Nectar plants
The nectar plants behind every honey, rated separately for nectar and pollen, with what to grow so bees actually benefit.
Explore by
- Flowering month
12 groups
- Plant type
8 groups
- Garden context
8 groups
- Honey crop status
4 groups
- Nectar value
5 groups
- Pollen value
4 groups
Why nectar and pollen are rated separately
A single "bee friendly" score erases the distinctions that matter. Ivy is heavy in both nectar and pollen; poppies offer abundant pollen and no nectar at all; and many double-flowered garden cultivars offer neither despite looking magnificent. Being a good honey crop is a third, separate axis — a plant can feed bees superbly and never yield a surplus, because it is too sparse, too brief, or flowering when the colony eats everything it collects.
Major honey crops
Plants that yield a genuine surplus in good years, and give their names to honeys.
- LavenderLavandula angustifoliaJune to August. Worked heavily by almost everything.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- RosemarySalvia rosmarinusFebruary to May. Worked hard by early bumblebee queens, honey bees on any warm winter day, and emerging mason bees.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- ThymeThymusMay to August. Densely worked when in flower — a mat of creeping thyme in full sun can carry dozens of bees at once.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- White cloverTrifolium repensMay to September. The shallow florets of white clover suit the honey bee's short tongue exactly, which is why it is a honey bee crop in a way its relative red clover is not..Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- SunflowerHelianthus annuusJuly to September. Worked by an exceptionally wide range of bees, and in North America by a substantial community of specialist sunflower bees that visit almost nothing else..AnnualNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- BrambleRubus fruticosusJune to September. Open accessible flowers worked by essentially every flower-visiting insect in the landscape.ClimberNectar: Very highPollen: High
- HeatherCalluna vulgarisAugust to September. Heavily worked in the short window, by honey bees moved onto the moors and by a distinctive community of heathland bumblebees and solitary bees that depend on it..SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Wildflower meadowMixed native floraApril to September. Supports the widest range of bees of anything you can establish, precisely because it offers many different flower shapes.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- MānukaLeptospermum scopariumNovember to January. Worked heavily by honey bees during the flowering, and by a range of native New Zealand insects that the honey trade has no interest in.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Sweet chestnutCastanea sativaJune to July. The catkins are worked heavily by honey bees and by a wide range of flies and beetles.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- LimeTilia cordataJune to July. Worked intensely by honey bees, bumblebees and hoverflies.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- EucalyptusEucalyptusJanuary to December. Worked by honey bees at scale, and in Australia by an enormous native fauna — stingless bees, native solitary bees, birds, flying-foxes and possums.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- SidrZiziphus spina-christiOctober to December. Worked by heat-adapted local subspecies of the western honey bee, kept traditionally in hollow logs and clay cylinders and now increasingly in frame hives.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Ogeechee tupeloNyssa ogecheApril to May. Worked intensively by honey bees placed on barges and raised platforms in the swamp, since there is no dry ground to stand a hive on.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- SourwoodOxydendrum arboreumJune to August. Worked hard by honey bees moved up the ridges for the flow, and by bumblebees, which handle the pendulous narrow-mouthed flowers more easily..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Low
- Oilseed rapeBrassica napusApril to June. Worked by everything, and honey bee colonies can build with extraordinary speed on it.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- BuckwheatFagopyrum esculentumJuly to September. Worked heavily in the morning by honey bees, bumblebees and hoverflies, and largely abandoned by the afternoon.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- AlfalfaMedicago sativaJune to September. The single most instructive bee-plant relationship in the catalogue.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Rosebay willowherbChamaenerion angustifoliumJune to September. Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees together, and in the far north largely by bumblebees, which fly in cooler conditions.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- SageSalviaMay to October. The staminal lever is one of the most elegant pollination mechanisms in the plant world: a bee pushing into the flower depresses a hinged plate, which swings the anthers down to dust its back precisely where the next flower's stigma will touch.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- RaspberryRubus idaeusMay to August. Worked continuously and by everything.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- GoldenrodSolidagoAugust to October. Worked by an enormous range of insects — honey bees, late bumblebees, solitary bees, wasps, beetles, butterflies and predatory insects hunting among them.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- SycamoreAcer pseudoplatanusApril to May. Worked intensively by honey bees, and the sound of a sycamore in flower is one of the loudest things in a spring wood.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- AsphodelAsphodelus ramosusMarch to May. Worked heavily by honey bees and by a wide range of Mediterranean solitary bees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- RockroseCistus ladaniferApril to June. Worked hard in the morning while the flowers last, and largely abandoned by afternoon.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- LemonCitrus limonMarch to June. Worked heavily during the flush, and hives are moved into groves for it.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Sweet cloverMelilotus officinalisJune to August. Worked heavily by everything.BiennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- VitexVitex negundoJune to July. Worked by both the introduced western honey bee, which produces the commercial crop, and the native Apis cerana still widely kept in the Chinese uplands.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Chinese milk vetchAstragalus sinicusMarch to May. Colonies build enormously on it before moving north for the later crops.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- JujubeZiziphus jujubaMay to July. Worked by managed western honey bees on the Chinese migratory circuit, by the native Apis cerana, and across south Asia by wild Apis dorsata colonies.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- BanksiaBanksiaMarch to August. Introduced honey bees are latecomers to a system built for honeyeaters, pygmy possums and honey possums.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- ThistleGalactites tomentosaMay to July. Worked by an unusually wide range of insects.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Purple loosestrifeLythrum salicariaJune to September. Worked heavily by bumblebees, honey bees and butterflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Black locustRobinia pseudoacaciaMay to June. Honey bees work it in enormous numbers during the flow, to the near-exclusion of everything else.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- SainfoinOnobrychis viciifoliaMay to July. Accessible to honey bees, unlike red clover, because the corolla is shorter.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Tulip treeLiriodendron tulipiferaMay to June. Worked heavily by honey bees during the flow.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- MesquiteProsopisApril to August. Worked heavily by honey bees and by a substantial community of desert-adapted native bees.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- Black sageSalvia melliferaApril to June. Worked intensively by honey bees, and by a very large native bee fauna — California holds around 1,600 native bee species and the sage scrub community is one of the richest parts of that..ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Sweet orangeCitrus sinensisMarch to May. Worked intensively by honey bees.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- AvocadoPersea americanaFebruary to May. Managed honey bees do the bulk of commercial pollination, at very high stocking rates precisely because the bees find the nectar unattractive.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- MacadamiaMacadamia integrifoliaAugust to October. Honey bees are the principal commercial pollinator and stocking rates translate directly into nut set.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- CottonGossypium hirsutumJune to September. Worked heavily by honey bees for both floral and extrafloral nectar.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesNovember to February. Worked heavily by honey bees.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- RewarewaKnightia excelsaOctober to December. Honey bees work it heavily, and it is worth being clear that they are latecomers to a system built around birds.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- PohutukawaMetrosideros excelsaNovember to January. Worked heavily by honey bees and, as with rewarewa, evolved for birds — tui and bellbirds are the natural pollinators of the brush-flowered New Zealand myrtles..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- JarrahEucalyptus marginataSeptember to January. Worked heavily by honey bees during a flowering.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- LeatherwoodEucryphia lucidaJanuary to March. Worked almost exclusively by managed honey bees, which are not native to Tasmania.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Silver firAbies albaJune to September. Honey bees collect honeydew from the needles and twigs where aphids have excreted it.TreeNectar: NonePollen: Low
