Have You Been Thinking of Planting Flowers for Your Bees?

Beekeepers often want to increase the nectar and pollen resources available to their bees, so they consider planting flowers for their bees. Now, at the end of the busy season, you may finally have time to work on this project.

Of all the plants that might be chosen, trees and some flowering shrubs offer the largest boost per square foot. Unfortunately, it often takes years, if not decades, for trees to flower. Don't let that deter you from planting some bee-favorite trees for the long term benefits. In most areas, fall is a great time to plant trees.

While waiting for trees to mature, plant some flowers for a quicker pay-off from your efforts

Horticulturists call the very beginning and the end of a growing season the "shoulders." These shoulders are vital parts of the bee-foraging season and may be your best choice to make a quick, significant difference for your bees. In the main part of the season, there are usually ample resources for honey bees to choose from, but at the shoulders, both the quantity and diversity of the floral resources are greatly reduced.

Begin by making note of the last bee-foraged flowers of the season in your local area. Increasing the number of individual plants of those flowers is the most reliable way to provide a valuable boost of late-season foraging capacity. And you have the advantage of knowing what already grows well in your area, so it will be easier to establish additional plants.

Which flowers to plant for fall nectar and pollen resources?

Late in the season, the mainstays are likely to be goldenrod and asters, although this may vary from one locale to another.

Honey bee foraging on goldenrod

Goldenrod is not a single plant – there are more than 100 separate species in the US, with different ones blooming at different times in their long season. If you collect seed from the later-blooming plants, you'll be sure to get seeds of the plants that will do your bees the most good at the end of the foraging year.

New England Aster

Similarly, different wild aster species bloom over an extended season. One of the most useful – and latest blooming – ones for bees is the New England Aster (Symphotrichum novae-angliae), which despite its name, is native over much of the country. If you choose aster species which are being visited by honey bees late in the season, you’ll be planting the most valuable plants.

Honey bees gorging on wingstem

Beyond these common plants, look for other local plants which the bees may be working. For instance, on my farm in northern New York, the six-foot tall plant known as wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) is a fall staple. Dubbed the “Golden Honey Plant” by beekeepers, it produces a lot of late season nectar and pollen for my bees. (It blooms much earlier in the season in the mid-Atlantic, Central and Appalachian states.)

Sedum, “Autumn Joy”

One of the most reliable, late-blooming plants in gardens that is also useful to honey bees is Sedum "Autumn Joy." It is readily available at garden centers. It can also be easily propagated from stem and leaf cuttings taken in the late spring.

Plant small bulbs to add a valuable pollen resource near your hives

If you want to do the same forage-improvement for the very beginning of the season, excellent plant choices would be the "minor" bulbs that bloom very early in the season, even before daffodils: winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), snowflakes (Leucojum vernum), and Siberian squill (Scilla siberica). All of these are small bulbs or tubers that are planted in the fall and likely to bloom in their first spring. They are reputed to be resistant to voles and deer, as well. If planted near your hives, these will provide an early spring boost of good quality pollen for your bees, just when they need it most in order to feed their new brood.

Where to get late-blooming plants for honey bees?

You can purchase many of these plants from commercial wild-flower nurseries. But if you want a low-key way to propagate locally adapted plants, you can try the following method.

After the blooms fade, collect the flower heads, stripping off any leaves. Hang them upside down, inside a brown paper lunch bag. After a few weeks, when they are thoroughly dry, crush the flower heads. Then “plant” a tiny pinch of the dried material on the surface of the ground. Place each pinch of seeds about 2 feet apart, in locations similar to the places you collected the seeds (taking into account the sun, shade, and available moisture). Don’t bury the seed, just press it firmly on to the surface of the ground, preferably right before a rainstorm which will carry the tiny seeds slightly down into the soil where they will germinate over the coming months. Be patient; you may not see blooms from these perennial plants in the first year.

Winter aconite

Snowflake

Siberian squill

Honey bees are masters of efficient foraging. Individual bees may specialize in only one type of flower for their entire foraging lives, rather than flitting around from one type of flower to another. For this reason, when introducing a new plant to the bees' menu, it’s better to use masses of one kind rather than a mix of many types. A few hundred of one of these small bulbs, planted near your hives, will be more effective and useful for the bees right from the start. Over the years you can add a different plant each year to lengthen the blooming period.

Are you more garden–minded than wildflower oriented?

If so, there is an excellent book that focuses on garden plants that are useful for honey bees. It includes lists of recommended plantings for "bee pasture" in gardens near apiaries of different sizes. Garden Plants by Peter Lindtner.