To attract bees, I have planted a bunch of flowers. I went down to Mahoney's Garden Center, an enormous place that has every imaginable plant, and walked around looking for flowers with honey bees on them. The busiest plant by far was the nepeta (catmint), which had several honey bees working away. There were also some small bees on the heliopsis table. I asked an employee which plants attracted most bees and he thought the lantanta, daisies and petunias were good. I purchased yellow lantana, nepeta, a daisy and two types of heliopsis. Some of these are in the pictures here. I'll hope these will attract some bees. I haven't seen any bees (except a couple of bumble bees) yet this year.
garden bees
Hymenoptera
4 comments:
I plant Isop,Hyssopus officinalis
Labiatae. and Rudbeckia purpureae the bees love them. But I´ve heard that the bee societies are heavely damage by a virus. 70% of the bees in U.S are gone. We got the same problem here in Scandinavia.
My rudbeckia will bloom later. I don't often see hyssop, photos of it look lovely.
Last year we had many bees and I thought we would not be affected by the decline. But I think that may be what I'm seeing.
My garden seems to be still and quiet without any bees. No buzzing, no flying. At least the sparrows and robins are still here.
We seem to have honeybees here in Maine, but perhaps not as many, it is hard to say. I've seen quite a few on my garden valerian and the sweet cicely, and the catmint. Of course, not much else is in bloom yet up here!
I agree with Tyra, hyssop is a bee magnet, also Lamb's Ears, which I let flower for the bees.
I love your garden, so tidy and well organized, it is gorgeous!
Ali
I sure miss the bees. I have seen only one bumble bee so far this entire year. Its a little, scruffy-looking one, but a nice buzzz. He's often somewhere in my yard.
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