- Norway sprucePicea abiesJune to September. Honey bees collect honeydew droplets from needles and twigs.TreeNectar: NonePollen: Low
- Scots pinePinus sylvestrisJuly to November. Honey bees collect honeydew from the needles and bark.TreeNectar: NonePollen: Moderate
- Yellow starthistleCentaurea solstitialisJune to September. Worked heavily by honey bees during a season when little else is flowering, which gives it real value to beekeepers and complicates the case for eradicating it..AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- GallberryIlex glabraMay to June. Worked heavily by honey bees.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Saw palmettoSerenoa repensApril to June. Worked intensively by honey bees and by a large native bee community.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Cabbage palmSabal palmettoJune to August. Worked heavily by honey bees and by a range of native bees, flies and beetles.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- Himalayan balsamImpatiens glanduliferaJuly to October. Worked intensively by bumblebees and honey bees, which emerge from the hooded flowers dusted white with pollen — the most recognisable sight in late-summer riverside beekeeping.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- Japanese knotweedReynoutria japonicaAugust to October. Worked heavily in September by honey bees and late bumblebees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Bell heatherErica cinereaJune to September. Worked heavily by honey bees and by the heathland bumblebees.SubshrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Black mangroveAvicennia germinansJune to August. The flowers are small, shallow and openly presented, so they are accessible to bees, wasps and flies alike.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Brazilian pepperSchinus terebinthifoliaSeptember to November. Worked heavily in autumn.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Chinese tallowTriadica sebiferaApril to June. Worked intensively during the flow.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumJanuary to April. Worked heavily during the flow.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- MarmeleiroCrotonJune to September. Worked by Africanized honey bees and by an exceptional native bee fauna — the caatinga holds many species found nowhere else, including specialist oil-collecting bees..ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Prickly boxBursaria spinosaDecember to February. The small open flowers are accessible to almost everything — bees, butterflies, beetles and flies — which makes bursaria one of the most important insect plants in its range.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Southern beechFuscosporaJanuary to April. Honey bees collect the droplets directly from the scale insects' waxy filaments.TreeNectar: NonePollen: Low
- SheaVitellaria paradoxaJanuary to April. Field studies in Burkina Faso and Ghana report large increases in shea fruit set where pollinators have access, which is why beekeeping and shea production are increasingly promoted together across the parkland belt..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- Resin spurgeEuphorbia resiniferaMarch to May. Worked heavily by honey bees during the spring flowering.SubshrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- ArganArgania spinosaApril to June. Argan benefits from insect pollination and Moroccan cooperatives increasingly combine beekeeping with oil production.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- MopaneColophospermum mopaneSeptember to December. Worked by African honey bees in bark and log hives.TreeNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Bitter aloeAloe feroxJune to August. Worked by the Cape honey bee, a subspecies with the extraordinary ability to produce female offspring from unfertilised eggs — which allows laying workers to take over a queenless colony, and has made it a serious problem when moved north into African honey bee territory.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- CashewAnacardium occidentaleNovember to February. Cashew is strongly dependent on insect pollination and nut set rises substantially where bees are present, which makes hive placement genuinely worth paying for.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- MahuaMadhuca longifoliaMarch to April. Much mahua honey comes from wild Apis dorsata combs harvested from forest trees rather than from hives, which ties it directly to forest access and to the rights of the communities who collect it.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- NeemAzadirachta indicaMarch to May. Worked by all four Asian honey bee species.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- MangoMangifera indicaJanuary to April. Mango is visited by flies, thrips, wasps and bees, and flies are frequently the more effective pollinators.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- Winter savorySatureja montanaJuly to September. Small two-lipped flowers accessible to a wide range of bees, and produced in enough quantity that a plant hums.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Tree of heavenAilanthus altissimaJune to July. Worked hard by honey bees in the fortnight it is open, and audible from below.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- BabulVachellia niloticaAugust to November. The globular flower head is a brush of exposed stamens holding accessible nectar and abundant pollen, worked by every bee in the landscape including the giant honey bee whose open combs hang in these trees..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Talh acaciaVachellia seyalFebruary to April. Worked by the African honey bee and by the small dwarf honey bee across its range, both of which forage at temperatures that would keep a European colony inside..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- LycheeLitchi chinensisFebruary to April. The flowers are tiny, apetalous and carried in enormous numbers with fully exposed nectaries, so nothing is excluded — honey bees, stingless bees, flies and wasps work them together.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- MangiumAcacia mangiumFebruary to May. Extrafloral nectaries evolved to recruit ants as bodyguards against herbivores, not to attract pollinators.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- NiaouliMelaleuca quinquenerviaMarch to July. The myrtle-family brush flower holds exposed nectar and enormous quantities of pollen, and is worked indiscriminately by honey bees, stingless bees, birds and flies..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooNovember to February. Worked hard by the African honey bee and the Cape honey bee, both of which respond quickly to a rain-triggered flow in a way a European colony on a fixed calendar would not..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Niger seedGuizotia abyssinicaSeptember to November. A daisy-family composite head is a dense disc of shallow florets that a bee can walk across working one after another, which makes it an unusually efficient foraging surface..AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- BushwillowCombretum speciesAugust to November. Small open flowers with accessible nectar, worked by African honey bees in large numbers and by the stingless bees kept in log hives across the region..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Spanish needleBidens albaJanuary to December. The shallow composite head excludes nothing, and it is worked by honey bees, small sweat bees, butterflies and hoverflies simultaneously all year round..AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraNovember to February. A brush of exposed stamens with accessible nectar and abundant pollen, worked heavily by Africanized honey bees across its Latin American range..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- AngicoAnadenanthera colubrinaSeptember to November. Globular heads of exposed stamens, worked by Africanized honey bees and by the native stingless bees kept across the region — the same tree supplying two parallel beekeeping systems..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesDecember to March. The myrtle-family brush flower holds copious exposed nectar and enormous quantities of pollen, and is worked by honey bees, native stingless bees, birds and mammals together..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesOctober to February. Exposed nectar in a stamen brush, accessible to everything, and worked by honey bees, native stingless bees and honeyeaters at once..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Yellow gumEucalyptus leucoxylonMay to September. The pendulous brush flowers are worked heavily by honey bees and by honeyeaters, and the winter timing means the competition for them is intense..TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Swamp mahoganyEucalyptus robustaMay to August. Large brush flowers holding a great deal of exposed nectar, worked by honey bees by day and by flying foxes and gliders at night.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
Forage plants
Valuable to bees without producing a named honey — which is most of what matters in a garden.
