What's the buzz

Be bee-friendly by planting flowers that keep pollinators humming year-round

Monarda (bee balm) lives up to its name.
Monarda (bee balm) lives up to its name.

Lately there seems to be a steady hum of bad news about bees -- that they're in decline, whether from parasites, pesticides or lack of host plants. But there are things we can do to help attract bees to our landscapes.

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A carpenter bee takes aim at a sunflower growing in the Pulaski County Community Garden.

Bees are important to humans' food supply. They pollinate fruits and vegetables, in addition to row crops, so they help feed the world. The world's main pollinator insects by far are bees, and while European honeybees are the best known, there are more than 4,000 species of native bees in the United States.

Home beekeeping is gaining in popularity, with more and more gardeners raising bees in the country or the city. But if you're not in a position to make that commitment, you can help by planting your garden with bees in mind.

Bees like flowers. To help bring bees to your garden, adding a diverse mix of flowering plants can extend the season for bee visitations -- as well as the time frame in which people will enjoy visiting it, too.

IF YOU BUILD IT ...

In addition to flowers, provide a water source and habitat -- protection from the elements. Honeybees have their hives, but there is a whole host of native bees that can pollinate plants. To attract those, consider putting out a native bee house.

Structures designed for native bees are available commercially but also can easily be made. Simply take some scrap lumber and drill holes 3 to 5 inches deep using various sizes of drill bit. Don't drill all the way through the wood block.

Make sure you also use caution when applying pesticides in the yard, particularly insecticides, which can kill bees.

IT'S NOT JUST SUGAR

Bees visit plants for nectar and pollen. Nectar is loaded with sugars and serves as the main source of energy for the bee. Pollen balances out the diet adding proteins and fats.

Bees require large quantities of nectar and pollen to live and raise their young, and they visit flowers regularly in large numbers to obtain these foods. In doing so, they concentrate on one species of plant at a time.

Some plants are more attractive to bees than others. The key is to offer something with flowers in every season. Even in the winter, on milder days, bees will visit rosemary, hellebores (Lenten roses) and mahonia blooms. In the spring, a plethora of plants comes into bloom. Redbuds and red maple blooms are a nectar source for bees, and then we move on to peonies, kerria japonica, camellias, azaleas and spirea.

SURE BETS

While bees do love a wide range of flowers, some plants are just bee magnets.

For summer, bees love glossy abelia. This sun-loving plant will bloom from late spring through fall, and has a variety of foliage colors available.

Catmint or Nepeta is another bee magnet. The small plants bloom for a long season and are relatively carefree. Their purple blooms are covered in bees all season. "Walker's Low" is a great variety that can serve as a fill or edge plant in the garden. Catmint is related to catnip, and cats seem to like it almost as well as bees do.

Monarda or bee balm is an old-fashioned plant in the mint family. Flower colors can range from white to pink, red and purple. New varieties are more resistant to powdery mildew than older ones, but both do well in the garden -- sometimes too well. Keep in mind, they are in the mint family and can spread aggressively.

The salvia family has a whole host of bee-friendly plants. Edible sage blooms in early spring, but we have varieties that bloom off and on all season -- ending with Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) with long stems seemingly covered in purple velvet flowers, and pineapple sage, another late-season bloomer with beautiful red flowers. But almost all members in the salvia genus attract bees.

Many herbs are bee-friendly. Dill and fennel blooms attract bees, and if you don't do a good job pinching your basil, the bees love their flowers as well. Borage with its lovely blue flowers can be covered in bees, along with comfrey with pink and purple blooms. There are many varieties of hyssop or agastache that are bee-friendly and bloom for a long period in the garden.

Onion and garlic chives are attractive to bees and when your thyme, rosemary and lavender are in bloom, pollinators will find them. Obviously, fragrance is a factor in attracting bees.

Native wildflowers and their improved varieties are also good bee plants. Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan), echinacea (purple coneflower), penstemon, gaura and gaillardia (blanket flower) are long-season bloomers. Milkweeds of all types are great for bees, and so is the later blooming joe-pye weed and goldenrod. Hardy ageratum and ironweed are also good plants for bees.

Summer-blooming shrubs including buddleia, clethra, elderberry, spirea, vitex and crape myrtles are great for bees, and the blue mist shrub or Caryopteris and Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) are covered in bees when in bloom.

CAN'T SEE RED

Bees like flowers in general but some attributes that attract them include:

• Good nectar producers.

• Brightly colored petals that are usually blue or yellow or a mixture of these (bees cannot see red).

• A good landing pad or tubular flower for them to land in.

The flowers also must be open in the daytime, since bees are not active at night. A minty or sweet fragrance also is attractive, which is why bees adore the herbs.

A healthy garden with a diverse mix of plants is more attractive not only to a gardener but also to bees, butterflies and birds. Making sure yours has blooms in all seasons will do you -- and the world -- quite a bit of good.

HomeStyle on 07/19/2014

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