Bee Friendly Plants: 20 That Feed Bees from March to October

Contents

• What makes a plant bee friendly?
• Nectar, pollen or both, and why the difference decides everything
• Why are double flowers useless for bees?
• Continuity beats variety
• Early spring: March to May
• Late spring and early summer: May and June
• High summer: July and August
• Late summer and autumn: August to October
• Shrubs and trees that give the most
• Edible plants that also feed bees
• All 20 bee friendly plants in one chart
• Bloom calendar month by month
• Zone and timing chart for USDA 3 to 6
• What do bees need besides flowers?
• Which common garden plants look bee friendly but are not?
• How to plan the border step by step
• Common mistakes
• Frequently asked questions

What makes a plant bee friendly?

Four things decide it, and all are checkable in the nursery aisle.

The flower has to be single

Look into the flower. If you see the stamens, the threads with yellow dust on top, it is usable. A wall of petals means it is not.

The shape has to match the tongue

A honeybee's tongue is about 6 mm (1/4 in), a bumblebee's 15 mm (5/8 in), a small sweat bee's barely 2 mm. A flat flower like oregano is open to everyone; a deep tube like Virginia bluebells feeds only long-tongued bumblebees. A good border has both.

It has to bloom long, or in the right gap

Either it feeds bees for weeks, as catmint does from May to September, or it fills a hole when nothing else is open, like pussy willow in March.

It has to suit your site without spraying

A plant in the wrong place gets aphids, gets sprayed, and becomes a trap. Choose species that want the conditions you have.

Nectar, pollen or both, and why the difference decides everything

Nectar is sugar, the fuel that keeps adult bees flying and becomes honey. Pollen is protein and fat, the baby food larvae live on. Without pollen there are no new bees, however much nectar there is.

So a plant can be excellent in one role and worthless in the other. Linden floods with nectar but gives almost no pollen. Hazel, alder and oak release huge amounts of pollen and no nectar. Willow gives both, which explains its reputation.

Spring pollen sets the population

Pollen supply in April and May decides how many bumblebee colonies start. The queen must gather a pollen loaf before laying. If pollen is missing then, fifteen perennials blooming in July make no difference. The nest never started.

Autumn pollen decides who survives winter

The same bottleneck sits at the other end. New queens hatching in August and September must fatten up before going underground. Goldenrod, asters and sedum matter most then, and those are exactly what a tidy garden lacks.

Male and female plants give different things

Willow is dioecious. Males carry the yellow, dusty catkins and give pollen, females give nectar. Bees need both, so plant one of each.

Why are double flowers useless for bees?

In a double flower the stamens have been converted into petals. That is literal: tissue that would have become pollen-bearing stamens develops as petal instead. The result is a dense ball with no pollen, often no nectar, and no way in for a bee.

It affects many best sellers: double roses, dahlias, peonies, smooth hydrangea, marigolds, flowering cherries and pollen-free sunflowers. All beautiful, all empty.

Semi-double cultivars are a middle case

A semi-double keeps some stamens and can be useful. Look into the centre while you are still in the shop: if yellow dust shows, it works, and that beats any label.

It applies to plants sold as pollinator friendly too

Purple coneflower is first class in its plain single form. The double pompom cultivars are not, whatever the tag says. Dahlias are the same: single types like the Bishop series are covered in bees, a ball dahlia never gets a visit. Worth remembering when you pick tubers for growing dahlias.

And one more: sterile cultivars

Snowball viburnum (Viburnum opulus 'Roseum') is all sterile show flowers. The wild form carries a ring of sterile flowers around fertile ones and swarms with insects. The cultivar kept the ring only.

Continuity beats variety

The commonest fault in a pollinator border is that everything blooms at once. July overflows while March, April and September sit empty. Bees do not settle where food lasts six weeks a year.

Go through your plants month by month and note what is open. A month with nothing in it is where the next plant goes.

Week 12 to week 42

In zone 6 bees fly from mid-March to mid-October. In zone 3 the window is roughly May to September, but the pressure inside it is harder. The lean months differ: March and October in zone 6, May and September in zone 3.

Plant in patches, not singles

A bee that finds a single plant usually moves on. A continuous patch of half a square metre holds it there to finish the round. Set three to five of each kind together.