- AppleMalus domesticaApril to May. Heavily worked by everything flying in April.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- CherryPrunus aviumMarch to May. Heavily worked in the brief window it offers.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- HawthornCrataegus monogynaMay to June. Open shallow flowers in dense flat clusters — accessible to everything, and efficient to work because a bee can move across dozens without flying..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- IvyHedera helixSeptember to November. Worked by honey bees, late bumblebees, hoverflies, wasps and butterflies including red admirals.ClimberNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- FoxgloveDigitalis purpureaJune to July. Worked almost exclusively by long-tongued bumblebees — the garden bumblebee and common carder bee particularly — which disappear entirely inside the flower to reach the nectar.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- MahoniaMahonia × mediaNovember to February. Worked by honey bees on any winter day warm enough to fly, and by buff-tailed bumblebee queens, which in mild urban areas now emerge or remain active through the winter and depend on exactly this kind of plant..ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Strawberry treeArbutus unedoOctober to December. Worked hard by honey bees and late bumblebees on any mild autumn day.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- BorageBorago officinalisJune to September. Worked constantly by honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees from morning to evening.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- BlueberryVaccinium corymbosumApril to June. The pollen is held in poricidal anthers — tubes with a pore at the tip — and comes out properly only under buzz pollination, where a bee grips the flower and vibrates its flight muscles at high frequency.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- PhaceliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaJune to October. Worked continuously and by an unusually wide range of species — honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies together.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- DandelionTaraxacum officinaleMarch to October. Worked by honey bees, emerging bumblebee queens, mining bees, hoverflies and beetles.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- Goat willowSalix capreaFebruary to April. Worked by honey bees on any warm March day, by newly emerged bumblebee queens, and by a large number of specialist solitary bees — several mining bee species in the genus Andrena are willow specialists and emerge to coincide with it.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- SnowdropGalanthus nivalisJanuary to March. Worked by honey bees on mild winter days — bees returning with the pale grey-white snowdrop pollen are a familiar sight to beekeepers checking hives in February.BulbNectar: LowPollen: Moderate
- Winter honeysuckleLonicera fragrantissimaDecember to March. Worked by honey bees on any mild winter day and by the winter-active bumblebee queens that have become common in mild urban areas of southern Britain and northwest Europe — a genuinely recent behavioural shift, and one that makes winter forage matter more than it used to..ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Viper's buglossEchium vulgareJune to September. Worked continuously and by a very wide range of bees.BiennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Michaelmas daisySymphyotrichum novi-belgiiAugust to October. Worked by late bumblebee workers and new queens fattening for hibernation, by honey bees adding to winter stores, and by red admirals and small tortoiseshells.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- MintMenthaJuly to September. Unusually democratic forage.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- MarjoramOriganum vulgareJuly to September. The flat-topped flower head works as a landing platform holding dozens of shallow florets, so an insect can work it without flying.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- CatmintNepetaMay to October. Worked most heavily by bumblebees, which fit the flower shape best, but honey bees and solitary bees use it freely too.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- ComfreySymphytum officinaleMay to September. The defining plant for observing nectar robbing.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- BuddleiaBuddleja davidiiJuly to September. Butterflies and day-flying moths are the primary visitors and the flower is built for them — a narrow tube suited to a long proboscis.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Low
- VerbenaVerbena bonariensisJune to November. Worked by bees, butterflies, hoverflies and day-flying moths together.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- CosmosCosmos bipinnatusJuly to October. The open disc is a landing platform with completely exposed nectar and pollen, which makes it usable by essentially every flower-visiting insect — including small solitary bees and hoverflies that cannot feed from tubular flowers at all..AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- CalendulaCalendula officinalisMay to December. A flat open landing platform with nothing hidden, worked by honey bees, bumblebees, small solitary bees and hoverflies.AnnualNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumJune to September. Primarily a moth plant — elephant hawkmoths and other long-tongued nocturnal visitors are the intended audience, and the evening scent and pale colour are aimed at them.ClimberNectar: HighPollen: Low
- CrocusCrocusJanuary to April. Worked hard by honey bees on any mild sunny winter day, and by emerging bumblebee queens.BulbNectar: ModeratePollen: Very high
- Red cloverTrifolium pratenseMay to September. Long-tongued bumblebees — the garden bumblebee, the common carder and, historically, the great yellow — work it properly and depend on it.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Bird's-foot trefoilLotus corniculatusMay to September. A keel flower requiring some force to open, so it favours bumblebees and larger solitary bees over honey bees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- KnapweedCentaurea nigraJune to September. Worked by an unusually wide range — honey bees, several bumblebee species, solitary bees, butterflies including marbled whites and meadow browns, and day-flying moths.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Field scabiousKnautia arvensisJuly to September. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- TeaselDipsacus fullonumJuly to August. Worked mainly by bumblebees, which handle the head easily, and by honey bees and butterflies.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- YarrowAchillea millefoliumJune to October. The visitor list is dominated by small solitary bees, hoverflies, soldier beetles and parasitic wasps rather than by charismatic bumblebees — which is precisely why it belongs in a serious pollinator planting.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- CornflowerCentaurea cyanusJune to September. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees, with ants and wasps at the extrafloral glands beneath.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Common poppyPapaver rhoeasMay to August. Bees arrive early in the morning and work the anthers directly, often rolling in them, and leave carrying enormous blue-grey pollen loads.AnnualNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- BlackthornPrunus spinosaMarch to April. Worked hard by honey bees, emerging bumblebee queens and a substantial community of early mining bees.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Crab appleMalus sylvestrisApril to May. The classic mason bee tree.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- RowanSorbus aucupariaMay to June. Worked by bees, hoverflies and a large number of beetles and flies.TreeNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- CotoneasterCotoneasterMay to June. Honey bees dominate and work it obsessively — an urban colony with a mature cotoneaster in range will strip it.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- PyracanthaPyracantha coccineaMay to June. Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees, and by hoverflies.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Horse chestnutAesculus hippocastanumApril to May. Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- HelleboreHelleborusDecember to April. Worked by honey bees on mild winter days and by early bumblebee queens, which are large enough to push into a nodding flower easily.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- Winter aconiteEranthis hyemalisJanuary to March. Worked by honey bees on any sunny January day and by the very earliest bumblebee queens.BulbNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- SedumHylotelephium spectabileAugust to October. Worked by honey bees, late bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies — small tortoiseshells and red admirals in particular.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Hardy geraniumGeraniumMay to October. Worked by bumblebees, honey bees and a wide range of solitary bees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- EchinaceaEchinacea purpureaJuly to September. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees, small solitary bees and butterflies together.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- AlliumAlliumApril to August. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees and a wide range of small solitary bees.BulbNectar: HighPollen: High
