Bee-Friendly Plants for Every Season

Yes. Lavender is one of the most dependable garden plants for bees where summers are sunny and soil drains freely. Its many small, nectar-bearing flowers open over several weeks, giving bumblebees, honey bees and some solitary bees a concentrated foraging patch.

Some hydrangeas are good for bees, but the name alone is not a guarantee. Bees need fertile flowers with accessible nectar and pollen. Many showy mophead cultivars are dominated by enlarged sterile florets, while lacecaps, climbing hydrangeas and selected panicle hydrangeas expose numerous fertile flowers.

Yes. Flowering rosemary can be an excellent bee plant, particularly because it may bloom from late winter into spring in mild climates. Its small two-lipped flowers offer nectar when relatively few other garden plants are open.

Yes. A sunflower head is a packed landing platform made of hundreds of small florets, and pollen-producing varieties can serve honey bees, bumblebees and diverse native solitary bees. The best choice is an open-pollinated or clearly pollen-bearing cultivar rather than a pollenless cut-flower type.

The best roses for bees have open single or semi-double flowers with visible stamens. These provide pollen—and sometimes nectar—without forcing an insect through layers of petals. Highly double modern blooms can be beautiful yet offer little accessible food.

Marigolds can help bees, especially when they have open single or semi-double flowers with a visible central disc. Densely doubled bedding forms may hide the florets, so cultivar choice matters more than the familiar orange or yellow colour.

Dandelions are useful, accessible spring flowers, but they are not a complete solution for bees. Their broad heads offer nectar and pollen to several visitors when gardens can be sparse; diverse native spring flowers remain more valuable than a lawn containing only dandelions.

Yes. Flowering clover can turn a low-diversity lawn or path edge into a sustained source of nectar and pollen. White clover is accessible to many bees, while deeper red-clover tubes especially suit long-tongued bumblebees.

Yes. Crocuses are valuable because their cup-shaped flowers can open in late winter or early spring, when queen bumblebees and early solitary bees urgently need food. A drift in sun offers more useful forage than isolated bulbs.

Late native asters are among the most useful autumn flowers, supplying exposed nectar and pollen when colonies and overwintering queens are preparing for scarcity.

Flowering sages are excellent bee plants: their two-lipped blooms repeatedly offer nectar to bumblebees and other visitors through a long summer season.

Yes. A flowering thyme plant carries a carpet of tiny nectar-rich flowers that honey bees, bumblebees and small solitary bees can work efficiently.

Borage is a powerful annual bee plant whose blue star-shaped flowers replenish nectar quickly and keep producing when plants are allowed to branch and reseed.

Yes. Single coneflowers expose a broad ring of florets to bumblebees, solitary bees and butterflies, with seed heads adding later value for birds.

Catmint is a long-flowering, drought-tolerant perennial whose abundant blue-purple flowers are especially popular with bumblebees and honey bees.

Mint becomes highly useful to bees when gardeners let it flower. Its crowded summer flower clusters suit many insects, though its spreading roots demand thoughtful placement.

Goldenrod is premier late-season forage, offering nectar and pollen to a wide range of bees just as many summer flowers fade.

Foxglove's deep bells are particularly well matched to bumblebees, which crawl inside for nectar and transfer pollen along the flower spike.

Yes. A flowering apple tree produces thousands of spring blossoms with nectar and pollen, and bee visits are central to good fruit set between compatible cultivars.

Raspberry flowers are highly useful, accessible forage for honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees; their visits also support the development of well-formed fruit.