Best spring flowers to attract bees

Best spring flowers to attract bees in mid to late season

Bee activity is one of the surest indicators of your garden’s health, so if it’s high and your garden keeps abuzz with bees of varied kind, your garden’s in great shape. Not seeing much bee activity past the early spring? Bees look for a wide variety of plants, with plenty of nectar-producing flowers, on which to feast. Here’s a list of mid-late spring flowers you can use to entice pollinators.

Astilbe

Astilbe are fairly care-free if planted in the right areas, and will attract plenty of bees, along with other pollinating insects. They’re perfect for partly shaded growing spaces, with some varieties known to thrive in full shade. Try a mixture, such as Breck’s Deluxe Astilbe Collection, which can be planted in drifts or in combination with other flowering perennials, both to excellent effect.

Bleeding hearts

Bleeding hearts delicate heart-shaped flowers and mounded foliage are equally as attractive to both humans and bees. A partly sunny/shaded stretch along the wood line would be a great site for planting bleeding hearts. They’re right at home planted in combination with ferns and other shade loving plants and do well as potted plants too. If you’re interested in reblooming varieties, look no further than Reblooming Bleeding Heart Mixture.

Iris

If your garden’s got irises, then it’s got bees – plus hummingbirds, butterflies and all sorts of pollinators! Irises do best in full sun so make sure they wouldn’t get shaded by other plants when you select the planting site. Something like the striking Dangerous Mood Bearded Iris would create a lot of buzz planted en masse or in combination with other perennials in the front border or beds.

Clematis

Clematis is one of the biggest stars of the spring-summer garden, and it apparently holds a special place in the hearts of our favorite pollinators. Most varieties are fairly easy to grow and flourish in full to partly sunny growing spaces. Many of us think of clematis as simple, purple flowers – but there are a wide variety of shapes and colors from which to choose. Try a multi-colored collection of double clematis to vary the color in your garden.

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