b.wright
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Bee-friendly flowers

I know that bees are slowly dying out and they produce less honey and I would like to do something about it. I am no expert, I read several articles on the Internet about it, but I would like to ask people, who actually have something to do with beekeeping. Which plans are bee-friendly? I would like to make my garden bee-friendly and I want the best effect I can get. I read that asters, fennel, oregano, sunflowers, and lavender are good. But it’s not confirmed by any beekeeper. Help me please :)

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

The best ways to protect the bees is to not use organophosphates and systemic pesticides especially when plants are in bloom. Even pyrethrins are harmful to bees and other animals. You can provide habitat for them. Wild bees like to nest in tree hollows, caves, and unfortunately under eaves. When bees nest in people's trees and houses they consider them pests and only want to get rid of them.
Bees usually start swarming around April. Keep the number of your local beekeeper group handy. If you see a swarm, the beekeepers may be able to collect it before they become established and save them.

As to flowers, bees cannot see red and different bees like different flowers. Carpenter bees prefer blue spikey flowers like lavender and verbena. Butterflies usually like red and blue flowers. Every pollinator loves sunflowers but you will need to plant them in succession because they only stay in bloom for about 10 days. Alyssum, cuphea, lantana, fennel, all have small long lasting flowers that will have the bees coming back repeatedly. Basil, onion, carrots, cilantro, fruit trees, clover, corn, composite annual flowers (asters, zinnias, daisies) will attract bees and other beneficial insects when the are in bloom. Flowers are important, they are not hanging around just for the leaves. Ladybugs and other beneficial insects' larvae eat most of the harmful bugs. The adults eat or parasitizes the bad bugs but the adults need a source of water, pollen, and nectar to sustain them as well as habitat like hollow logs, up turned pots, rock formations, trees and shrubs to call home.

The bees are making a comeback. The local beekeepers have been treating their hives for varoa mites and hive beetles and when they swarm they are repopulating the wild stock which was also depleted by the pests. I went down to one bee but they never really disappeared from my yard. Now, they are coming back in larger numbers and I have them in my yard every day. The demise of bees would have a greater impact than you could imagine. Most of the summer food crops, squash, cucumber, and fruit trees are dependent on bees and other insects to pollinate them. Without them they would have to be hand pollinated or there would be no fruit. I have Jamaican oregano, lippia micromera and Mexican oregano, lippia graveolens. It is a thyme and oregano substitute but large shrubs that bloom nearly year round. They are in the verbena family of plants which are mostly shrubs with long lasting blooms of the kind that pollinaters really like. I have citrus trees and right now they are flowering and I have a couple like calamondin and Meyer lemon which will flower and fruit more than once a year. Also citrus honey is light and really good. The basils in the herb garden are allowed to go to seed and their flowers will last a long time so the bees visit everyday, twice a day to harvest nectar. They really loved the pollen from the corn tassels.
I am redoing my front yard, but I had cuphea growing there for years and now I am switching to sweet alyssum. The bees love both of them. Fennel likes to be by itself and at least 10 ft away from other plants. It is a trap plant that attracts aphids, but don't worry fennel can handle it. The aphids will feed the hungry lady bug larvae and the long lasting blooms will provide necatar and pollen for a host of beneficial insects. I water in the morning and so I wet the leaves and that provides water for the insects who will lap the water from the leaves. Otherwise water can be supplied in a plant saucer (its' only practical use in my yard) filled with pebbles. and enough water to just get between the pebbles. Insects need a landing spot or they will drown. Unfortunately unless you flush it out daily it also attracts mosquitoes, so it is better to get up early and water the garden. The bees will get a drink and the leaves will have a chance to dry off before the sun sets.
This is the link to pollinator.org. On this site you will find information on what plants will be suitable for your area. I posted a link directly to the million pollinator garden challenge. But on the site is also the regional guide with specific plants for your area.
https://pollinator.org/million-pollinato ... llenge.htm

Susan W
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Location: Memphis, TN

You have a fairly wide range for our pollinators. When you have various flowers, attract different butterflies, moths, bees and more. In the bees alone usually have bumble bees the smaller native bees and the honey bees. I don't have many honey bees even though neighbor has a hive, but do have bumble bees and the native bees plus butterflies and more.

In general want variety.
somethings flowering spring through fall.
colors. Include a mix of colors
shape. Daisy type, tubular, small, clusters etc
size. from tall to short, and flowers large to small.

Not only will your pollinators be happy, but you will have a lovely garden and flowering containers!

