The best spring field-scale plants for bees
The plants that flower between March and May are feeding colony expansion and solitary emergence at once. Quantity matters less here than presence.
The rule behind this list
Plants the catalogue records as suited to farm-scale planting. Filtered to plants whose flowering window overlaps March to May.
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 spring
Spring planting competes with nothing — this is the season most gardens are already reasonably covered in, thanks to fruit blossom, bulbs and the willows. The genuine gaps sit at either end: early March, before the blossom starts, and late May, in the pause between fruit blossom and the summer perennials. A plant that covers either of those is worth two that flower in April.
The spring mistake
Tidying. The single most damaging spring habit is cutting, mowing and clearing at exactly the moment bees need the ground undisturbed and the dandelions flowering. A lawn left uncut through April produces more forage than most deliberate planting, and it costs nothing.
In flower through the whole of spring
- Chinese milk vetchAstragalus sinicusMarch to May. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- KaranjPongamia pinnataMarch to May. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Sea buckthornHippophae rhamnoidesMarch to May. Nectar none, pollen high.Not a honey source
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- MangiumAcacia mangiumFebruary to May. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisJanuary to December. Nectar low, pollen very high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Spanish needleBidens albaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
In flower for part of spring
- White cloverTrifolium repensMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Wildflower meadowMixed native floraApril to September. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- Oilseed rapeBrassica napusApril to June. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- RaspberryRubus idaeusMay to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Red cloverTrifolium pratenseMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Common poppyPapaver rhoeasMay to August. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- Black locustRobinia pseudoacaciaMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- SainfoinOnobrychis viciifoliaMay to July. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- MesquiteProsopisApril to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Field beanVicia fabaMay to July. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Chinese tallowTriadica sebiferaApril to June. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- SheaVitellaria paradoxaJanuary to April. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- TamariskTamarixMay to August. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Crimson cloverTrifolium incarnatumMay to July. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- AjwainTrachyspermum ammiJanuary to March. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Talh acaciaVachellia seyalFebruary to April. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- TamarindTamarindus indicaApril to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesDecember to March. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Yellow gumEucalyptus leucoxylonMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Swamp mahoganyEucalyptus robustaMay to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major 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: Black locust, Mesquite, Chinese tallow, Tamarisk, Sea buckthorn, Mangium, 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.
- 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.
- Rapeseed honeyVery sweet, very mild, faintly cabbage-like when fresh and cleanly bland once set. Texture is what it has instead of flavour.
- Himalayan forest honeyComplex and warm, with a herbal and faintly smoky character reflecting both the flora and the traditional processing — spring honey is lighter and more floral, autumn honey darker and more resinous.
- Raspberry honeyDelicate and lightly fruity with a clean bright acidity — one of the few honeys where a taster unprompted names the right fruit.
- Siberian taiga honeyComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
- 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.
- Milk vetch honeySoft, mild and slightly floral with a faint green-bean freshness — an unassuming honey made in enormous quantity.
- Acacia honeyClean, light and sweet with almost nothing in the way. The honey to reach for when you want sweetness without a flavour opinion.
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?