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Plants for bees

Plants recorded as feeding bees, including the specialist bees that depend on a few kinds of flower.

Bees need pollen as well as nectar: pollen is what they raise their young on. Single flowers give both; many double flowers, bred for extra petals, have little of either, so where a plant comes in single and double forms, choose the single.

Every plant here is recorded by NC State as visited by bees. Those marked "specialist bees" are visited by bees that collect pollen from only a few kinds of plant, and these plants matter most: a generalist bee can go elsewhere, a specialist cannot.

362 plants: 248 perennials, 18 bulbs and 96 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Bee balm

    Bee balm

    3 ft · early July to early August · specialist bees · host plant

    Shaggy, colourful flower heads that draw hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

  • Rose of Sharon

    Rose of Sharon

    10 ft · mid July to mid September · specialist bees

    An upright shrub with hollyhock-like flowers in pink, purple, white or violet-blue from midsummer to autumn, when few shrubs flower.

  • Winterberry

    Winterberry

    8 ft · grown for its leaves · specialist bees · host plant

    A native holly that drops its leaves in autumn to show branches packed with bright red berries, which last into winter until the birds take them.

  • Butterfly weed

    Butterfly weed

    24 in · late June to early August · specialist bees · host plant

    Flat clusters of vivid orange flowers in midsummer, covered in butterflies, on a low, bushy plant with a deep taproot.

  • Snowdrop

    Snowdrop

    6 in · early March to late March

    Nodding white bells that push up through the last of the snow, weeks before anything else.

  • Common lilac

    Common lilac

    11½ ft · early May to late May · host plant

    The lilac of old farmyards: large, heavily scented flower trusses in lilac, purple, white or pink in mid-spring, on a tall, suckering shrub that can live for a century.

  • Canna

    Canna

    5 ft · early July to early October · host plant

    Huge, paddle-shaped leaves, green, bronze or striped, topped with bright flowers in red, orange, yellow or pink from midsummer to frost.

  • Bugleweed

    Bugleweed

    6 in · early May to late May

    Glossy, dark rosettes knit into a dense carpet that smothers weeds in shade.

  • Shrubby cinquefoil 'Goldfinger'

    Shrubby cinquefoil 'Goldfinger'

    3 ft · early June to mid September · specialist bees

    Large, bright golden-yellow flowers like small wild roses, from June until frost, on a dense, dark-leaved mound.

  • Calla lily

    Calla lily

    2½ ft · mid May to mid July

    Pure white, funnel-shaped flowers of great elegance, each wrapped around a yellow spike, above glossy, arrow-shaped leaves.

  • Foxglove

    Foxglove

    4 ft · early June to mid July

    Tall spires of spotted, bell-shaped flowers bring height to part-shade beds in early summer.

  • Hyacinth

    Hyacinth

    10 in · mid April to early May

    Dense, waxy spikes of intensely fragrant flowers in blue, purple, pink, white or soft yellow, in mid-spring.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in late June: Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei', Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue', Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers', Japanese holly 'Soft Touch', Wild quinine, Sweet William, Inkberry 'Gem Box', Easter lily, Snowdrop, Giant snowdrop.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) cottage garden in zone 6, full sun, seen from the path in late June.
3. Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers'33. Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers'33. Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers'35. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine54. Japanese holly 'Soft Touch'47. Inkberry 'Gem Box'71. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'12. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'21. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'11. Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei'12. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'25. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine55. Wild quinine53. Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers'38. Easter lily88. Easter lily88. Easter lily88. Easter lily86. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William66. Sweet William62. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'28. Easter lily88. Easter lily89. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop9. Snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop10. Giant snowdrop
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei' × 8, pink
  2. 2 Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue' × 7, blue
  3. 3 Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers' × 4, yellow
  4. 4 Japanese holly 'Soft Touch' × 1, dark green leaves
  5. 5 Wild quinine × 8, white
  6. 6 Sweet William × 17, purple
  7. 7 Inkberry 'Gem Box' × 1, dark green leaves
  8. 8 Easter lily × 6, white
  9. 9 Snowdrop × 12, white
  10. 10 Giant snowdrop × 12, white

Planned as a cottage garden: 37 of the 46 plants (80%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers' and wild quinine anchor the back corners of the bed: the tallest plants on the plan stand there. Low plants run along 99% of the front edge: bloody cranesbill 'Max Frei' and creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'.

The planner's own design check: 10 Excellent, 7 Good.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 362 plants

Show all 362, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 128

Middle of a bed 109

Back of a bed 125

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