Do different bees need different plants?
Gardening for beesReviewed 2026-08-02
Short answerTrue
Yes, and the main divider is tongue length. Honey bees have tongues around 6 mm and need shallow or open flowers; long-tongued bumblebees reach 16 mm and can work red clover, foxglove and comfrey that honey bees cannot. Small solitary bees need small open flowers — umbellifers and daisies — that most 'bee-friendly' planting ignores entirely.
Matching plants to bees
| Bee | Needs | Plants |
|---|---|---|
| Honey bees | Shallow or open flowers, massed on one plant so a forager can work without flying | Lime, sycamore, cotoneaster, bramble, marjoram, phacelia, ivy, willow |
| Long-tongued bumblebees | Deep tubular flowers their tongues open up, and which nothing else can pollinate properly | Red clover, foxglove, comfrey, vetches, honeysuckle, betony, lungwort |
| Short-tongued bumblebees | Accessible flowers; they rob the deep ones instead | Catmint, white clover, knapweed, sedum, globe thistle |
| Small solitary bees | Small, shallow, completely open flowers — the architecture most planting overlooks | Yarrow, wild carrot, fennel, oxeye daisy, sea holly, marjoram, cosmos, calendula |
| Spring mining and mason bees | Early blossom, in cool weather when honey bees are still clustered | Willow, blackthorn, dandelion, crab apple, flowering currant, fruit blossom |
| Specialists | One plant genus and nothing else will do | Ivy for the ivy bee, yellow loosestrife for Macropis, scabious for the large scabious mining bee, squash for squash bees |
The two rules that matter most
- Plant a range of flower shapes, not just a range of colours. Deep tubes, open daisies, flat umbels and keel flowers each admit a different set of insects, and a garden of one shape serves one guild.
- Avoid doubles. Double flowers have had the nectaries and anthers bred into extra petals. A single dahlia is worked constantly and a pompom dahlia is visited by nothing — same species, same bed.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Work it out for yourself
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?
- Seasonal bee planner
It is this season and I want to do this — what should I plant?