- BilberryVaccinium myrtillusApril to June. Bumblebees dominate for two reasons: they can buzz-pollinate the poricidal anthers, which honey bees cannot, and they fly at temperatures that ground honey bees.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- CarobCeratonia siliquaSeptember to November. Worked steadily through the autumn, alongside flies and beetles attracted by the scent.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- AlmondPrunus dulcisFebruary to March. The most concentrated managed pollination event in world agriculture.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: Very high
- QuillayQuillaja saponariaNovember to January. Worked steadily through the flowering.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- LungwortPulmonaria officinalisFebruary to May. The classic plant of the hairy-footed flower bee, whose males hold territories over lungwort patches in March and chase off all comers.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- PrimrosePrimula vulgarisFebruary to May. Worked by early bumblebee queens, bee-flies and butterflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- BluebellHyacinthoides non-scriptaApril to May. Worked heavily by bumblebees, which handle the drooping bells easily, and by honey bees.BulbNectar: HighPollen: High
- Flowering currantRibes sanguineumMarch to April. Bumblebee queens dominate — a flowering currant in a suburban garden in March is often the busiest plant in the street.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- HazelCorylus avellanaJanuary to March. Honey bees work catkins on any mild winter day, returning with pale yellow loads.ShrubNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Dead-nettleLamiumJanuary to December. A long-tongued bumblebee plant above all.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Forget-me-notMyosotis sylvaticaApril to June. Worked by small solitary bees, hoverflies and bee-flies more than by bumblebees.BiennialNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- CowslipPrimula verisApril to May. Long-tongued bumblebee queens are the main bee visitors, along with bee-flies and the occasional early butterfly.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Grape hyacinthMuscari armeniacumMarch to May. Worked hard by honey bees, which can reach into the small urn-shaped bells, and by bumblebee queens.BulbNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- HollyIlex aquifoliumMay to June. Worked steadily by honey bees and solitary bees in May.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- ElderSambucus nigraMay to July. Worked for pollen by honey bees and small solitary bees, and visited heavily by hoverflies and beetles.ShrubNectar: LowPollen: High
- Field mapleAcer campestreApril to May. Worked intensively by honey bees in May.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- GorseUlex europaeusJanuary to December. Worked mainly by bumblebees, which are heavy enough to trip the spring-loaded keel and release the pollen.ShrubNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Christmas boxSarcococca confusaDecember to March. Worked by honey bees and winter-active bumblebee queens on mild days.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Winter viburnumViburnum × bodnantenseNovember to March. Worked by honey bees and winter bumblebee queens on mild days.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Low
- Guelder roseViburnum opulusMay to July. Worked by small solitary bees, hoverflies and beetles as much as by honey bees.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Lamb's earStachys byzantinaJune to August. The defining plant for observing wool carder bees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- BetonyBetonica officinalisJune to September. Worked almost continuously by long-tongued bumblebees, and by leafcutters and wool carders.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- AgastacheAgastache foeniculumJuly to October. Worked continuously by honey bees, bumblebees and small solitary bees, plus butterflies and hummingbirds in its native range.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- BergamotMonarda didymaJuly to September. Long-tongued bumblebees work it legitimately.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- HyssopHyssopus officinalisJune to September. Worked constantly by honey bees and bumblebees.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Globe thistleEchinops ritroJuly to September. Bumblebees dominate and honey bees work it heavily too, along with butterflies and hoverflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Sea hollyEryngiumJuly to September. An exceptionally broad visitor list — honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, wasps and beetles all use it, because there is nothing hidden.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- MeadowsweetFilipendula ulmariaJune to September. Worked for pollen by honey bees and small solitary bees, and visited very heavily by hoverflies and beetles.Herbaceous perennialNectar: LowPollen: High
- Oxeye daisyLeucanthemum vulgareMay to September. The visitor list runs heavily to small solitary bees, hoverflies, soldier beetles and parasitic wasps rather than to charismatic bumblebees — which is precisely why it belongs in a serious pollinator planting..Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- Wild carrotDaucus carotaJune to September. An enormous visitor list dominated by small solitary bees, hoverflies, soldier beetles, parasitic wasps and flies.BiennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- FennelFoeniculum vulgareJuly to September. Dominated by small solitary bees, hoverflies, parasitic wasps and beetles.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Tufted vetchVicia craccaJune to August. A cornerstone plant for long-tongued bumblebees, and for several scarce solitary bees that specialise on vetches.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- ChicoryCichorium intybusJuly to October. Worked hard in the morning and abandoned by afternoon, which makes it a good demonstration that forage availability is a matter of hours as well as of months.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- RudbeckiaRudbeckia fulgidaAugust to October. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees, small solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies together.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- HeleniumHelenium autumnaleJuly to October. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Japanese anemoneAnemone × hybridaAugust to October. Worked mainly for pollen by honey bees and bumblebees, and heavily by hoverflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- DahliaDahliaJuly to November. Single dahlias — 'Bishop of Llandaff' and the collarette and anemone-flowered types — are worked constantly by honey bees, bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies right up to the frost.BulbNectar: HighPollen: High
- BroomCytisus scopariusApril to June. Bumblebees are the main visitors, being heavy enough to trip the explosive keel reliably.ShrubNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Witch hazelHamamelis × intermediaDecember to March. Worked by honey bees and winter bumblebee queens on mild days.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Alder buckthornFrangula alnusMay to July. Worked steadily by honey bees and small solitary bees.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- WallflowerErysimumMarch to November. Worked by honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees and butterflies across three seasons.SubshrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- HebeHebeJune to October. Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees and by a wide range of butterflies.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- CoffeeCoffea arabicaMarch to May. Arabica coffee is self-fertile and sets without insects, so the bees are not strictly required.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- English oakQuercus roburApril to May. Honey bees collect oak honeydew in good aphid years.TreeNectar: NonePollen: Low
