Bees adore Shasta daisies of all sorts and are particularly drawn to composite ray flowers - like daisies and echinacea - because of the heavy pollen load offered by the disk flowers in the center. Any heavily doubled forms like Aglaia, Sante, Ice Star or Marshmallow are less attractive due to limited access and smaller pollen offerings.

I see shastas listed on pollinator garden lists and scratch my head because my bees hang out on agastache, monarda, echinacea and zinnias. Thanks for your assurance, I'll go ahead and use Becky.

It had not really registered with me prior to your post but I would agree that Becky is low on the pollinator choice list. Is it because in my garden Becky is surrounded by so many other plants higher on their list? Quite possibly. I will pay closer attention this year.

russian sage, oregano, cosmos, agastache, & sweet yellow clover are all pollinator favorites. russian sage blooms from early summer thru late fall & the bees are steady on it. i plant it at all my bee yards.

You know, now that you mention it, I can't say I've ever noticed pollinators on the shastas. I chalk it up to what was mentioned above -- have lots of other plants that are preferred. Still, I wouldn't want to be without them, they are quintessential summer bloomers :o)

they do work my shastas. they tend to focus on one plant at a time. i'll have several things blooming & while there are some bees working them all most will be ocd focused on one plant. i keep an average of 10 hives at my home so i plant a wide variety of their favorites. 10 healthy hives could have 1/2 to a million bees in them so they need a lot of forage. they will roam as far as 5 but usually travel 1-2 mile when foraging. i have hives i a rural setting & i plant a lot of sweet yellow clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, & rape seed there. i time the planting of the rape & buckwheat so that they bloom after i've pulled my honey. they are for the bees to build up enough honey to over winter. buckwheat makes a nasty tasting honey & rape honey is bad about crystalizing. so much so that beekeepers in the upper plains harvest the honey before the bees have finished drying it because once the honey has been sealed by the bees it will crystalize in the hive.

Update: I included two clumps of Becky on rober49 and GG's recommendation. When I visited that pollinator garden today, the agastache, monarda, echinacea and mountain mint were crawling with bumbles and honeys. Becky was entertaining several tiny little native bees.

my linden tree had a proper bloom this year. ALL the pollinators were on it. you could hear the tree buzzing from 30 ft away.

At the historic site yesterday, a patch of achillea millefolium Summer Pastels that is three feet by five feet was in bloom so I decided to show it some love and pulled black cherry seedlings and lunaria seedlings from around the perimeter. No bees. Becky is blooming nicely creating a bright spot visible across the lawns. A few little guys. Curiousity piqued, I took a stroll looking for the bees. Agastache Honey Bee Blue, stachys byzantia, lavender of various types and monarda Claire Grace were buzzing.

I also never noticed my shasta daisy ever visited by any bees. same to the adjacent powwow white coneflower. Not far away, i either direction, the hyssop(agastache), the verbena, Russian sage, purple coneflowers are buzzing happily. I have to think blue and purple are their true love of colors. plus those plants are all or mostly nice smelling herbs.

Update: it's been a year and the new library pollinator garden is filling in nicely. There are pollinators galore and patrons are asking for the plant list so the librarian feels successful. Becky is receiving her share of pollinator visits.