Early spring: March to May

These three matter more than the other seventeen, because the shortage bites now.

1. Snow crocus (Crocus tommasinianus)

Blooms March and April, often through thin snow. Reaches 8–10 cm (3–4 in), wants sun and sharp drainage, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and heavy orange pollen, worked by honeybees and just-woken bumblebee queens. It seeds around, so twenty bulbs become a hundred in a few years. Plant it in the lawn and delay the first mow.

2. Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

Blooms April and May, pink in bud and clear blue open. Reaches 45–60 cm (18–24 in), wants part shade and moist soil, zone 3–8. Gives mainly nectar held deep in a narrow tube, a specialist crop for long-tongued bumblebee queens. It goes dormant by midsummer, so pair it with ferns or hosta.

3. Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)

Blooms May into June with flat yellow umbels. Reaches 45–75 cm (18–30 in), takes sun to part shade and tolerates clay, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and pollen in wide-open florets, within reach of the smallest mining and sweat bees. It bridges spring ephemerals and summer perennials.

Late spring and early summer: May and June

Solitary bees are fully awake. Mason bees and mining bees are each active only a few weeks, and most fly now. Four plants cover it.

4. Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)

Blooms May and June with open lilac-pink saucers. Reaches 45–60 cm (18–24 in), wants part shade and average soil, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and pollen, and the flat landing platform suits mason and mining bees too small for deeper flowers. Good ground cover under shrubs.

5. Blue false indigo (Baptisia australis)

Blooms late May into June with indigo spires. Reaches 90–120 cm (3–4 ft), demands full sun and deep, well-drained soil, zone 3–9. Gives both nectar and pollen, but the pea-shaped flower must be forced open, so it is bumblebee food. It takes three years to settle, then lives for decades.

6. Foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

Blooms June with white tubular bells. Reaches 90–120 cm (3–4 ft), wants sun to light shade and average soil, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and pollen, and the tube is short enough that bumblebees, mason bees and small carpenter bees all work it. One of the best natives for heavy soil.

7. Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii 'Walker's Low')

Blooms late May to September if you shear it back by half after the first flush. Reaches 45–75 cm (18–30 in), needs sun and sharp drainage, zone 3–8. Gives mainly nectar, and plenty of it. If you have room for one sun-loving bee perennial this is it: it covers four months alone. Also one of the steadiest long flowering perennials sold.

High summer: July and August

Supply peaks now, and this is where most pollinator borders are over-invested. Four plants go far if you pick forms that feed.

8. Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Blooms July and August with ragged lavender heads. Reaches 90–120 cm (3–4 ft), wants sun and dry soil, zone 3–9. Gives mainly nectar from a long tube, so it is bumblebee territory. Choose the wild species over red bee balm cultivars: more mildew resistant, and it flowers longer.

9. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

Blooms July and August with domed pink umbels that smell of vanilla. Reaches 90–150 cm (3–5 ft), wants full sun and moist soil, zone 3–6. Gives exceptionally rich nectar plus pollen in paired sacs that clip onto a bee's leg. Despite the name it grows in any border that is not baked dry, and it is a monarch host plant too.

10. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Blooms July to September. Reaches 80–100 cm (32–40 in), wants sun and fertile soil, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and pollen, but only in single forms. The raised centre is hundreds of disc florets opening in a spiral outside in, so one head feeds for weeks. Leave the seed heads for goldfinches.

11. Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Blooms July to September, sometimes until frost. Reaches 70–90 cm (28–36 in), needs sun and soil that is not wet in winter, zone 4–8. Gives both nectar and pollen over a long run, and one clump can hold a dozen bees. Short lived at three or four years, but it self-sows freely. Winter wet kills it faster than cold.

Late summer and autumn: August to October

This stretch decides how many queens survive to spring, and most gardens skip it. Three plants fix that.

12. Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa)

Blooms August and September with golden plumes. Reaches 60–120 cm (2–4 ft), takes full sun to light shade and poor soil, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and abundant pollen exactly when new queens need it. Showy goldenrod clumps and stays put, unlike Canada goldenrod. And no, it does not cause hay fever: its pollen is heavy and insect-carried. Ragweed is the culprit.