- CranberryVaccinium macrocarponJune to July. Bumblebees buzz-pollinate cranberry and are several times more effective per visit than honey bees, which cannot buzz and must work the flower awkwardly.SubshrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- HarebellCampanula rotundifoliaJuly to September. The essential plant for Chelostoma campanularum and C.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- Red bartsiaOdontites vernusJuly to September. Melitta tricincta collects pollen from red bartsia and from nothing else, so its distribution is effectively a map of this plant's.AnnualNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Yellow rattleRhinanthus minorMay to August. The hooded flowers require a bee with the strength to push in, so long-tongued bumblebees are the principal visitors.AnnualNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- CatsearHypochaeris radicataJune to September. The essential plant group for Panurgus, which provisions with yellow composite pollen and nothing else, and males of which sleep inside the closed flower heads overnight.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- Small scabiousScabiosa columbariaJune to October. The large scabious mining bee, Andrena hattorfiana, provisions its cells with scabious and knapweed pollen alone and is scarce across its range.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Devil's-bit scabiousSuccisa pratensisJuly to October. Heavily worked by late-season bumblebees, including the scarce carder bees whose colonies run latest and which most need forage in September.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Sea asterTripolium pannonicumJuly to October. Colletes halophilus, the sea aster bee, provisions its cells with this plant's pollen and nothing else, and nests in the sea walls and dry banks above the marsh.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaMay to September. Andrena florea, the bryony bee, collects pollen from white bryony and from nothing else, and is restricted in Britain to southern and eastern counties where the plant is common.ClimberNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- HogweedHeracleum sphondyliumJune to September. The open shallow florets are accessible to almost every insect, which makes hogweed one of the best plants in Britain for short-tongued and small-bodied species that cannot use deep flowers.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- SelfhealPrunella vulgarisJune to September. Long-tongued bumblebees and honey bees work it steadily, and it supports the mint-family specialists including the blue mason bee.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Common ragwortJacobaea vulgarisJune to October. Worked by an exceptionally wide range of insects — bees, hoverflies, moths, butterflies and beetles.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- ColtsfootTussilago farfaraFebruary to April. Bumblebee queens emerging in February and early spring mining bees rely on it heavily.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- Lemon balmMelissa officinalisJune to September. Honey bees work the small flowers steadily, and it is a good plant for the mint-family specialists.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Bee bee treeTetradium danielliiJuly to September. Among the most heavily worked trees available to temperate gardeners.TreeNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Japanese pagoda treeStyphnolobium japonicumJuly to September. Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees in August and September.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Field beanVicia fabaMay to July. Long-tongued bumblebees enter the flower properly and pollinate it.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- Squash and pumpkinCucurbita pepoJune to September. In the Americas, squash bees of the genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa specialise on Cucurbita exclusively, forage before dawn when the flowers open, and males sleep inside the closed male flowers.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- PearPyrus communisMarch to May. Mason bees are markedly better pear pollinators than honey bees, because they are not choosing between flowers on sugar content — they work whatever is nearest, in cooler weather, and move between trees rather than around one.TreeNectar: LowPollen: High
- PlumPrunus domesticaMarch to April. Flowering in March means honey bees are frequently grounded by cold, and mason bees and mining bees — which fly at lower temperatures — do a disproportionate share of the pollination.TreeNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- SnowberrySymphoricarpos albusJune to September. The small pink bells suit bees that can push in, so bumblebees are the principal visitors.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- American persimmonDiospyros virginianaMay to June. Male and female flowers are on separate trees, so an isolated female fruits poorly or not at all.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- BottlebrushMelaleuca citrinaOctober to January. Bottlebrush flowers are brush inflorescences evolved for honeyeaters and lorikeets, which take a large share of the nectar.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- GojiLycium barbarumJune to September. Insect pollination improves goji fruit set measurably.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- LoquatEriobotrya japonicaNovember to February. The Asian honey bee is better suited to winter flowering than the western honey bee, flying at lower temperatures, and much traditional loquat honey comes from Apis cerana in small fixed apiaries..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- TeaCamellia sinensisOctober to December. Much tea honey comes from Apis cerana in small fixed apiaries in hill tea districts, where the terrain suits it better than migratory operations.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- KaranjPongamia pinnataMarch to May. Worked heavily by all the Indian hive bees.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- ChiuriDiploknema butyraceaDecember to February. Chiuri is principally bat-pollinated, and flying foxes are protected in some chiuri-growing communities for that reason.TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- SesameSesamum indicumJuly to October. Sesame is partly self-fertile and yields measurably better with insect pollination.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- BaobabAdansonia digitataOctober to December. Baobab flowers are built for fruit bats and hawkmoths, opening at dusk and closing by the next afternoon.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- TamariskTamarixMay to August. Bees work both the small flowers and the honeydew.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- OsierSalix viminalisMarch to April. Emerging bumblebee queens and early mining bees depend heavily on willow pollen.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Very high
