Barbara:

1. Few things will attract bees more than citrus blossoms. You're already on it.

2. I'm assuming you're speaking of honey bees. They are a domesticated, introduced species that need no "help".

3. Our native pollinators -- hundreds of species of wasps, bees, flies, butterflies and more -- are best helped by planting a diversified landscape garden and by eliminating broad-spectrum insecticides from a gardening regime.

Joe

Hi Barbara,
In my yard, bees love the salvias (especially May Night and White May night), roses, lavenders, and Rozanne Geraniums. In fact, I make sure that whatever work needs to be done around the Rozannes is done early, otherwise they get irritated and buzz me (I'm a big chicken). They also like monarda and cosmos in the summer.

They have been attacking my salvias, lavenders and verbena. They especially like the silver frost lavender.

Yes; salvias, milkweed especially; and lavender are great bee attractors. Monarda and Black-Eyed Susans are, too.

Thanks for all your help!! Time for me to shop. I greatly appreciate it! Barbara

Lavenders, rosemary, salvia. You want them to have food sources available year round--spanish lavenders are good for that. And no no no pesticide.

My pot pond attracts so many bees looking for a drink that most people are afraid to sit on the bench next to the pond. I notice that the bees don't go to the pot pond that's in the shade though. I think there is a wild hive somewhere in the neighborhood, and that's what I have visiting.

> My pot pond attracts so many bees looking for a drink that most people are afraid to sit on the bench next to the pond.

Would you happen to have a photo of your pot pond? I have to be honest and say that I didn't know bees "drank" water. It would make sense... I've seen the butterflies land on plants/flowers after I've watered.

I don't use any pesticides; so I think I'll be okay there.

Thanks again for the responses! Barbara

My California poppies also seem to be attracting lots of bees. I was out cleaning pots and felt a little threatened by all the buzzing. There were honey bees, a big black bumbler, and at least one wasp that I saw out there this morning.

I love the bright orange color of California poppies! Thanks!!

I have been having tremendous bee populations visiting my Echium fastuosum - Pride of Madera.

I also second Joe's #3 suggestion above.

They seem to like Nepeta too.

Thanks for all your help! I think I'm going to try and attract our native pollinators into my yard, too. It's great to have a list and know what to buy. Barbara

Bees either drink water or bathe in it (Haha!), because they visit my creek all the time...when they're here, anyway. When I had a dog, they'd swarm his water dish, too. Poor guy even got stung once. :)

Brenda

pot pond

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I'm going to have to learn how to create a pot pond!! Beautiful!!

Before we brought our bulldog home, I used to have a bird dish on the lawn, which attracted the local Golden Finches, sparrows, pigeons, crows, and a squirrel. Oh, and maybe a skunk. Never did see anything else near it. Will have to try it again!

Thanks, all!

These native plants in my garden always draw native bees (big, black/yellow, solitary, non-stinging, highly efficient pollinators):

California poppy
Elegant clarkia
Coyote mint
Meadowfoam
Coffeeberry (tiny flowers with major bee appeal)
California buckwheat
Aster chilensis (draws honeybees too)
California fuchsia

These plants are easily available at native plant nurseries. For one near you, visit www.cnplx.info

I'm WAITING for my fuschia to flower... that stuff sure spreads! :D I've got all sorts of plants blooming for the poor bees, I have tons of carpenter bees, and occasionaly I see a poor honey bee. I have never seen a bumble bee in Central California, are there any here?

I've seen a fair number of them over at Three Palms Nursery in Davis, Heathen, but I've never had one in my yard. I've had a few carpenter bees, though. Very chunk style. :)

Brenda

My kids used to call the Leptospermum scoparium/New Zealand tea tree the "bee tree". More of a shrub than a tree, nice twisty branches, and low water use. Lots of flowers in spring to summer, several shades of pink to choose from, pale to ruby red.

Here is a link that might be useful: New Zealand Tea Tree

I threw out some borage seeds and the bees loved the resulting plants. Borage reseeds magnificently, but the babies are pretty easy to get rid of.

Basil and Rosemary are big attractions for bees in my yard.

I second the rosemary, lavander, california poppy and basil. the number one bee plant in my yard is a perennial basil, whose botanical name i don't know, as it was a gift cutting. the giver called it "african purple basil". it flowers 12 months of the year, and has bees 365 days. i keep some of it under my fruit trees so i get great pollination in spring, and it is pretty enough to go in the flower border as well. Mo

I too am paying much closer attention to the honey bees since hearing about the loss of so many hives. Last year I had the small blossom sunflowers in amongst my vegetables like squash and beans and the honey bees were going crazy for the pollen all summer. Of course they visited the other vegetable blossoms while they were at it. So far itÂs mostly native bees of all sizes. There is a large family of hunting wasps looking for insects including geranium bud worms. When my lemon tree was in bloom earlier this spring there were just a few honey bees visiting. It will be interesting to see what happens this year when the sunflowers bloom. I gage the health of my garden by how many critters want to live there. IÂve got snakes, lizards, toads, peepers, a few praying mantises during summer and a large variety of insects including those pesky leaf miners on my chard that I canÂt seem to get the upper hand on, in an organic way.

You may also want to look into providing habitat in your yard for the native species. I don't have any links readily available, but the information is abundant on the web. I did a quick probe a few weeks ago, and Google returned a lot of links.

Oh, and for the bumble bees in Central California, depending on what you mean by central, yes. I was swarmed by a disturbed nest when I was little, here in the CV.

If you are going to put water out for the bees make sure they have something to climb out of the water onto, otherwise they will drown. I have found many dead bees in 5 gallon pails I left out to collect rain water. A small piece of wood that will float on the surface will suffice.

Here is a picture of a benificial insect. A Yellow Jacket, finishing off a green worm it found on my lettuce. There are a whole family of them eating insects in my garden all day, every day. So far they are ignoring me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Jacket