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Bees favorite plant

103K views 161 replies 102 participants last post by  mharrell11 
#1 ·
Is there one plant that honeybees just go crazy over?
 
#86 ·
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What an incredible thread.

I really appreciate all the tips.

My wife is going to think I'm insane for experimenting with some of these, but what wife doesn't think their husband is insane already? Might as well be over something like this.

Someone tried to post this link earlier, but it was incorrect. It's a wealth of info:


Dr. Stashenko’s list of honeybee plants

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#90 ·
Dandelions are an extremely important plant for bees. They get pollen and nectar in large quantities from them. I tell everyone I can how important they are. I mow mine in a staggered fashion; leaving some to bloom and some to try again. I’m not sure how long they last if left alone but it is long enough to give bees a great start in the spring. If there is a patch fairly near a hive it will be really buzzing on good days. If you like making splits or you buy package bees then peak dandelion time is a great time to do these things.
 
#91 ·
thanks dave, i have a good patch in my backyard and the bees are on them a lot. i built a swarm box and placed it in their flight path w/wax striped top bars and a little lemongrass oil. i'm hopeful. i also placed a jar of sugar water on top.
 
#92 ·
Borage is popular with my bees. When I lived in Denver, they were all over the Russian Sage bush. Horsemint, a wild relative Lemonmint, is always well visited by my bees. But the two hands down favorites seem to be: 1.) Chinese Tallow tree -- supposedly good for wax building. 2.) Purple tansy.

Last year, I planted a wildflower mix that included purple tansy. It was covered with bees. And, it survived the worst drought in Texas' recorded history, and bloomed for almost 3 months without water, and in our ungodly hot summer! :eek::applause:

This year, I bought three pounds of tansy seed and planted it in early January. (It would need to be planted in the late fall in climes north of mine.) It is already coming up strongly, but no blooms yet. It has strong taproots, and does a great job breaking up the soil, as I understand it.

My advice is this: Try different things, and if it grows well for YOU, and the bees like it, plant some more. The trick is to try and find different things that bloom at different times, so there's always something available.

Good luck!
Summer
 
#96 ·
+1 for borage, brassicas, clovers, milkweeds, & mints. of course goldenrod and asters, which are fall staples here. add also willow (in bloom now and clouded with a diversity of pollinators I never knew were out there), burdock (long flowering season), and a little garden plant that looks like a mini-borage called Pulmonaria (girls are spending a lot of time on it right now).
 
#97 ·
Perennial - my red flowering quince has been in bloom for more than a month. Even with dandelion everywhere...and fruit trees now in bloom as well, you can walk near the quince and hear "the buzz".
Annual - my fall garden greens are still in bloom after 2 weeks. Normally, I sow approx. 20X60 patch. Next fall, I think I'll make it a half acre!

CC
 
#99 ·
Stock Seed Farms has developed a "Stock's Pollinator Mix" of 40 species. I have ordered 2 lbs to plant this spring.

Stock Seed Farms has put together this mixture with annual and perennial wildflowers plus legumes for use in creating pollinator habitat. One key to providing good pollinator habitat is to make sure there are blooms from early spring all the way through late fall. This mixture will produce diverse colors and flower shapes making it attractive to many species of pollinators. Another recommendation is to plant this mixture close to flowering trees and/or native grasses to provide additional blooms, nesting sites, and shelter. Our Prairie 7 or Prairie 3 Plus prairie grass mixtures work well for that purpose. Seed this mixture in mid spring. The legumes, annual wildflowers, and many perennials will bloom the first year with increased blooms the second and third year as perennials establish themselves.


