The best autumn field-scale plants for bees
September and October forage is worth disproportionately more than anything else you can plant, because it determines what survives the winter.
The rule behind this list
Plants the catalogue records as suited to farm-scale planting. Filtered to plants whose flowering window overlaps September to November.
Months here are northern-hemisphere temperate. Southern-hemisphere readers should shift by roughly six months — but that shift is an approximation rather than a translation, because day length, rainfall pattern and the local flora do not shift with it. Records that genuinely span both hemispheres say so.
What to prioritise in autumn
This is the highest-value gap in most gardens. Ivy first — allowed to reach adult growth and flower, which means not clipping it. Then the late daisies: Michaelmas asters, sedum, rudbeckia, helenium, Japanese anemone. Then autumn-flowering shrubs like abelia and seven-son flower. A garden that flowers into November is doing something almost no garden does.
The autumn mistake
Clipping ivy, which prevents it ever reaching the flowering growth phase, and pulling out annuals that are still in flower because the border looks untidy. Both remove forage at the moment it is most valuable and least replaceable.
In flower through the whole of autumn
- Brazilian pepperSchinus terebinthifoliaSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Fodder radishRaphanus sativusAugust to November. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- BabulVachellia niloticaAugust to November. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Niger seedGuizotia abyssinicaSeptember to November. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisJanuary to December. Nectar low, pollen very high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- BushwillowCombretum speciesAugust to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Spanish needleBidens albaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- AngicoAnadenanthera colubrinaSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- ChañarGeoffroea decorticansSeptember to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
In flower for part of autumn
- White cloverTrifolium repensMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- SunflowerHelianthus annuusJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- Wildflower meadowMixed native floraApril to September. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- BuckwheatFagopyrum esculentumJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- AlfalfaMedicago sativaJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- BorageBorago officinalisJune to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- PhaceliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaJune to October. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Minor honey crop
- Red cloverTrifolium pratenseMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- CornflowerCentaurea cyanusJune to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- ChicoryCichorium intybusJuly to October. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- CottonGossypium hirsutumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Yellow starthistleCentaurea solstitialisJune to September. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Himalayan balsamImpatiens glanduliferaJuly to October. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- Japanese knotweedReynoutria japonicaAugust to October. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Squash and pumpkinCucurbita pepoJune to September. Nectar high, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- MarmeleiroCrotonJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- SesameSesamum indicumJuly to October. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Yellow gumEucalyptus leucoxylonMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- WilgaGeijera parvifloraJune to October. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
Check these against your region before planting
7 plants in this group carry an invasiveness or legal restriction note somewhere in the world: Yellow starthistle, Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed, Brazilian pepper, Babul, Sweet thorn, Spanish needle. HoneyHQ does not know where you are and will not guess, so it flags rather than filters.
Bees these plants are recorded with
Taken from the relationships on each plant record. These are the well-attested associations rather than an exhaustive list of visitors, so treat the number as a floor.
Honeys from these plants
- Clover honeyWarm, mild and rounded — sweet with a faint cinnamon-and-hay note underneath. The taste most English-speaking readers picture when they read the word honey.
- Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
- Berseem honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint hay note — the archetype of an unassuming everyday honey.
- Sunflower honeyStraw, beeswax and pollen, with a slightly waxy mouthfeel and a fresh, faintly herbal edge.
- Alpine meadow honeyComplex and aromatic, with a herbal lift over warm caramel and a distinctly clean finish — the flavour of a great many plants rather than of any one.
- Karakovan honeyComplex, floral and herbal at once, eaten with the wax. Its character is a mountain and a year rather than a species.
- Buckwheat honeyMalt, molasses and wet straw, with a savoury, almost animal depth. The most polarising honey in general production.
- Alfalfa honeyMild, clean and slightly grassy, with a beeswax note and very little else. A background honey, and good at being one.
- Tree lucerne honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint nutty note — pleasant, undemanding and mostly eaten by bees rather than people.
- Borage honeyVery light and very clean, with a faint cucumber-fresh note that fades with age. Sweetness without commentary.
- Ak balMild, creamy and delicately floral with a faint herbal lift — the texture is much of the appeal, dense and smooth and dissolving rather than sticky.
- Cotton honeyMild and clean with a faint green-vegetal note and very little else — a background honey.
Keep going
Plan the season
- Seasonal bee planner
It is this season and I want to do this — what should I plant?
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?