What early flowers for bees?

[Mackay]

I didn't have enough bees in my garden until my borage bloomed in mid summer.

What can I plant in my veggie garden that will flower early that attracts bees? The marigolds didn't do it.

 

[wifezilla]

Ooooo...good question.

I know they like my dandelions, but I don't pull them like most people. Those are free duck food!

 

[obsessed]

How about zinnia or butterfly weed? The zinnias bloom only after about 12 weeks from seed so you could get them going early hand have real early bee, I would think. I have seen a ton of bees around them, the butter fly weed and the tithonia. But the tithonia took a while to bloom.

 

[hoodat]

Remember it doesn't have to be a "flower" flower to attract bees. One of the earliest treats you can give them is to plant a patch of Bok Choy and let it flower. They love them. The same goes for mustard. You can have both in full bloom while the nights are still cold.

 

[beavis]

How about red clover?

 

[obsessed]

Or even the white clover weed that grows in my yard. I think it is so pretty! And the bee just love it. I think it looks way better than the lawn but my DH thinks it is a weed.

 

[journey11]

Trees are good early forage too, both fruit and nut, as well as wild ones like the black locust. Dandelions are the first thing on the ground for our bees here. I gladly let my yard go to weeds in exchange for happy bees making lots of honey.

Mustard is a great idea. I'm going to plant more buckwheat next spring. It will flower in 3 weeks from germination if conditions are right.

The thing with getting the bees to come is that you need to plant a lot of it, whatever you plant. They are not like bumblebees, hitting everything in sight. Bees work one plant at a time. That is why you can isolate honey flavors in your harvest. The scouts come back and tell the others they've found something good, then they hit it until it is gone or something better comes along. If you see the honeybees working your flowerbed, they are probably in a nectar dearth and are desperate.

 

[Ariel301]

Violas (mini pansies, johnny jump-up) bloom pretty early I think. And so do crocuses if you like bulbs. I don't know if either particularly attracts bees, but they are pretty.

 

[simple life]

Trees are one of the earliest things to provide pollen but the forsythias bloom pretty early too and the bees come back to the hives with their legs loaded with bright yellow pollen.
Hyssop blooms earlier than borage and the bees love it. Another fairly early one are the various salvias.
The bees are on both of these from spring until the end of the summer.
Another popular one with the bees is catmint and it has a long bloom time as well.
There are plenty more but these are the earlier ones to bloom and won't become invasive.