Best Plants for Bees: Year-Round Forage for Your Apiary

Supporting bees means providing nectar and pollen from early spring through fall. Arty Schronce (GA Dept. of Agriculture) recommends this extensive list:

Trees & Shrubs

Cornelian cherry dogwood, flowering quince, pussy willow, serviceberry, redbud, black locust, lilac, catalpa, false indigo bush, red maple, titi, blueberry, tulip poplar, Japanese flowering apricot, Chickasaw plum, gallberry, American holly, yaupon, sourwood, chaste tree, cabbage palmetto, dwarf palmetto, witch hazel, persimmon, American basswood, littleleaf linden, wild cherry, buttonbush, glossy abelia, sumac, bottlebrush buckeye, crabapple, tupelo, elderberry, blackhaw, possumhaw, native azaleas/rhododendrons, blackberry, clethra, rosemary.

Annuals & Perennials

Clover, bee balm, hoary mountain mint, Eastern prickly pear, sunflower, native asters, tithonia, goldenrod, mollypop, butterflyweed, anise hyssop, zinnia, purple coneflower, blue mistflower, lemon balm, great blue lobelia, sedum, Russian sage, liatris, phlox.

Plant in drifts for efficient foraging. Avoid pesticides. See “Bee Conservation in the Southeast” for more.

Bee balm (Monarda) is a top perennial for pollinators.

Sedum provides late-season nectar.