13. Sedum (Hylotelephium 'Autumn Joy')

Blooms late August to October. Reaches 50–60 cm (20–24 in), needs sun and lean soil, zone 3–9. Gives both nectar and pollen on flat heads that work as landing pads. The colour runs from green-white through pink to copper, and bees work it all the way. Do not cut it down in autumn: the dry heads shelter overwintering insects.

14. New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)

Blooms September and October, often until the first hard frost. Reaches 90–150 cm (3–5 ft), wants sun and even moisture, zone 3–8. Gives both nectar and pollen, and is the last real meal of the year. Pinch the stems back by a third in June for a sturdier plant. Several specialist mining bees take aster pollen and nothing else.

Shrubs and trees that give the most

A flowering shrub delivers on a few square metres what a border delivers on twenty. If you have room for a tree, planting it is the biggest single thing you can do for bees.

15. Pussy willow (Salix discolor)

Blooms March and April, before the leaves. Reaches 4–6 m (13–20 ft), or coppice it low; takes sun and wet ground, zone 2–7. Gives both nectar and pollen in quantities nothing else in early spring approaches. A cut stem stood in wet soil roots almost every time, so one plant becomes a free hedge.

16. Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

Blooms late April and May with drifts of white stars. Reaches 2–4 m (7–13 ft), takes sun to part shade and any drained soil, zone 2–7. Gives both nectar and pollen in the gap between spring bulbs and early perennials, and is a magnet for mining bees. The July fruit tastes like mild blueberry, so it earns its place twice.

17. American linden (Tilia americana)

Blooms late June and July, in a gap where little else large is open. Reaches 18–25 m (60–80 ft), wants sun and deep soil, zone 3–8. Gives enormous nectar and little pollen. One detail matters: choose American or littleleaf linden, not silver linden (Tilia tomentosa). Dead bumblebees are found under silver lindens year after year.

Edible plants that also feed bees

The last three give you a crop and the bees a meal on the same ground, often the only route to full-season cover in a small garden.

18. Borage (Borago officinalis)

Blooms June to October as a hardy annual, sown direct in spring in any zone. Reaches 60–90 cm (24–36 in), wants sun and ordinary soil. Gives mainly nectar, and the refill rate is the remarkable part: one flower replenishes its nectar within minutes, so bees work the same plant all day. The blue star flowers are edible, and it self-sows forever.

19. Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)

Blooms June and July, and everbearing cultivars flower again in August and September. Reaches 1.5–2 m (5–7 ft), wants sun and well-drained soil, zone 3–8. Gives plenty of both, and the nectar refills fast enough that bees return repeatedly. Old spent canes are pithy and become nest tunnels for small solitary bees. Pruning details in growing raspberries.

20. Oregano (Origanum vulgare)

Blooms July and August in clouds of small pink flowers. Reaches 40–60 cm (16–24 in), needs full sun and dry, limey soil, zone 4–8. Gives mainly nectar, in such volume that a flowering clump is audible before you see it. Honeybees, bumblebees, tiny solitary bees and butterflies work it at once. Let it flower instead of harvesting every shoot. More in growing herbs.

All 20 bee friendly plants in one chart

The whole guide compressed. The right column says where each plant works: pollen feeds larvae, nectar keeps adults flying.

Bloom calendar month by month

How the 20 spread across the season in about zone 5. Use it as a checklist: a month with one or two entries is where the next plant goes.

Two gaps show up in most gardens. May, between the bulbs and the summer perennials, where berry bushes fill in. And October, where asters and sedum are the only cards you have.

Zone and timing chart for USDA 3 to 6

The zone sets your planting window and the flying season. Treat it as a frame: a cold or warm year shifts everything one to three weeks.

In zone 3 a few of the twenty struggle. Anise hyssop and oregano are often short lived, and swamp milkweed needs a sheltered, moist spot. Pussy willow, serviceberry, goldenrod, aster and bergamot run the full range.

What do bees need besides flowers?

This half of the question almost never gets answered. Food without housing produces no bees, and about 70 percent of native bees nest in the ground.

