It doesn't repel bees, or any other insect.

Neither does feverfew.

Hi Lazy_gardens :),

My mother-in-law (who worked for the post office) didn't want me to plant flowers around my mailbox because they attract bees, which sting mail carriers--so I looked up flowers bees *don't* like (articles like these pointed to feverfew: https://www.gardenguides.com/121579-feverfew-bees.html, https://gardenerspath.com/plants/ornamentals/how-to-grow-feverfew/) & planted feverfew (& red verbena) so the mailbox would be pretty without endangering mail carriers :). Otherwise I would never have known the bee/feverfew connection.

Unless you disturb or interfere with them, bees won't sting. I have gardened for more than 40 years with a huge assortment of flowering plants AND bees, and I have been stung once.....and that's because I stepped on it :-) It s a different story with wasps or hornets but they are not necessarily attracted to flowering plants in teh same way that bees are.

There are very few flowers that bees are NOT attracted to and even fewer that repel them. Generally if the flowers are very shy pollen producers or the pollen is difficult to access, bees will be less active on those.

Be careful with what you read online. Many of the sources are less than reliable and the information they impart may be incorrect. Bees DO visit foxgloves - they love them!! - and they are often attracted to red flowers if the pollen and nectar levels meet their approval - monarda often comes with bright red flowers and they don't call this plant bee balm for nothing!!

Thanks for your input gardengal :).

I'm not easily convinced--I read *many* sources before planting feverfew & red verbena around the mailbox (if anything, I tend toward overkill on the research). For the 17 years I grew them there (until last summer, when we moved here), I never saw bees at that planter. I saw *plenty* of them at the bee balm, borage, honeyberries, squash flowers, etc.

I like having bees around :) & encouraged them in the vegetable garden--but didn't want to impose on the mail carrier (or aggravate my mother-in-law!).

I asked here about Tanacetum niveum because I looked extensively online (hours) for information about its relationship with bees & found absolutely *nothing*. I was hoping someone who'd actually *grown* it might be able to weigh in on one side or the other.