Flowers for bees

[Chuck]

After living in the rural areas of Texas for decades I took pollinators for granted. There were multitudes of them. Then I moved to Surburbia and find that the multitudes of pollinators has shrunk to almost nothing. I am a vegetable gardener and have never really grown plants to attract pollinators. What are some common flowers that the climate of gulf coast Texas will encourage bees and other pollinators to visit.

 

[Meadowlark]

Sunflowers come to mind first for me.

Many garden veggies are the best attractors I see such as Okra, green beans, melons, squash etc. even sweet potatoes.

Another flower that blooms here all summer and comes back each year is the Lantana. They are fantastic at attracting the butterfly pollinators as well as many bees. The nice thing is they bloom all summer through the Gulf heat and humidity and require very little care. I plant them specifically for attracting pollinators and they are excellent.

In my area and many others, I assume, Northern beekeepers transport their hives south for the winters and on warm winter days we have tremendous numbers of bees as a result.

 

[Chuck]

Sunflowers come to mind first for me.

View attachment 106530

Many garden veggies are the best attractors I see such as Okra, green beans, melons, squash etc. even sweet potatoes.

Another flower that blooms here all summer and comes back each year is the Lantana. They are fantastic at attracting the butterfly pollinators as well as many bees. The nice thing is they bloom all summer through the Gulf heat and humidity and require very little care. I plant them specifically for attracting pollinators and they are excellent.

In my area and many others, I assume, Northern beekeepers transport their hives south for the winters and on warm winter days we have tremendous numbers of bees as a result.

Last year was my first year gardening here. I grew tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and cantaloupes. I had a very poor crop of cucs, squash and cantaloupes. Tomatoes and peppers did great. I saw 1 honeybee the entire season on the cucs. There were a few small insects that looked like tiny wasps but I don't know if they were pollinators or not. They crawled around on the blooms so I suppose they did some good. I think the problem here is insecticide spraying by the city. They not only kill mosquitos but everything else as well. I was thinking that if I could plant 20 or 30 two gallon containers of flowers and place them around and in the garden that I might attract enough pollinators to do their job before the next round of spraying began. I am going to grow okra this year. I don't have any more Becks Big Buck so I am going to try Jambalaya. I have 20, 5 gallon containers for them. Everything is going to be in the Hugleculture method.

 

[Meadowlark]

... I think the problem here is insecticide spraying by the city. They not only kill mosquitos but everything else as well.

Yes, right on target!! That and neighbors who use powerful chemicals indiscriminately have a terrible effect on all pollinators.

By the way, PM me your address and I'll return the favor on Beck's Big Buck Okra seed.

 

[paulinkansas]

I've grown a 3 acre sunflower patch for 2 years in a row. Dove hunting plot. Deer ate every single seed head before dove season started. But there were some interesting looking little yellow feathered birds in sunflowers once they started blooming. I never saw any bees. I'm guessing the birds did the pollination.