Bare soil for ground-nesting bees

A mining bee digs a tunnel straight down into bare, sun-warmed earth. A wood-chip mulch an inch deep is as impenetrable to that bee as pavement. Scrape out 0.5 to 2 m² (5–20 sq ft) facing south. Mix in coarse sand if the soil is clay, then leave it alone: no raking, no planting, no landscape fabric.

Water bees will not drown in

Bees need water on hot days but cannot swim, and a birdbath with straight sides is a death trap. Add pebbles or corks for dry footholds at the waterline, and top it up daily in a heatwave.

Dead wood and hollow stems

Many solitary bees nest in old beetle tunnels in dead wood. A rotting stump or an untouched log pile provides more nest sites than anything you can buy. Pithy and hollow stems matter as much: raspberry canes, elderberry, joe pye weed and old coneflower stems. Cut perennials back in March, leaving 20–30 cm (8–12 in) stubs. Bees move in the same year.

Why so many bought bee hotels are badly built

Most hotels sold in garden centres are decoration. The faults repeat:

• The wrong filling. Pine cones, straw, moss and loose twigs are padding no bee uses, though spiders and earwigs like them.
• Holes drilled into end grain. Drill into the cut end of a log and the wood splits along the growth rings, the tunnel turns damp and the larva moulds. Drill into the side of dry hardwood.
• Wrong diameter and depth. Bees need 2–10 mm (up to 3/8 in) across and 10–15 cm (4–6 in) deep with a closed back. Shallow holes produce only males, since females are laid deepest.
• Splintered rims. A rough edge tears bees' wings. Sand the openings or use paper tubes.
• No way to open it. Nearly every model on sale is glued or nailed shut, so the tubes cannot be replaced and mites, parasitic flies and fungus build up year on year.
• Too big in one spot. A giant hotel concentrates parasites. Several small units work better.
• Wrong placement. Fix it firmly facing south or southeast, 1–2 m (3–6 ft) up, under an overhang, with nothing shading the openings.

A hotel that works is tubes 2 to 10 mm across, replaced yearly, mounted dry and sunny. Build your own from drilled hardwood blocks and bamboo cut below a node, rather than buying a painted box of cones.

Let the lawn flower and stop spraying

Dandelion and white clover are among the most productive bee plants there are, and both already grow where you live. Mow paths only in May, until the dandelions are over. Use no insecticide on anything in bloom, including organic products, and check nursery stock for neonicotinoid treatment.

More hives is not the same as more bees

A honeybee colony is livestock: 40,000 workers foraging over a three-mile radius. Where hive density is high they compete with wild bees for the same flowers. If your goal is biodiversity, more flowers and nest sites beat a hive.

Which common garden plants look bee friendly but are not?

Some of the best-selling plants in any garden centre give bees nothing, and bee-shaped stickers do not help: retailers apply them to no standard.

• Double dahlias and peonies. The stamens are petals. Choose single forms for the same colour plus actual visitors.
• Smooth and mophead hydrangea. Cultivars such as 'Annabelle' are all sterile show flowers. Lacecap and panicle types keep fertile florets and do work, which matters when you pick a plant for growing hydrangeas.
• Forsythia. Early and yellow, so it looks like an April rescue, but it gives almost no nectar and very little pollen. Swap it for pussy willow or dogwood.
• Snowball viburnum. Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' is sterile. The wild form is excellent.
• Pollen-free sunflowers. Cut-flower strains are bred not to shed pollen on a tablecloth. Without pollen they are large yellow discs.
• Double flowering cherries. 'Kanzan' is fully double. Single-flowered ornamental cherries feed bees well.
• Bedding petunias, pansies and marigolds. Strong colour, negligible nectar, and a shape that puts what there is out of reach.
• Butterfly bush. Good for butterflies, poor for most bees, and invasive across much of North America and Britain. Choose buttonbush or a native ninebark.
• Canada goldenrod in a small border. Bees love it, but it runs and takes over. Plant showy or wreath goldenrod instead.

The same caution applies to wildflower mixes labelled bee friendly. Many hold annuals from other climates that flower late or not at all in a short northern summer, and some are invasive where you live.

How to plan the border step by step

Budget an afternoon for planning and a weekend for the work.

