stopppp
And it looks so cheerful too!
Annuals-
Alyssum- seeds sold everywhere just about… dollar stores and box stores etc. (Sweet alyssum’s petite blossoms, exude a sweet fragrance that acts as a magnet for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. Its nectar-rich flowers provide a vital food source for these creatures throughout the growing season.) This is my first year growing this… it looks to be a superstar since it draws in things from afar. Not only bees and things looking for nectar but predator bugs and beetles that are looking for bugs and meals. I think this one also attracts pests which the predators seem to enjoy. Excited to see what all goes on with this.
Mexican Sunflower- i grow this every year… bees, butterflies etc all seem to really enjoy it…then at the end of the season the birds eat the seed.
Carrot… this interests me. I saw a person post that they let one carrot go to seed…
Bees must love them.
Would be fun to get going i think.
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Gonna give these a go- $3 each.
I am going to see what else interests me
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I have become extremely interested in native plant gardening as of recen!
I am growing bluestem, milkweeds, sunflowers, chokecherry, elderberries and more.
I’d like to add passifloras, viburnums, american plum & chickasaw plums and an dwarf chinkapin oak but Id like to find either a local, south-eastern or affordable source.
Def need to get some monardas and joe pye weed going!
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Good luck! You won’t regret it! They will appreciate it and you will enjoy them!
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I just bought all the varieties of reblooming lilac that provenwinnersdirect.com has.
Also if anyone decides to get anything from there, use my link so i can get that referral discount lol
I also grabbed all the high pollinator loving Hydrangea arborescens according to this chart:
I only found out a few years ago that most hydrangeas are sterile and just found out recently that some are not sterile!
Planning on surrounding my garden area with just a bunch of pollinator favorites that i also like.
Just found out that lowes may be closing locations as well and there were 2 gardenia trees hidden in the indoors plant section from lowes that i may pick up tomorrow once they open.
Also…
Happy Easter everyone!!
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Can’t wait to see the results of your project!
Nooooooo! Are you serious! I hope not because that’s the only store close enough to where I live about an hour away!
Happy Easter!!!
These plants are listed in the order of most pollinator traffic to the least. I’m pretty heavy on perennials.
#1 - Anise hyssop (agastache) - This plant gets the most traffic by far and for a long bloom period. It’s the most popular by far and away over the course of summer with bees, both native and honey. I’m planting a couple of other kinds of agastache this year to see if they get the same level of traffic.
#2 - Potato onions - I know you’re supposed to pull the blooms off when these things bloom, but for the short while that they are blooming they have a crazy amount of traffic, from both butterflies and bees. Anise hyssop wins out 1st place just based on bloom duration.
#3 - Bee balm (bergamot/monarda) - Ironically there is way more butterfly traffic than bees on these, but it gets quite a bit of both. I have native ones from a ditch that bloom earlier and for a shorter duration than Spielarten mix. Both are nice for tea. I’m planting red bee balm this year.
#4 - Spotted bee balm - Quite a bit of traffic. Unique blooms. Got a video of a unique wasp on them last year: https://youtube.com/shorts/Mn4ZxY4B5ic?si=PhOqQREBeg1vGKlP
#5 - Echinacea (coneflower) - They get a fair amount of traffic, and they’re beautiful and I’ve got some gorgeous colors I’ve grown from seed off my own plants.
#6 - Blanketflower (goblin gaillardia) - A fair amount of traffic, plenty of beautiful blooms that go well in bouquets.
#7 - Irises - Irises get quite a bit of traffic, but their bloom window is so short that they get bumped down the list a ways.
#8 - Rose of Sharon - Most of their traffic is native bees, and that’s fine. Their long bloom time is nice.
#9 - Zinnias - A fair amount of traffic.
#10 - Daylilies - Same as Irises, just less traffic that I see.
#11 - Peonies - Absolutely gorgeous, but not much action from pollinators that I see.
Fruit trees and such not included in this list. There’s something special about walking through a row of flowers that has so much bee activity that you can practically feel the vibration from them buzzing.
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My favorite things to watch for bees, and various wasps and little bees and predators and bugs are Crown Vetch (which keeps growing each year)… and my local Asters…
The Asters and Crown Vetch become very thick and dense… so plan ahead if you want to get them going… in a place where you never want to mow again.
