Bees are attracted to most flowering plants, more so to those that offer both pollen and nectar, which includes most (if not all) clematis. It is hard to find any documentation as to which clems bees are most attracted to but there seems to be more frequency with the species rather than the hybrids. SAC, the viornas, any nodding bell-shaped flowering forms should be nice bee attractors.

I might be inclined to give C. 'Bees Jubilee' a try - it must have gotten that cultivar name for some good reason :-) Most likely won't be large enough to grow well into an apple tree but worth trying out nearby.

You do realize that most clematis will bloom too late to offer enticement for bees if you are looking for help with the pollination of the apples themselves.

Nah, I'm not worried by the apples(known here as crap apples)being pollinated.
Thanks for the info on the clematis-I figured the single or bell shaped ones would be more attractive to a bee! Even though I like the big flowered full type!!LOL!! Maybe I'll do one of each?
-B

My experience mirrors that of what GG says. I see more bees and bumblebees attempting to get into the bell shaped flowers of my US native clematis (viorna, glaucophylla, texensis, addisonii, pitcheri, etc) as well as some of the hybrids of these clematis than other open type clematis flowers. Even the hummingbirds have been noticed trying to get to the nectar in the tight flowers of clematis texensis.

Nice notion on the Bee's Jubilee, gardengal. But seriously, it gets its name from Bees of Colchester, Essex, an old established nursery which introduced it in 1950.

Clematis montana is vogorous enough to climb into a tree and flowers at the same time as the apple blossom. In fact you could plant C montana 'Apple Blossom'. It's scented too.

Thanks for the explanation, flora :-) It seemed like a logical assumption at the time, but I am housesitting at the moment and so all my sources are unavailable. I'm sure my texts would have told me the same thing had I been able to check.

And I think you might mean Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom' - to my knowledge there isn't a cultivar of montana with that name. And I'm not sure the montana will work very well in zone 5 and I know the armandii won't.

Duh. Gardengal - of course you're right - I must stop posting and cooking at the same time. It's my lovely new shiny Christmas laptap which I can have on the counter top. My slow old PC was upstairs with the reference books.I was much more careful then.

I honestly don't see bees in my clematis; they seem to prefer my other flowering plants.

nhbabs, do you grow only the large flowering hybrids or viticellas or do you also have any of the bell shaped clematis typical of the US native clematis or similar ones? The bell shaped clematis are the ones that I have seen the bees and bumble bees attempting to get into!

Could someone recommend places to get bell shaped clematis? I thought about Silver Star Vinery(has anyone ordered from them?), they cost more that the local box store but I like buying from a grower, not a middleman. It used to be about the dollar, but now it's about how things look next year!!LOL!!
-B

Well I know that Joy Creek has quite a few of the bell shaped clematis including a variety of clematis texensis called the Tarpley River form. They also have quite a few others that are hybrids of what appears to be some of the US native clematis including Clematis addisonii, 'Haizawa' (Kazushige Ozawa), 'Fudo' (Ozawa), 'Fuji Kahori' (Chikuma), 'Kahori no Kimi' (Ozawa),Clematis ochroleuca, 'Yugiri' (Ozawa/Chikuma).

Siskyou Rare Plant Nursery sells a pink clematis pitcheri.

Dan Long at Brushwood Nursery sells viorna, a pitcheri hybrid, crispa, japonica, texensis and addisonii.

Ellen Hornig at Seneca Hills Perennials sells albicoma, crispa, fremonti, glaucophylla, texensis, two forms of viorna, et al.

I am sure there are others selling bell shaped clematis out there. A good resource of the US native clematis bells is Carol Lim's site linked below. She has a tab that lists sources that is quite good.

There are also a lot of other clematis including fusca and others that are bell shaped. If you know of specific clematis, there was a post here a while back listing all the suppliers of clematis we could come up with. It can be found at the following GW link:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/clematis/msg101205077324.html?25

Here is a link that might be useful: The American Bells.

OH MY!!

Brandy, glad you liked all the ones I listed. I did see however that I failed to answer your question about Silver Star Vinery in my excitement of listing sources of some bell shaped clematis.

Silver Star Vinery is a great clematis nursery out in Washington State that is run by Debbie. I have known Debbie for several years via the internet and other gardening forums. She sells large one gallon clematis of exceptional quality. Because she does sell one gallon sized plants and basically leaves the root balls intact, wrapped in newspaper, her clematis are more expensive to purchase and to ship due to the weight. That however would not stop me from ordering from her again due to the size of plants that she ships. In the past I have not known her to carry any of the bell shaped clematis but I have not perused her site lately so she might have added some.

Have fun perusing the clematis sources listed above and don't break the bank trying to purchase them all at once! LOL

To Miguel's excellent list, I would add C. alpina and macropetala selections as well. Also Clematis tangutica if you are brave and have the room :-) And there are various named hybrids that will produce similar shaped flowers: C. 'Betty Corning' and 'Princess Diana' come to mind.

They didn't have the bell shaped clems, but Breeze Hill Greenhouse always has about 9 or 10 varieties of clematis that have a LOT of roots (in gal. pots). IIRC, they are $10.....just something local to think about. I

I love my 'Betty Corning' and she grows big enough to climb one of my crabapples though that isn't where she is planted.

I dug up 'Princess Diana' because she was weak and mildewed.

Miguel - I don't have any of the tight bells like C. pitcheri or crispa, though I do have Princess Diana and one of the Evison-Poulsen hybrids that is shaped pretty much like Betty Corning and one macropetala.

Thanks for the specific suggestions on plants (& their sources) that the bees like. Do you know if any of these would be attractive to humming birds as well?

Yes, the hummers will enjoy them as well. In fact, there is a blurb on the Rogerson Clematis Collection website about the bees and the hummers duking it out over the flowers of the bell shaped clems :-) IME, hummers find most clematis attractive anyway but then I have a pretty active Anna's hummingbird population -- it's pretty amazing the wide range of plants they find attractive.

Nhbabs, the only clematis that I have ever seen hummingbirds trying to get nectar from in my garden was my red clematis texensis plant. I am surprised about that since I have plenty of other typical hummingbird plants in my garden as well as feeders.

Bees adore Princess Diana. There are days, particularly in late summer when the vine literally buzzes. I was stung twice last year just reaching in to deadhead without paying attention. My Duchess of Albany, also a texensis, does not attract the same number of bees.

Thanks nwkrys,
Princess Diana was one I really wanted to try! I ended up going with two glaucophyllas from Seneca Hills. I was afraid Diana wouldn't get tall enough, but I'm looking at my yarden for places to put small arbors for some of the shorter clematis.
-B