- Bird cherryPrunus padusApril to May. The flowers are open and shallow on a long raceme, which makes them accessible to almost every spring bee and to a great many flies and beetles as well..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- BlackcurrantRibes nigrumApril to May. Bumblebees carry most blackcurrant pollination because they fly at temperatures that ground honey bees, and April in northern Europe is frequently too cold for the latter.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- GooseberryRibes uva-crispaMarch to April. Almost entirely bumblebee-pollinated, because it flowers when little else will fly.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- QuinceCydonia oblongaMay to June. Self-fertile but noticeably more productive with insect visits.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- MedlarMespilus germanicaMay to June. The very large open flowers are among the easiest in an orchard for solitary bees to work, and it flowers when mason bees are at their peak..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- ApricotPrunus armeniacaFebruary to April. Mason bees fly at lower temperatures than honey bees and carry a disproportionate share of apricot pollination in a cold February.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- PeachPrunus persicaMarch to April. Self-fertile and still measurably more productive with insect visits.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- Norway mapleAcer platanoidesApril to May. The flowers are small, open and borne in flat clusters, which makes them accessible to short-tongued bees of every kind.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- WhitebeamSorbus ariaMay to June. The flat flower heads of small open flowers are among the most accessible arrangements there is, working for bees, hoverflies and beetles alike..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- DogwoodCornus sanguineaMay to July. Flat heads of small open flowers, accessible to short-tongued and small-bodied species that cannot use deep flowers.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- SpindleEuonymus europaeusMay to June. The flowers are tiny, flat and completely open, so they are workable by the smallest bees — yellow-faced bees and sweat bees that deep flowers exclude entirely.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- BuckthornRhamnus catharticaMay to June. Small open flowers accessible to short-tongued bees.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Wild privetLigustrum vulgareJune to July. Worked heavily by bees and by day-flying moths, and the scent carries a long way.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Dog roseRosa caninaJune to July. Bees visit for pollen alone, and buzz the anthers to release it.ClimberNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Winter-flowering cherryPrunus x subhirtellaNovember to March. Buff-tailed bumblebees increasingly maintain winter-active colonies in mild urban areas of southern Britain and northern Europe, and winter-flowering garden plants are what makes that possible.TreeNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Winter clematisClematis cirrhosaNovember to March. Worked by honey bees and by winter-active buff-tailed bumblebees on mild days.ClimberNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- DaphneDaphneJanuary to April. The tubular flowers suit long-tongued visitors, so emerging bumblebee queens and the hairy-footed flower bee are the principal users.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Hardy cyclamenCyclamen coumDecember to March. Worked by bumblebees and honey bees on mild days.BulbNectar: ModeratePollen: Moderate
- Siberian squillScilla sibericaFebruary to April. Worked heavily by emerging bumblebee queens and early mining bees.BulbNectar: HighPollen: High
- Grecian windflowerAnemone blandaMarch to April. Visited chiefly for pollen.BulbNectar: LowPollen: High
- Lesser celandineFicaria vernaFebruary to May. Worked heavily by early mining bees and emerging bumblebee queens.Herbaceous perennialNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- BugleAjuga reptansApril to June. The two-lipped flowers with a landing platform suit long-tongued bumblebees, and it is one of the more productive shade plants for them.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- HonestyLunaria annuaApril to June. The flowers have a moderately deep tube, so long-tongued bumblebees and flower bees work them best.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Sweet rocketHesperis matronalisMay to July. Worked by long-tongued bumblebees and butterflies during the day and by moths at dusk, when the scent strengthens markedly.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- AubrietaAubrieta deltoideaMarch to May. Worked heavily by emerging bumblebee queens, early mining bees and mason bees, and by orange-tip and small tortoiseshell butterflies.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Wild garlicAllium ursinumApril to June. Completely open star-shaped flowers with exposed nectaries, workable by short-tongued and small-bodied bees as well as by hoverflies and beetles.BulbNectar: HighPollen: High
- ColumbineAquilegia vulgarisMay to June. Only the longest-tongued bumblebees can reach the nectar at the spur tips.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Hemp agrimonyEupatorium cannabinumJuly to September. The flat head of tiny shallow florets acts as a landing platform and is accessible to almost every insect.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Joe Pye weedEutrochium purpureumJuly to September. The broad domed heads of shallow florets are accessible to almost everything, and a plant in full flower is loud with bees, butterflies and hoverflies simultaneously.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Culver's rootVeronicastrum virginicumJuly to September. Tiny shallow flowers presented in enormous numbers on a spire — accessible to short-tongued bees and small solitary species, and worked continuously for weeks as the spire opens upwards..Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- Blazing starLiatris spicataJuly to September. The dense florets are shallow and accessible, and the spire form gives bees a great many flowers within a short walk.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Woodland sageSalvia nemorosaJune to September. The two-lipped flowers with a landing platform are classic bumblebee architecture, and the plant is worked continuously through the summer.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Lesser calamintClinopodium nepetaJuly to November. Tiny shallow two-lipped flowers accessible to small solitary bees as well as bumblebees, and produced in such quantity that the plant hums.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Russian sageSalvia yangiiJuly to October. Worked heavily through late summer, and one of the more reliable plants for bumblebees in a hot dry August.SubshrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- BluebeardCaryopteris x clandonensisAugust to October. Worked intensively through late summer and early autumn, when it is frequently the busiest thing in the garden.ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- AbeliaLinnaea x grandifloraJuly to November. Worked steadily by bumblebees and honey bees for months.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- EscalloniaEscallonia rubraJune to October. Worked steadily through the summer.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Shrubby cinquefoilDasiphora fruticosaMay to October. Completely open saucer flowers with fully exposed anthers, workable by the smallest solitary bees as well as by bumblebees.ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- St John's wortHypericum perforatumJune to September. Bees visit for pollen alone and buzz the anthers to release it.Herbaceous perennialNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Tree mallowMalva arboreaJune to October. Mallow pollen grains are unusually large and spiny and stick to bees conspicuously — a bee leaving a mallow flower is visibly dusted.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- HollyhockAlcea roseaJune to September. Hollyhock pollen grains are among the largest of any flowering plant, and bees emerge visibly coated in them.BiennialNectar: HighPollen: Very high
- Poached egg plantLimnanthes douglasiiApril to July. Completely open shallow flowers accessible to every bee including the smallest, and produced in such quantity that a patch hums audibly.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- California poppyEschscholzia californicaMay to September. Visited for pollen alone.AnnualNectar: NonePollen: Very high
- Crimson cloverTrifolium incarnatumMay to July. The corolla is short enough that honey bees work it directly, unlike red clover which requires a long-tongued bumblebee.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- Fodder radishRaphanus sativusAugust to November. Its value is timing.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- ChivesAllium schoenoprasumMay to July. Each pompom is a head of many small tubular flowers, giving a bee dozens of visits without flying.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- CorianderCoriandrum sativumJune to August. Flat umbels of tiny open flowers are the most accessible architecture there is, which makes coriander disproportionately valuable to the small short-tongued bees that deep flowers exclude entirely.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- AngelicaAngelica archangelicaJune to August. Enormous umbels of tiny open flowers, accessible to essentially every insect.BiennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Globe artichokeCynara cardunculusJuly to September. An open artichoke head holds hundreds of individual florets and is frequently occupied by half a dozen bumblebees at once.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: High