1. Write down what is in bloom each month, March to October.
2. Mark the months with fewer than two entries. Those are your gaps.
3. Pick plants from the chart that fill those gaps, not the ones you like.
4. Check each species against the zone chart before ordering.
5. Choose a spot with six hours of sun, plus a shaded pocket for bluebells and geranium.
6. Order three to five plants per kind so you can group them.
7. Plant bulbs in September and October, perennials in spring or late summer.
8. Set them in continuous patches of about half a square metre each.
9. Water in well and mulch with thin compost, not bark.
10. Scrape out a bare soil patch of 0.5–2 m² (5–20 sq ft) in a sunny corner.
11. Put out a shallow water dish with stones and refill in hot weather.
12. Leave stems standing over winter and cut back in March, leaving 20–30 cm (8–12 in) stubs.

To extend the planting, more insect-drawing species are listed under perennials for full sun. On a balcony, oregano, catmint and borage in big pots go far.

Common mistakes

• Everything flowers in July. Count month by month and fill the March, May and October gaps first.
• Double cultivars bought in good faith. The label rarely says. Look into the flower: no yellow stamens, no food.
• One plant of each kind. Scattered singles get ignored. Set three to five of a kind in a patch.
• Autumn tidying in October. Stems carted off take overwintering larvae and next year's nest material. Cut in March.
• Wood mulch over every square inch. It locks out the 70 percent of native bees that nest in soil. Leave bare, sun-warmed ground somewhere.
• Bee hotels in shade or rain. A north-facing or unroofed hotel stays empty. South facing, dry, 1–2 m (3–6 ft) up, tubes replaced yearly.
• Insecticide on plants in bloom. Even products cleared for home garden use kill pollinators on open flowers. Wait until after bloom.
• Planting invasives because bees visit them. Butterfly bush, purple loosestrife and Canada goldenrod displace native flora.

Frequently asked questions

What plants attract the most bees?
Pussy willow in March, serviceberry in May, oregano in July and goldenrod in September pull hardest in their own windows. Among perennials, catmint is the most productive over the season. But the plant that attracts the most bees in your garden is always the one that blooms when nothing else does.

When should I plant bee friendly plants?
Spring bulbs such as crocus go in during September and October, 8–10 cm (3–4 in) deep. Perennials go in in spring once the soil has warmed, or in late summer so they root before winter. Shrubs and trees are best planted in early spring in zones 3 and 4, where autumn is too short for rooting, and in autumn in zones 5 and 6.

Is a balcony container enough?
Yes, but scale it properly. One pot of at least 30 litres (8 gallons) with oregano, catmint and borage feeds more than five boxes of pansies, and bees find flowers five storeys up. Skip bedding plants and choose species that tolerate drying out.

Why are no bees coming to my flowers?
Three explanations cover most cases. The flowers are double and hold neither pollen nor nectar. The plants are scattered as singles rather than grouped. Or there is no nesting habitat within range, which for many solitary bees is only 100–300 m (300–1,000 ft). Scrape a bare patch and leave dead wood lying.

Are double flowers really useless?
Nearly. In a double flower the stamens have been converted into petals, so the pollen is not there. Many doubles also give very little nectar, and what exists sits out of reach behind the petals. Semi-doubles can be fine. The test is to look into the flower: if yellow dust shows, it works.

What blooms earliest for bees in spring?
Snow crocus and pussy willow in March, then Virginia bluebells and serviceberry in April. Dandelion and maple count too, as do hazel, alder and oak, which give pollen but no nectar. Fruit trees take over in May. March to mid-April is the critical stretch, and crocus and willow are the strongest cards in it.

Do bees need water and how do I offer it?
Yes, especially in hot, dry spells, when they carry water back to cool the nest. Use a shallow dish and add pebbles or corks that break the surface so bees land without drowning. Change the water every couple of days and set the dish near the flowers.

Do bee hotels actually work?
Yes, but only when properly built and maintained. Holes should be 2–10 mm across, 10–15 cm (4–6 in) deep, closed at the back and drilled into the side of dry hardwood. Mount it dry and south facing 1–2 m (3–6 ft) up, and replace the tubes annually or mites accumulate. Pine cones and straw are used by no bee at all.

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