The best flowers for bees

The reliable performers

The ones worth singling out

Viper's bugloss is the outlier on output. Its flowers refill with nectar within minutes of being emptied, which means a bee can work the same plant repeatedly rather than moving on. Measured nectar production per unit area puts it among the highest of any temperate plant.

Calamint deserves more attention than it gets. It flowers from July until the first hard frost, needs no water, and its tiny flowers are accessible to small solitary bees that most border plants exclude entirely.

Catmint and woodland sage share a useful property: cut them back by two-thirds after the first flush and they flower again within weeks, and again after that. Two plants doing four months of work is better value than four plants doing one month each.

Annuals worth growing

• Phacelia — sown as green manure, and among the most heavily worked plants there is if allowed to flower.
• Borage — refills nectar rapidly and self-seeds indefinitely from one sowing.
• Poached egg plant — smothered in accessible flowers and attracts hoverflies for aphid control.
• Cosmos and single zinnias — long-flowering and genuinely useful in single-flowered forms only.
• California poppy — abundant pollen and no nectar at all, which is worth knowing.

Choosing for a specific bee

If you want a particular bee, plant its plant. Harebell brings the harebell carpenter bee. Catsear and hawkbits bring the shaggy bees. Small scabious brings the large scabious mining bee. Bird's-foot trefoil and vetches bring the long-tongued specialists. These are the bees that generic bee-friendly planting does not reach, because they cannot use generic flowers.