Calico Aster is probably my favorite… it becomes almost like a shrub with gazillions of flowers that everything loves…then the birds spread the seed like crazy. Also the seed falls everywhere.
Hairy Vetch kind of isnt worth the space… it reseeds here and can be very beautiful but it doesnt last long.
I have all kinds of goldenrods going… i find them by the road and get the seeds in the Fall… so far they arent that busy… but they are pretty.
Brown eyed susans… i have these going and they can get kind of out of control… i see alot of activity on them.
Chicory… i love these things… i have them planted in my worst spaces that nothing should grow…they seem to prefer that. I love watching the bees and things go after them but i enjoy watching the finches eat the seed more…they are like acrobats when they go to seed.
Elderberry- i just grow them for wildlife really… the bees love the flowers and the birds enjoy the berries. Last year some tent worms got busy on some of the heads…which some predator (maybe a bird) ate all of them… so that worked out. Going forward i shouldnt have a problem with tent worms.
Not mowing and letting things run their course is probably my favorite thing going right now for gazing…i never have any idea from one year to the next what the birds dropped on those areas and its ever changing.
My bird feeders are situated where the birds can run to cover on areas that i dont mow… so migrating birds usually drop seed as they come and go. Not to mention the things that i have planted get spread more and more.
So the bees pollinate…which makes seed which the birds eat then the cycle keeps repeating… They are both helping themselves to grow more food… all i have to do is to leave it alone.
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If you can grow Jewelweed… it grows like crazy in damp places here… its a favorite of my bumblebees that go up in the flowers then the hummingbirds really work them good. Some folks call it hummingbird weed.
Cleome- I think some call it spider flower. Here it is a bumble bee and various other bees and humming bird magnet they cant get enough. In the early morning and late evening they are loud with bumblebees. (during the heat of the summer in August it smells like marijuana).
Both are kind of hard to get going from seed as far as i know…but once the seed is in the ground you will never get rid of them. Maybe they are double dormant or something.
Each cleome plant must have 100000 seeds it seems… The stalks get hard and rigid so at the end of the season i cut them and toss them in the habitat area…
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There bee resorts are so cute. I need to get couple for bees in my backyard. Although it’s so strange that I didn’t see any bees this year while my J plums are blooming like crazy
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Have you ever tried growing perennial lantana? A friend’s children love the big bush in the neighborhood because there were so many butterflies, bees and moths that would populate it and they could try to catch them.
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I haven’t grown lantana at all. I don’t think it would ever be reliably hardy here. Even though we recently got moved to zone 7a, our winters have been consistently in the 0 - -10 range for a while. Last winter a family member’s vehicle registered -14 at our place. I did plant some butterfly bushes several years back. They got quite a bit of butterfly traffic, although not nearly as much as bee balm. All of them died during their first winter. I also forgot to include these:
Lilac - Some traffic, but not nearly as much as I thought there would be. I think they kind of get lost in all the commotion with the fruit trees blooming at the same time.
Daffodils- They get some traffic, but again, not as much as I expected. I think the bees are distracted by dandelions and purple dead nettle blooming at this early stage too.
Purple dead nettle - Not so much a flower as a weed with tiny pink flowers, but the native bees do work them a lot early in the year. I regularly pull them up from all over and feed them by the bucketful to my chickens.
Chocolate mint - Pretty popular with natives who are nesting very close by. Fairly short bloom time though. It is trying to spread out but where it’s at it is doomed to fail.
Tulips - A little action, not very much though, and not for very long.
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I have even seen well-established ones winter-killed here!
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Saw a big queen Bumblebee flying around in the yard today.
I went to Aldi today picked up the bee houses. Thanks @krismoriah for the ideas. It’s easier just to buy it than making it myself. I bought both styles. Hope the bees like them
I have a patch of bee balms growing in my yard for bees. Bumblebees like catnip flowers a lot. It has long blooming season and i saw bees picking its nectares in later fall when no other flowers were blooming. Another flower I saw bees love is the creepy Charlie, I know many people hate it. . Bees also love thistle flowers.
I grow more than I needed amount of t currants and gooseberry. Their flowers attract a lot of Bumblebees .
Besides providing habitat for the bees,.it’s very importantnot to avoid spray pesticide when bees are around.
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