http://www.stockseed.com/wildflowers_product_display.asp?pid=626
 
#101 ·
Well, I've been meaning to do this for awhile...I'm changing my vote from broccoli to borage. After I posted my vote on broccoli the next post was borage, so I said okay, I'll see If they have borage seed at the local nursery. Indeed they did, 25 seeds for about $2.00. I say man, these are pretty expensive seed. Anyway, I plant them in pots under lights in march, and get 22 plants. I gave a couple to a friend, and the rest I put in my yard in different places. By the end of the year, the plants I put out had already reseeded and new plants were coming up. A single plant doesn't have too many blossoms blooming at once, so its best to plant a patch. The bees indeed do love this plant. They were the last plant the bees would leave even as the sun was setting. Those plants that had come up from the seed at the end of the summer amazingly survived the winter with sub zero temperatures ( they were under snow that year) and were the first thing to bloom in the spring, about the same time as my pie cherry tree blooming, which the bees also love.. The plant seems to have two stages. When it first grows, it stays close to the ground, no blooms, but quite hardy, able to resist some pretty cold temperatures in this stage. Next it shoots up a primary stem kind of like a hollyhock that the blooms form on. It's pretty flimsy and falls over easily so it helps to stake it. I found that putting a sheet of concrete reinforcement wire horizontally about 18 inches to 2 feet above them which they can grow up and through works well as a support, especially for a patch of about 5 x 8 feet. This one patch I had from only 10 of the plants from the first year, produced around a 100 plants the next spring. When this patch was in full bloom, I'd estimate there was easily over a 100 bees on it. Unfortunately I hadn't put the wire on it at that time and on a windy day it all fell over from the center out. That pretty much finished it off, so I rototilled it under and replanted (late July) putting the wire on top this time and it was just beginning to flower when I got a 20 degree night in October that killed the flowering plants. The plants in the first stage are still alive. Its now December and most everything is dead except for the 1st stage borage and my broccoli. The broccoli managed to survive a 13 degree night up close to the house a month ago and was still blooming with a couple of bees visiting. Its been unusually warm this winter, in Aurora Colorado, no moisture hardly at all. I'm not expecting to make it through tonight with the expected lows around 5 degrees. It snowed last night but not enough to cover and protect the plants. I'm curious to see if the borage can survive the near zero temperatures without a snow blanket. But, if it doesn't, I have a plenty of seed to plant this spring. Oh, one other thing, when the borage starts blooming, it doesn't stop until it's dead, so it has a long bloom life. My broccoli's pretty good, it can bloom for a month, but once it starts making seed, it's pretty much done. The cat mint I have, the bees really like, but it's blooms only last few weeks, but can be extended by cutting off the seed pods. I have Golden rod too, but the bees here don't seem too interested in it. I think it's because it attracts all kinds of mason bees in huge numbers. HollyHocks, so so, crimson clover, the bumble bees like it, honey bees once in awhile. That's what I have in my garden.
 
#102 ·
Great post Mikescomic,
I have had pretty much the same experience with Borage and it is now on my “gotta plant it” list. Got so excited I just did a blog post on it.
I actually found out about right here and the credit for me planting it goes to…. Drum roll please
Omie - With her great blog and photos; she made a believer out of me.
I highly recommend borage to everyone to plant for the bees.
 
#104 ·
I have a 4 acre plot where my hives are that is barren, minus thistle and grass that grows. Sprayed last fall to kill off the thistle. I am planting a large variety of wild flowers for the hives. Goldenrod and native aster was spread over one acre last fall late. Have a couple pounds of wildflower bee mix, cone flower, cosmos, bee balm, catmint, anise hysopp, black eyed susans, vipers bugloss, milkweed, borage, lacy phacilia, 8 oz english lavender, and ladino clover. All are atleast in the 1/2 pound each, most are one pound. gonna just mix well and drill. Lavender will be started in the greenhouse then set with the tobacco setter. Just gonna let the ground go fallow after planting.
 
#105 ·
Last year I planted a variety of wildflowers for the bees, but the one that caught their attraction the most was the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant...I had never heard of it before, but it grew to about 6 ft tall and had incredible flowers and the bees would not leave it alone. Google it for images...really nice! I don't know about the nectar/pollen amounts or ratios, but I have never seen that bees go after anything so much! I also have fruit trees, salvias, bee balm, russian sage, lavender, raspberries, blackberries, flax, etc... no comparison! It also seeds heavily, so I gathered a ton of them last year and am planting it everywhere this year.
 
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