The best summer trees for bees
Most gardens are at their best in June and empty by late August. The plants worth adding are the ones that flower after the first flush is over.
The rule behind this list
Every plant in the catalogue recorded as a tree. Filtered to plants whose flowering window overlaps June to August.
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 summer
The competition here is fierce — almost everything flowers in June — so the useful question is not what flowers in summer but what flowers in late August. Marjoram, knapweed, scabious, agastache, Russian sage, sedum and heather all carry a garden through the point at which the June planting has finished. A second flush from cutting back catmint, geranium and salvia in early July costs nothing and buys six weeks.
The summer mistake
Deadheading everything and cutting the herbs before they flower. Both remove exactly the forage the plant was going to provide, and both are done for tidiness rather than for the plant's benefit.
In flower through the whole of summer
- EucalyptusEucalyptusJanuary to December. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- SourwoodOxydendrum arboreumJune to August. Nectar very high, pollen low.Major honey crop
- MesquiteProsopisApril to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Silver firAbies albaJune to September. Nectar none, pollen low.Major honey crop
- Norway sprucePicea abiesJune to September. Nectar none, pollen low.Major honey crop
- Cabbage palmSabal palmettoJune to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Black mangroveAvicennia germinansJune to August. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Coconut palmCocos nuciferaJanuary to December. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisJanuary to December. Nectar low, pollen very high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- 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
- Five fingerPseudopanax arboreusMay to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- WilgaGeijera parvifloraJune to October. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
In flower for part of summer
- HawthornCrataegus monogynaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Sweet chestnutCastanea sativaJune to July. Nectar high, pollen very high.Major honey crop
- LimeTilia cordataJune to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- RowanSorbus aucupariaMay to June. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- LemonCitrus limonMarch to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- JujubeZiziphus jujubaMay to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- HollyIlex aquifoliumMay to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Black locustRobinia pseudoacaciaMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Tulip treeLiriodendron tulipiferaMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- MacadamiaMacadamia integrifoliaAugust to October. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Scots pinePinus sylvestrisJuly to November. Nectar none, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Bee bee treeTetradium danielliiJuly to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Japanese pagoda treeStyphnolobium japonicumJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Chinese tallowTriadica sebiferaApril to June. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- American persimmonDiospyros virginianaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- ArganArgania spinosaApril to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- QuinceCydonia oblongaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen high.Not a honey source
- MedlarMespilus germanicaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen high.Not a honey source
- WhitebeamSorbus ariaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Tree of heavenAilanthus altissimaJune to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- BabulVachellia niloticaAugust to November. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- TamarindTamarindus indicaApril to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- NiaouliMelaleuca quinquenerviaMarch to July. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- BushwillowCombretum speciesAugust to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.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: Eucalyptus, Black locust, Mesquite, Chinese tallow, Tree of heaven, Babul, Niaouli. 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
- Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
- Chestnut honeyAromatic, woody and unmistakably bitter — sweetness first, tannin second, and a long dry finish.
- Linden honeyFresh and cooling — mint, balsam and lime blossom, with a clean herbal sharpness no other pale honey has.
- Bashkir linden honeyIntensely aromatic with the mentholated, faintly medicinal lift characteristic of lime, over a clean sweetness — more perfumed than most people expect from so pale a honey.
- Urban honeyVaries enormously and is frequently more complex than a rural multifloral, because the flowering succession is longer and the species mix wider.
- 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.
- Basswood honeyIntensely aromatic with a mentholated, faintly medicinal lift over a clean sweetness — one of the most distinctive American honeys and among the most divisive.
- Eucalyptus honeyWoody and faintly medicinal, with caramel and a cool eucalypt lift. More savoury than its colour suggests.
- Jarrah honeyDark, malty and caramelised, with a coffee-and-treacle depth and much less of the medicinal edge a comparably dark honey usually carries.
- Ethiopian red honeyStrong and warm with a malty depth, a resinous eucalyptus lift and a faint smokiness from traditional harvesting — an assertive honey that stands up to fermentation.
- Messmate honeyStrong and resinous with a malty depth and a faintly medicinal eucalypt lift — assertive and unmistakably Australian.
- Blackbutt honeyWarm and caramelised with a light resinous edge — one of the milder eucalypt honeys and a good introduction to the group.
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?