Are you tired of hand-pollinating plants and want pollinators like bees to take over the position?
Well, you’ll need to attract them to your garden first. And, not only for one season but throughout the year so that the pollination is continuous and efficient.
In this article, I’ve curated a long list of flowers that you can plant to draw bees to your garden. The best part is that all of these flowers bloom at different times, meaning you’ll have bees in your garden all year round.
Flowers That Draw In Bees
1: Bee Balms
As the name suggests, bee balms are excellent for drawing not only bees but also other pollinators like butterflies and hummingbirds into the garden. They offer vibrant tubular blooms as well as a strong floral fragrance that can easily fill up the garden.
2: Coneflowers
The large, round coneflowers can be spotted from afar due to their striking colors and bees prefer that. You’ll find a lot more bees around them in mid-summer because that’s when these flowers bloom their best.
3: Rudbeckias
The first thing you’ll notice about rudbeckias is their eerily similar appearance to sunflowers, except their yellow and orange petals fold backward and the center grows out like a dark round ball. They’ll bloom from summer to fall and work very well for drawing in pollinators to the garden.
4: Borage
In my opinion, borage is one of the most unique flowers out there. Its colors, the way it blooms, and the peach fuzz around its blooms is truly mesmerizing to witness close up. It blooms in late spring all the way up till summer and brings in bees to the garden like no other.
5: Sunflowers
Although sunflowers are quite popular around the world, I still think they’re underrated when it comes to drawing bees to the garden. Not a lot of gardeners plant them for this reason but I think they should. I have a lot of sunflowers in my backyard garden and the place is filled with bees from summer to fall.
6: Zinnias
Zinnias have to be one of my most favorite flowers if we’re talking about overall flower shape and color. Their round and elegant blooms are perfect for attracting bees to the garden while also adding great color diversity to the landscape.
7: Goldenrod
As the name implies, goldenrods offer clusters of tiny bright yellow blooms that combine together to form the shape of small rods. They’re perfect for adding some texture to the garden and grabbing the attention of bees from afar. Bees catch onto striking, vibrant colors real quick.
8: Crocus
Although the name Crocus may sound like a nickname for a baby crocodile, it’s actually a very simple but elegant flower variety that attracts bees due to the rich, golden pollen that’s present inside each flower.
9: Foxglove
Foxgloves offer large bell-shaped flowers on top of long, slender stems. Their colors can vary between purple, violet, yellow, and white and they’re highly attractive to pollinators like bees thanks to the rich nectar that they possess.
10: Hollyhock
If you’ve never seen hollyhocks, they grow and bloom on tall stems with such uniformity and symmetry that one cannot resist but give them the attention they deserve. You’ll find hollyhocks blooming in the summertime and drawing in lots of bees to the garden.
11: Asters
I feel like if you stay in the flower gardening space long enough, you’ll eventually learn about asters in one way or another. They’re large, elegant, and bold but not in the way other flowers are bold. These tend to make a statement of peace and serenity; that’s the best way to describe them.
Asters tend to bloom late in summer and work incredibly well for bringing pollinators like bees and butterflies to the garden thanks to the abundant nectar they possess.