If you are buying plants, beware. Some have been pre-treated with neonics, a bad systemic. I don't know where the box stores stand on this now, but as of last year, most of the flowering plants at HDep tagged with the neonics tag (and claiming to be bee-butterfly friendly). Hmmmm.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Susan is absolutely right, variety is the key. Polinators and bees in particular like a varied diet. Many polinators are specialists and prefer some flowers over others. Most of the bees that are used to polinate the vegetable farms don't survive the trip. For one, they don't particularly care for squash blossoms and monoculture means there is not much of variety to be found. They need variety to stay healthy.

The honey the bees make changes with the seasons depending on the nectar they are gathering. Honey now is light and is really tasty and not very bitter because of all the fruit trees, especially citrus, mango and avocado that are in bloom. The honey from our last harvest was very turbid and it crystalized within a month. It did not taste that bad, it was darker but not with a lot of bitterness. The honey had more glucose than fructose so it crystallized faster. I have honey from almost a year ago that is still clear. Crystalized honey is still edible and it is very sweet, it is just a lot thicker and grainier

HoneyBerry
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Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

Bumble Bees love my bright orange California Poppies. They bloom all summer long and are covered with bumble bees. Easy to grow perennial wildflower.

b.wright
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Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:38 am

Thank you all for your advice! I will do what you said. Spring is coming so I probably will start planting first flowers soon. I will definitely post pictures of my garden! Hopefully with a lot of healthy and happy bees!:)

PinkPetalPolygon
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Location: California Zone 9b <3

I am planting borage for the first time this year. :D
(Borage was already mentioned in this thread by a few people, it is good one!)

The leaves and (really pretty blue) flowers of borage are edible in salads or tea (or eaten straight of course, hah) - they are supposed to be somewhat similar to the taste of cucumber, but I haven't had any yet.
or you could just leave it all for the bees. :)
(But a few leaves for you wouldn't deprive the bees ;))

I read somewhere that one of the reasons borage was so good for bees was that it replenishes its nectar quickly?

I like the fact that when I read about how/when to sow it, I read that it preferred to be started outdoors, and I could tell my borage seedlings really liked it outside when it was too cold for other stuff to be outside - they are hardy little things.

They need some space though!! Pay attention to how big the packaging/tag says it will grow. The bigger the better if you want to feed bees, right? (I am on the same page with wanting to please the bees! I feel lucky I have never had problems with pollination in my vegetable gardens.)

AnnaIkona
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Location: Canada zone 8b

Lavender is a big one, my friend. :) plant it and you'll have so, so much bees!
Plus lavender is so easy to grow. I have three huge lavender bushes in my front yard and it's buzzin' with bees here!

HoneyBerry
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Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

My Spanish Lavender died. I don't know why. It was along the fence line. The neighbirs on the other side of the fence have gravel instead of lawn and the use weed killer. I think that's what killed my Spanish Lavender. I might have to give it another try and plant it somewhere else.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have an African basil. It is more or less perennial here and it gets pretty big. It is more ornamental since it has a lot of camphor but it is immune to downy mildew, so it is one of the few I can grow. It has been allowed to bloom so it has been feeding the bees through the fall and winter months.

They also really liked corn pollen. Alyssum, pineapple sage, sunflowers, borage, onions now that they are in bloom, marigolds, and cosmos have all been good at attracting bees.

The carpenter bees like the vervain and lavender multifida. It is fun to watch them grasp the flowers and bend the long stems doown while they take a drink. Both vervain and mutifida lavender bloom continuously year round here. The bees also visit the Jamaican thyme ( lippia micromera) which is also in the verbena family a couple of times a day. The last couple of months the citrus, mango, lychee and avocados have been in bloom and they have been visiting those trees regularly.

I replanted more fennel so there aren't any blooms yet. Fennel is perennial, but I replant it every year to keep the size down and I collect the seeds so I don't get volunteers, but I do have plenty of fennel seeds to plant and to use in the kitchen.

The bees have no interest in the plumeria flowers, so I looked it up and they are actually polinated by thrips. No wonder they are a thrip magnet. Gardenia and desert rose are polinated by moths so the bees are not going near them either. Funny though they visit fushia even though it does not have nectar. Unfortunately they will polinate orchids which is something we don't really want them to do since it will cause the flowers to die prematurely if even one gets polinated. Some fruit like chayote can be polinated by bees, wasps or other insects. Bats, beetles, birds, moths, flies, butterflies, and even ants can be polinators. It is important to remember that bees are the most common polinators we know about, they aren't the only ones.

Mr green
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Location: Sweden

Clover attracts bumble bees very well. Asters are good for bees. Dandelions, many so called weeds are good.

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jal_ut
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I am a beekeeper. I run a small operation of from 5 to 20 hives. Bees come and go so the numbers are constantly changing. The bees love clover and alfalfa. If you have a lawn toss some clover seed on it. You can always get a hive and some bees and have your own beehive? Many of your garden plants need a bee for pollination.



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