# Bee plants for Maryland



## razoo (Jul 7, 2015)

My kids have a veggie patch they abandoned this year, so next year I will annex it ( I'm British and that's what we do)
What suggestions do you have for pants that are great for honey bees?


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

I use this list to pick out flowers, trees, bushes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_American_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees


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## Clairesmom (Jun 6, 2012)

Right now, my bees are going crazy on anise hyssop, borage, lavender, and obedient plant. Other favorites are chives, or any other allium, bachelor buttons, sunflowers, zinnias, and any kind of mint, or anything related to the mints. Veronica, poppies, and roses. Oh, and salvias- they love those on my garden.

They also love rosemary, thyme, and oregano flowers.


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## razoo (Jul 7, 2015)

missybee said:


> I use this list to pick out flowers, trees, bushes
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_American_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees


Thanks for this! I have been poring over the information. 
I think I will start with planting common milkweed. 
What plants did you select for your bees?


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

Clairesmom said:


> anise hyssop


We have a smallish patch of this we planted two years ago. It's amazing how long it blooms and pollinators go nuts for it. Here it has been blooming since late May and is just now starting to slow down. If I had enough acreage, I think I'd plant it with just this as the bloom time coincides with a big part of our dearth. I love chewing on the leaves for the black licorice taste.


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## razoo (Jul 7, 2015)

Nordak said:


> We have a smallish patch of this we planted two years ago. It's amazing how long it blooms and pollinators go nuts for it. Here it has been blooming since late May and is just now starting to slow down. If I had enough acreage, I think I'd plant it with just this as the bloom time coincides with a big part of our dearth. I love chewing on the leaves for the black licorice taste.


That is interesting. According to this list
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_American_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees
Anise hyssop, and most of the other plants you listed in your other post, are a minor source for nectar.

Can anyone explain this?


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## mlanden (Jun 19, 2016)

I've discovered lately that alliums must be a terrific food source for honeybees. I have onions (no idea what type; a neighbor gave me a bag of bulbs years ago) that've bloomed in their typical orb-shape, and the bees're all over them all day. Bumblebees, carpenter bees, fly-like bees, waspish creatures, etc. It's a cornucopia for 'em, apparently ...... For what it's worth: poison ivy blooms are attractive to bees. I've heard that some honeys can be predominantly from p. ivy! I've never seen a bee of any kind go to my paw paw blooms but they do love my kiwi/apple/grape/persimmon blooms.

Mitch


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## crmauch (Mar 3, 2016)

mlanden said:


> I've discovered lately that alliums must be a terrific food source for honeybees. I have onions (no idea what type; a neighbor gave me a bag of bulbs years ago) that've bloomed in their typical orb-shape, and the bees're all over them all day. Bumblebees, carpenter bees, fly-like bees, waspish creatures, etc. It's a cornucopia for 'em, apparently ...... For what it's worth: poison ivy blooms are attractive to bees. I've heard that some honeys can be predominantly from p. ivy! I've never seen a bee of any kind go to my paw paw blooms but they do love my kiwi/apple/grape/persimmon blooms.
> 
> Mitch


Pawpaws are pollinated by flies and beetles. Kiwi might be attractive to bees but from what I've read previously they don't provide nectar. Grapes are wind/self pollinating so I would guess that they're pollen only too.


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## Clairesmom (Jun 6, 2012)

razoo, yes, many of the plants I listed are considered minor nectar sources. But, from your link, "The classification in major or minor nectar source is very dependent on the agricultural use of the land".

So, a plant like anise hyssop, which is not widely grown commercially, is not likely to be considered a major nectar source. However, in a garden setting, it blooms at a time when other nectar producing plants in my area are slowing down and the bees work it heavily. I suppose, if one planted farm fields of it, it might then be considered a major source, but outside of a few farms up in Canada, I have never heard of it being grown as a crop. 

We have a 240 acre farm, with a 1/4mile long driveway which is lined on both sides with fields. There is a shallow drainage ditch which runs between the fields and the driveway. The total distance between fields and driveway is around 20' on each side. I am collecting seeds from all of the plants I mentioned above and will be scattering them in the ditches next Spring. Hoping that many of them will germinate, but if they don't I will wait until later in the Spring when the plants start growing in my garden. I always remove hundreds and hundreds of volunteers because I leave most of the seeds on the plants for the winter. If my seeds don't take I will move volunteer seedlings from the garden to the ditches- more work, but it will be worth the effort. I hope, in the next couple of years, to have the ditches completely filled with perennial plants which the bees can forage on.

Concurrently, I am working on our 1/2 acre orchard, planting more perennials out there in the tree rows, partly for a planned chicken food forest, but the plants will also provide nectar and pollen for the bees.

My thinking is that, if the bees are working the plants in my garden, then those plants must have something to offer them which they are not getting from managed crops or wildflowers or other plants at that particular time, so it is worth my effort to plant as many of them as I can. We still have clover blooming here , but many of the bees have chosen to work my perennials instead of the clover. So, I think the perennials are worth having around.

And, as a bonus, most of my perennials are nicer to look at than fields of, say, soybeans, lol.


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## justin (Jun 16, 2007)

borage, catnip, anise hyssop, and then if you garden it let the onions, broccoli, asparagus, and holy basil flower and they will keep going as long as there is water. all those things are still blooming in my garden and the bees are working them.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

They love mint and it blooms for quite a while.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Plant some early and late blooming golden rods too.
White clovers and alfalfa should be planted too. Catmint is better than catnip someone
mention here. Have you try the fast blooming buckwheat before?


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## Estell Tabor (Aug 5, 2014)

Blue mist bush(Cartopteris). I planted 2 this past spring. They have been blooming for at least 2 weeks. I have read that they bloom right up to frost. Bumble bees found them 1st(as it seems to me they always do),but the honey bees are working them good now. I planted one at my house and the other on my farm. I plan to start several more next year but i had to see the bees working it my self before planting a lot of them. I notice bees working Autum joy sedum also. I try to target plants that bloom in August its a tough time of the year where i live.


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