- Common fleabanePulicaria dysentericaJuly to September. An open composite head accessible to short-tongued and small-bodied bees, and one of the plants the yellow-composite specialists depend on.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: High
- ZinniaZinnia elegansJuly to October. Single-flowered zinnias have an accessible open centre with exposed florets.AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- Mexican sunflowerTithonia rotundifoliaAugust to October. An open composite head with a generous nectar reward, worked heavily by large bees and butterflies.AnnualNectar: Very highPollen: High
- FatsiaFatsia japonicaOctober to November. Globes of tiny open flowers, completely accessible, and worked by bees, wasps and flies on any mild day in late autumn.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- ElaeagnusElaeagnus x submacrophyllaOctober to November. Worked heavily on mild autumn days, and the scent is the usual way people finally notice it is flowering.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Seven-son flowerHeptacodium miconioidesSeptember to October. Worked heavily through September and October by bees and butterflies.ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- AgapanthusAgapanthus praecoxJuly to September. Worked heavily by bumblebees, which enter the trumpets properly, and by honey bees.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Giant catmintNepeta racemosaMay to October. Among the most reliably bee-covered plants in any garden, and worked continuously from late spring to autumn.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Sea buckthornHippophae rhamnoidesMarch to May. Worked for pollen on warm spring days, and mainly by honey bees and early bumblebee queens.ShrubNectar: NonePollen: High
- Greek heathErica manipulifloraSeptember to December. The small bell flowers suit short-tongued bees, and honey bees work it in very large numbers because there is nothing else open.SubshrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- MotherwortLeonurus cardiacaJune to August. The hooded two-lipped flower is the standard mint-family arrangement — a landing platform with the anthers above — so a visiting bee is dusted on the back every time.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- Holm oakQuercus ilexApril to May. Bees collect honeydew directly from the leaf surfaces and bark rather than from any flower, so there is no pollination relationship at all — this is harvesting an insect by-product from a tree that neither needs nor rewards them..TreeNectar: NonePollen: Moderate
- TulsiOcimum tenuiflorumSeptember to February. Worked heavily by the Asian honey bee and by the dwarf honey bee, both of which are the common managed and wild species across its range.SubshrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- AjwainTrachyspermum ammiJanuary to March. An umbel is a table of hundreds of minute flowers with fully exposed nectaries, so no tongue length is required at all — this is the most accessible flower architecture there is, and it feeds small wild bees and hoverflies alongside the managed colonies..AnnualNectar: HighPollen: High
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaJanuary to December. The flower is bilaterally symmetrical with a fairly open throat, and carpenter bees are the most effective pollinators across much of its range while honey bees take the larger share of the nectar..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Oil-tea camelliaCamellia oleiferaOctober to December. The Asian honey bee copes with the nectar considerably better than the western honey bee does, which is one of the clearer practical demonstrations that the two species are not interchangeable..ShrubNectar: Very highPollen: High
- DurianDurio zibethinusFebruary to April. Nectarivorous bats are the principal and most effective pollinators, and this is the clearest case in the catalogue of a flower not designed for bees at all.TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- RambutanNephelium lappaceumJanuary to March. Stingless bees and the Asian honey bee do most of the work, and growers in Malaysia and Thailand increasingly place hives deliberately for fruit set rather than for honey..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Coconut palmCocos nuciferaJanuary to December. Fully exposed nectaries on an open inflorescence, so nothing is excluded — stingless bees, dwarf honey bees, wasps and flies work it alongside managed colonies..TreeNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- TamarindTamarindus indicaApril to June. Large old tamarinds are among the trees the giant honey bee most often builds its open combs on, so the same tree supplies both the forage and the nest site..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Green cardamomElettaria cardamomumApril to July. The lipped flower is built for a large bee to land on and push into, and the Asian honey bee is the principal pollinator across the Indian growing regions.Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisJanuary to December. The crop's actual pollinator is the African oil palm weevil, introduced deliberately to Southeast Asia in the 1980s and responsible for a step change in yields.TreeNectar: LowPollen: Very high
- SoybeanGlycine maxJuly to August. The flowers are small, largely self-pollinating and easy to miss, and bees work them only when secretion is good.AnnualNectar: ModeratePollen: Low
- Common milkweedAsclepias syriacaJune to August. The pollinia clip onto a leg or tongue as the insect slips into one of the flower's five slots, and are carried whole to the next flower.Herbaceous perennialNectar: Very highPollen: Low
- ManzanitaArctostaphylos speciesDecember to March. The urn-shaped flower is the Ericaceae standard — narrow-mouthed and hanging — and bumblebee queens emerging in a Californian winter are among the first to work it..ShrubNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- SafflowerCarthamus tinctoriusJune to August. The composite head presents accessible nectar and copious pollen, and honey bees measurably increase seed set even though the crop is largely self-fertile..AnnualNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- SumacRhus speciesJune to July. Hundreds of small open flowers on an upright panicle, fully accessible, and worked by honey bees, wasps and small solitary bees together..ShrubNectar: HighPollen: High
- Mountain mintPycnanthemum speciesJuly to September. The flowers are so small and so shallow that nothing is excluded — tiny sweat bees, wasps, flies, beetles and butterflies work it alongside honey bees, which is exactly why its species counts are so high..Herbaceous perennialNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- XtabentúnTurbina corymbosaNovember to January. The wide funnel is open to any visitor, and the Melipona beecheii kept in Maya log hives works it alongside introduced honey bees — the same plant feeding two very different beekeeping traditions..ClimberNectar: Very highPollen: Moderate
- MandacaruCereus jamacaruNovember to February. This is a bat-and-moth flower that bees exploit at the margins of its opening, which makes it another clear case of a flower not built for bees at all..ShrubNectar: ModeratePollen: High
- TiacaCaldcluvia paniculataJanuary to March. Small open flowers with fully accessible nectar, worked by introduced honey bees and by the native Patagonian bumblebee, whose decline in the face of introduced commercial bumblebees is one of the better-documented cases of its kind..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- ChañarGeoffroea decorticansSeptember to November. The pea flower requires a visitor with enough weight to trip the keel, which suits honey bees and carpenter bees and excludes the very smallest visitors..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- Five fingerPseudopanax arboreusMay to August. Small open flowers with fully exposed nectaries on a large umbel-like head, accessible to everything — the same architecture that makes ivy so valuable in the northern hemisphere autumn..TreeNectar: HighPollen: High
- TowaiWeinmannia silvicolaOctober to December. Long racemes of small open flowers with easily accessible nectar, worked heavily by honey bees and by native birds..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
- WilgaGeijera parvifloraJune to October. Tiny open flowers with accessible nectar, worked by honey bees in large numbers and by a range of native bees and flies..TreeNectar: HighPollen: Moderate
Find the gaps in your year
The flowering calendar maps every plant here across the twelve months and flags the months with little coverage. Those gaps — usually February and October — are where planting helps most.
