Pilitas website listing California native plants for bees. I have several Cleveland Sage plants in my yard and their almost constant bloom creates continuous bee activity. I have never been stung, but I do wish that I had placed the bee-friendly plants away from walkways!

It would be great if every gardener could find a spot for an undisturbed area to give bees, small reptiles, etc. a spot to lay eggs, over-winter and hide their young.

The buzzing of the bees really adds a sense of life to my yard. It is a nice subtle background noise and a sign of a healthy garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cal Natives to Attract Bees

I attended a bee information evening last Thursday. The first part told the story of bee keepers from Minnesota, packing up millions of bees each Feb and moving them to California to pollinate the almond crop which is a mono-crop. Native bees are not out at that time of year.
In order to keep the bees healthy they feed them corn syrup.

Next a professor from UCSF talked to us about a study she had done on the native bees of Napa and Sonoma counties. She talked about the solitary bees and how we can also help by putting out blocks of wood with holes drilled in for the bees to nest in. I checked this out on line and it is listed under Mason bees. She suggested having something in bloom all year (I have that) but mustard flower that I thought was so good is not.

I have noticed lots of bumble bees this year and I have honey bees as my neighbor keeps bees. She however is now giving sugar water because the flowers are not full of pollen because of the drought. Penny

I have a large area of lambs ear. This year it has been full of blossoms that attract the bees. The bees come by the hundreds. I am not sure what kind they are, they look like ordinary honeybees to me. The bumble bees also are attracted to the lambs ear, lot's of them. I especially love them. They are so cute. And much friendlier then the honeybees. I am finding small holes in the soil, about 1/4" in diameter. I think some type of bees make them.

I have some caryopteris sitting on my lawn while I try to figure out a space to plant them, and they are seriously buzzing at all times. My bees also like echium and aptenia. I have both the big black bees and the common (honey?) bees.

A bee does make those holes in the ground - it is a small bee that craves tunnels and each one contains pollen and an egg. This was explained at the Bee meeting and I have seen them in my yard also.

Penny

Every spring my roses have perfect half-circles cut out of their leaves by leaf-cutter bees! It doesn't hurt the roses, and it always makes me smile to see what a precise cut they make.

Bees also seem to like lantana. And they sleep in my dahlias, of all things. I always have to be careful when cutting dahlias early in the morning - sleepy bees are often hidden in the petals, LOL.

Just to be sure everybody is clear: it's native, solitary bees that nest in the ground. Honey bees, which are originally from Eurasia, are colonial. In my yard, honey bees usually ignore Salvia clevelandii. It appears to me that they can't get into the flowers and can't reach the nectar. Whatever the reason, they give up quickly. Honey bees are frequent users of S. mellifera, S. leucophylla and S. "Dara's Choice," when those are in bloom. The bees like S. apiana, too, although I almost never see them on mine. The primary native pollinators of S. apiana in nature are bumble bees (Bombus spp.) and carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.). In the field, I do indeed see honey bees around S. clevelandii, and also lots of bee flies (Bombylius spp.).

However, the big winner among native plants in my yard for attracting honey bees is buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum. They're all over it. Once the buckwheat comes into flower, the bees pretty much ignore everything else.

In our garden (SF Bay area) the bees like zinnias, marigolds, rosemary, lobelia, azalea, rhododendron, rose, thyme, red apple, agapanthus, lavender, columbine, cosmos, daisy, pansy, primrose, lambÂs ears, sage, poppy, basil, boysenberry, and the orange blossoms.

Here's a photo my son took of six bees on a pumpkin flower...

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Pretty cool.

We've definitely seen more bees in the garden this year than last.

Here is a link that might be useful: Smith Family Garden

Let your oregano bloom! Bees are crawling all over mine, all kinds-- honey bees, little bees, bumblebees, etc.

Carla in Sac

In my yard the bees love Salvia (several different kinds), lavender, and catnip. The cats have to compete with the bees when the catnip is blooming, LOL.

We have a very large Monterey Cypress (over 100 years old) that houses a bee colony of regular honey bees. Also, there are lots of the native bees around here. One plant I found the honeybees just love is Verbascum (particularly bombyciferum [sp?]). Every kind of bee seems to love lavender. The native bees love all kinds of lupine (we have the shrubby and herbaceous types). We use no sprays (other than compost tea), and have a quite diverse garden, so they've all apparently found things to their liking. It does seem like there are far more bees this year than last, to me, of all types of bees.

--Ron

I bought two pots of statice to plant in my hillside garden last week. My wife likes purple flowers. But before I could move the pots I had to wait for the bees to get through browsing them.

I've never been stung by a honeybee or bumblebee, but have been zapped by little critters in Texas and Oklahoma called sweat bees. They are attracted to human perspiration. Luckily their stings are no worse than ant bites. Still it's no fun to be out in the heat fishing or gardening and have one of these get in between your fingers or inside your shirt.

Just yesterday I noticed a football-sized swarm of bees hanging from a branch of a small native oak tree about 20' from our back door. Had a pest company come today to check it out, and they said they were regular honey bees, not the Africanized bees that are very common in my neighborhood. The gal from the pest company also said that the bees were already making a honey comb right on the tree, which is in a very exposed location.

So... should I try to remove this colony or leave them bee?

Hmm, susi,
I would move the bees, but then, I am allergic to their sting. European bees visit our pond all day to get a drink, and it is only fifteen feet away from the back door, but they do not stay long and do not die all over the place for me to step on.

Like many of you, we adore the native bees, so DH built a bee house:

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Closer view of baby bees in the making:
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Renee

Susi, there's probably a local beekeeper who'd be happy to take custody of that swarm. I'd do a little googling. As long as they're not Africanized, though, I wouldn't expect them to give you any trouble. If you have kids who throw Frisbees or footballs around, however...

Thanks for your suggestions, Renee and Ltecato. We contacted a local place that sells honey and I'm waiting to hear back from them about whether they want to take our bees or not. I hope they do! If not, we might put up a hive if we can figure out how to encourate them to move into it.

One plant that is always smothered in bees in my yard (Bay Area) is my geranium "Roseanne" (true geranium, not pelargonium). It blooms profusely the entire summer and attracts all sorts of bees. My lavender and ceanothus are also popular.

Thanks for the info!
The honey bees seem to like my flowering white sage and my blue ceanothus. I also see small bees on the ceanothus.

Well, after hanging on that tree for 6 days the bees took off on Saturday in about 1 minute. We still have lots of bees in the garden, but no big swarm in one place. I sorta miss 'em!

I think if one does not spray and has lots of flowers, colorful flowers, bees will be attracted.My bees especially love lavendar. They get a tad angry when I go through a path of overgrown lavendar to water.

I also saw swallowtail butterflies this year. First time in a long time.

The only place in my garden that the bees love is the cinnamon basil plant. Thats pretty much their hangout.

Carla in Sac is right, we've got oregano blooming here, and they are just swarming with bees. Now I know why we get so much of it self-seeding.

--Ron

Just wanted to say 'thanks' for this thread. As many others, I'm concerned about the bees disappearing. I love seeing bees in my yard and am making a concerted effort to plant things that attract them.