George
Tahlequah, OK

Plant some fruit trees! I can stand under the trees and hear the bees buzzing. They simply swarm them when they are in bloom. I have cherry, peach, apple, pear (not much blooming here yet) and plum trees.

In our garden, the bees seem to be especially attracted to the small flowers of many herbs, including many different kinds of basil, catmint, catnip, borage, lemon balm, lemon beebalm (Monarda citriodora), cilantro (but only if you leave it there long enough to flower), dill, chives (HUGE bee magnet), garlic chives, fennel, culinary sage, parsley, tansy, feverfew, rosemary, lavender, thyme and yarrow.

As George noted, they like many of the vegetable flowers too and, of course, the bees are needed to pollinate many of those veggies.

I plant a huge variety of flowers, shrubs and vines to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and beneficial insects throughout the growing season. It is especially important to have flowers in bloom very early in the season to (a) help the bees survive and (b) help attract them to the garden so they'll get into the habit of visiting your garden every day. Here's a list, from memory, of what I have planted in, around and near the garden:

Some of the earliest flowering plants I have include these:
Flowering currant (Ribes odoratum) for flowers in late Feb. and March of most years
Sweet alyssum
Larkspur
Poppies
Pink evening primrose
Veronica
Dianthus
native Yarrow (will bloom in April, and sometimes in March)
hybrid yarrows like Summer Pastels and Summer Berries
Holly shrubs: Both the native deciduous possumhaw holly and the evergreen Dwarf (and it really isn't a dwarf) Burford Holly shrubs have tiny flowers that are bee magnets.
The chives bloom very early too, usually in March or, in a bitterly cold spring, not until early April.

For later flowers I have these:
Calendula
Shasta daisies
Irises
Cannas
Nasturtiums
Nicotiana (several types)
Angel's Trumpets (brugmansias and daturas)
Bachelor's buttons
Hollyhocks
Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina'
Tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis)
Black-eyed Susans
Zinnias
Cosmos
Marigolds
Cleome
Mexican hat
Clasping coneflower
Hardy hibiscus
Purple coneflowers (natives O-P type attracts more beneficial insects than the hybrid ones)
Salvias
Sedum
sunflowers
roses

The vines I have growing on fences, porch posts and arbors include:
PERENNIALS:
Honeysuckle 'Pink Lemonade'
Wisteria
Trumpet Creeper Vine (both the orange and the yellow-flowered varieties)
American Crossvine
Sweet Autumn Clematis
Virginia Creeper

ANNUALS:
Black-eyed Susan Vine
Morning Glories (several colors)
Mina lobata
Cardinal climber
Cypress vine
Moonflower Vine (Ipomoea alba)
Purple hyacinth bean
Scarlet runner bean

The trees in our yard that attract bees include the peach and plum trees, Southern Wax Myrtle (a very tall shrub or small tree grown in tall tree form near our house), desert willow, sumac (right outside my kitchen window) chaste tree, chinaberry. mimosa and the groundcover Purple Winter Creeper.

We have almost 15 acres of land, and much of it is very heavily wooded with oodles of native plants that attract bees. Some of my favorite understory plants in the woods are the American Beautyberry bushes, indian currant, pokeberry, native blackberry brambles, persimmons, turk's cap lily, Mexican plum, redbud, viburnum and persimmons.

In our open areas, we encourage a wild variety of wildflowers, including clovers, Texas bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush, Indian blanketflower, goldenrods, liatris, yarrows, greenthread daisy, crownbeard, toadflax, frogfruit, native ruellias (Mexican petunias), milkweeds, purple winecup, spring beauty, meadow pinks, partridge pea, pickerel weed (in the ponds), frostweed, beebalm, western ironweed, native asters, rain lilies, and others.

I hope these lists give you some kind of ideas about what kinds of plants attract bees and other pollinators. I have found that the more variety of plants you have, the more bees and other pollinators you have. Although some (but not all) of the gardeners who live within a mile or two of our house talk to me every year about their issues with a lack of bees/pollination problems, I just don't have that problem here. It is comical.....I love having the bees and other insects around but some of my friends are afraid of bees and hate walking in my garden because every flower is buzzing with bees.

Dawn

Look at the attached link--it has a pollination chart in the cherry tree section that shows which varieties pollinate one another.

Dawn

Lavendar gets a 5 star rating
Cosmos
Verbena bonariensis
Sennas (hebecarpa, bicapsularis, Partridge Pea)*****
Butterfly bush any color
Zinnias - preferably singles not doubles
Tropical Milkweed*****
Clover**** (Trifolium repens)
Dandelions*****
Asters
Mistflower

The bumbles go crazy over the Sennas when in bloom!

If you don't find a bee on anything else, you will always find them on clover and dandelions, much as many people consider them unwanted weeds. Mother Nature has a purpose and if you want lots of pollinators, its good to give up some space to the "weeds".

Last year, I had honeybees all over the datura early in the morning while the blooms were still open. I couldn't believe it. There would be several in each huge trumpet competing for nectar. I didn't list it because that hasn't happened before. But if you want pollinators other than bees, it is a great plant. The hummingbird sphinx moths pollinate at night when the honeybees, bumblebees, and other pollinators are sleeping. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Susan