Planting guides
- Which flowers make honeyBeing good for bees and producing a honey crop are different things. A honey crop needs a plant that flowers in enormous quantity, in one place, at one time — which most good bee plants do not.
- How to make a garden genuinely useful to beesMost bee-friendly advice covers flowers in June, which is the one thing bees are least short of. The gaps are at the ends of the year — and half the problem is not flowers at all.
- Winter forage: plants that flower for bees from November to MarchBees fly on mild winter days and most gardens offer them nothing. Filling the November-to-March gap is the single highest-value planting decision a temperate garden can make, and it takes about six plants.
- Plants that attract honey bees specificallyHoney bees have short tongues and work in large numbers, which means they want different plants from bumblebees. Half the flowers sold as bee-friendly are out of their reach entirely.
- The best plants for beesA shortlist chosen on three criteria: how much nectar and pollen the plant produces, how accessible it is to different bees, and when it flowers. Season coverage matters more than any individual plant.
- The best flowers for beesHerbaceous flowers rather than trees and shrubs, chosen for output and length of season. Most of them are things you can grow in a border or a container.
- Bee plants through the yearThe gaps matter more than the peaks. Almost every garden has plenty in June and nothing in February, and it is the empty months that limit what a garden can support.
- Spring plants for beesSpring forage decides how many colonies exist by summer. A bumblebee queen who cannot find pollen in March does not found a colony, and a honey bee colony without early pollen cannot build.
- Summer plants for beesSummer looks abundant and contains a real gap. The weeks between the spring blossom finishing and high summer starting are thinner than most gardens realise, and colonies are at peak population when it happens.
- Autumn plants for beesAutumn forage decides how well colonies enter winter. It is also when one plant does more work than everything else combined, and most people regard it as a nuisance.
- Bee plants for a small gardenA small garden cannot do everything, so it should do the things large gardens usually skip: the winter and early spring gaps, and nesting habitat. Both take almost no space.
- Bee plants for a balconyBees will find a balcony several floors up, and containers can be genuinely productive. The constraints are watering, wind and depth, and the plants that handle all three are mostly Mediterranean herbs.
- Making a wildflower area for beesA meadow is made by reducing fertility and weakening grass, not by scattering seed on a lawn. The single most useful plant in the process is a parasite.
- Why botanical family is the most useful thing to know about a bee plantCorolla depth, floret arrangement and whether nectar is exposed are inherited traits. Learn a family and you can predict a plant nobody has catalogued.
- A bee-friendly garden in Britain and IrelandAround 270 bee species, one honey bee among them, and a climate that gives you flowering months at both ends of the year that most of the world does not get. The British gaps are February and late June, and both are fixable.
- A bee-friendly garden in the United StatesAround 4,000 native bee species and a continent too large for one planting list. What transfers is the method — regional natives, a long season and bare ground — rather than the species.
- An Australian bee gardenOver 1,600 native bee species, almost none of which make honey, and a flora that flowers on its own schedule. Australian bee gardening is mostly a question of which eucalypts and which understorey, not which perennials.
- A New Zealand bee gardenA flora that evolved with few bees and mostly small pale flowers, about 28 native bee species, and the most acute invasive-plant problem of any country covered here. Planting for bees in New Zealand means being careful in a way it does not elsewhere.
- A Mediterranean bee gardenThe one climate where the bee-friendly planting and the drought-tolerant planting are the same list. The Mediterranean gap is not winter — it is the dead of summer, and the plants that solve it are mostly herbs.
- Nesting habitat: the half of bee gardening that is not flowersAround seventy per cent of bee species nest in bare ground and most of the rest in stems, wood or cavities. A garden can be full of flowers and offer nowhere at all to live.
- Plants for bumblebeesLong tongues, big bodies, cold tolerance and an annual colony that has to build from a single queen. Bumblebees can use flowers honey bees cannot reach, and they need forage at both ends of the year when honey bees are indoors.
- Plants for solitary beesNine bee species in ten are solitary. They are small, short-tongued, short-lived and often tied to particular plants — which makes open shallow flowers, a long season and untidy ground more useful to them than a border of showy perennials.
- The vegetable garden as bee habitatThe one part of a garden where the relationship runs both ways: bees decide the size of the crop, and the crop — plus what is allowed to bolt beside it — feeds the bees.
- Long-flowering plants for beesA plant in flower for five months does the work of three plants in flower for six weeks, and removes the timing problem that defeats most bee planting. These are the ones that keep going.
Honey crop status shown on each plant page: Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years · Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally · Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus · Not a honey source