top pollinator plants

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Anise Hyssop - This perennial is a top bee plant.  Nectar sugar concentration exceeds 40%! Blooms mid to late season. Attracts honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, digger bees, leafcutter bees, masked bees, mining bees, parasitic wasps, and syrphid flies. Anise Hyssop is native to BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, & Quebec. Makes a great candidate for native wildflower & meadow remediation projects. Hollow plant stems are used by nesting bees.

Basil - Attracts bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, butterflies. Plant basil beside tomatoes and peppers

Bee Balm - Wild Bergamont (Monarda fistulosa) attracts humming birds, hawk moths, solitary bees, honey bees, and bumble bees such as green sweat bees, leafcutters, and wool carder bees. Hollow stems are used by wild nesting bees.

Blanket Flower - Blooms in June. Wild bees in the parklands, grasslands, rocky mountains, and foothills love this native pollinator. 

Borage - Another top honey making plant. Also called Bee Butter. A borage flower replenishes it's nectar every 2 minutes! This means that pollinators can visit blooms for that sticky and rich sweet stuff continiously- providing a constant food source over a long season. Borage is said to produce 200 lbs of honey per acre per colony. Borage is a garden must have!

Buckwheat - A powerful companion plant. Attracts bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, assassin bugs, damsel bugs, ladybugs, pirate bugs, parasitic wasps, spiders, soldier beetles, tachnid flies. Said to make delicious honey when honey bees forage buckwheat flowers

Calendula - One of our favorite flowers to grow! Attracts bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, cuckoo bees, metallic green bees, leaf cutter bees, mason bees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, wool carder bees, ladybugs, parasitic wasps. Blooms from early summer to first frost.  Deadhead for continuous flowers. Use dried flowers to make salves. Plant by asparagus and tomatoes. Repels some soil nematodes

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) - Mid to late-season blooms. Doesn't just attract the neighborhood cats, but will also attract bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, digger bees, leafcutter bees, sweat bees, parasitic wasps, soldier bugs, and tachnid flies. Repels aphids, fleas, beetles, squash bugs, and weevils. Produces 130 lbs of honey per acre per colony

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) - Early spring blooms with a second flush in late summer/fall. Attracts bumblebees, solitary bees, honeybees. 40-80 lbs of honey per acre per colony. Also note: Scallions seem to be just as, if not more enticing to pollinators than chives.

Coriander (Cilantro) - Another great plant for honey bees. Umbrelle-style flowers also attract mining bees, sweat bees, and butterflies. Plants are quick to grow from seed and flower mid-summer. 200-500 lbs of honey per acre per colony

Dandelions - Important early-season nectar source for honey bees. No-Mow May allows dandelions to bloom and feed bees during brood rearing. Nectar sugar concentration of 74%. 100-200 lbs of honey per acre per colony

Fireweed - Nectar sugar concentration of 35%, making this an awesome honeybee plant. It is said that a colony of bees foraging from fireweed blooms produce 50-125 lbs of honey per acre per colony

Goldenrod - An important late-season food source for pollinators. Goldenrod is native to Canada and grows from West to East coast. Bumblebees, honey bees, and solitary bees like this golden flower. Wild bees use the hollow stems for nesting.

Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) - Hollyhocks have massive amounts of large-grained pollen in late summer. Nectar sugar concentration of 34%. Attracts honey bees and bumble bees

Honeywort (Cerinthe major) - Bumblebees love this flower so much that they will partake in nectar robbing to get to the source

Lavender -  Bumblebees love lavender. Also attracts honey bees and solitary bees

Liatris - Attracts bumble bees. and solitary bees such as leafcutter bees and carpenter bees. Monarch butterflies also like this spiked flower.

Moldavian Dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica) - Of the mint family. Attracts honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees. Nectar sugar concentration of 20-30%. 180-445 lbs of honey per acre per colony

Milkweed 

Mustards

Oregano

Onions - Big ball-like onion blooms seem to attract a wide range of pollinators in our gardens. Honeybees, mason bees, hoverflies, and butterflies gather here.

Prairie Clover

Phacelia - Also known as Bee's Friend. 

Rosemary

Sages

Scarlet Runner Bean

Sea Holly

Self-Heal (Prunella)

Strawflowers - Strawflowers are always a very popular hang-out spot for pollinators.  We make sure we plant strawflowers everywhere as they really do attract a wide range of insects. Blooms from early summer to first frost. 

Sunflowers - Sunflowers act like a beacon, attracting flying pollinators into your yard.

Thyme

Vetch

Common Wild Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) - Bumble bees, Honey bees, Solitary bees, including mining bees, and sweat bees. Carder bees use the tiny hairs along the flower stems. Yarrow is native all throughout Canada & USA. An essential foraging flower for short-tongued bees.