Flowers for Honey Bees: Which Flowers Do They Actually Prefer?

Just because something flowers, it does not necessarily mean it will attract large numbers of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to your garden.  Some flowers that are often recommended as "bee friendly" receive surprisingly little attention from the honey bees here, while other plants can be covered in bees whenever they flower in my garden. 

Honey bees don't necessarily visit flowers simply because a plant produces abundant flowers. Their choices can depend on nectar and pollen availability, flower structure, weather, competing forage, and what else is flowering in the surrounding landscape.

This isn't a scientific ranking of bee-friendly plants.  It is based largely on what I have observed in my garden and the surrounding area over many years.  The same plant may perform differently somewhere else, particularly where different flowers are available.

This post is specifically about European honey bees (Apis mellifera), rather than our native bees or other pollinators in general.  A plant (such as native river mint) that attracts plenty of native bees or other insects may still receive little attention from honey bees in my garden.

I'll show you some flowers that even though commonly called "bee friendly" the honey bees often seem to ignore them in my garden, although they will work them if there is little else flowering.  Then I'll show you some that are frequently covered in bees, as well as some surprises.

Flowers Honey Bees Often Ignore

Parsley 

I often see Apiaceae recommended as excellent plants for bees, but in my garden I rarely see honey bees working them unless there is little else flowering. 

Parsley produces huge numbers of flowers in a small amount of space, yet they receive little attention from bees.  It does attract plenty of other insects, including several species that I consider useful in the garden.  There are no bees in the pictures below, yet there are many flowers of different stages of maturity.

Parsley flowers - no bees

Parsley produces a lot of flowers

Carrot 

I rarely see honey bees working carrot flowers unless it is a very dry year with little else blooming.  I do see a lot of lady beetles and other beneficial insects on them.  You will see below that there are plenty of lady beetles on the carrot flowers, I don't know why but in my garden carrot flowers appear to attract lady beetles.  Again, there are no honey bees in the pictures below.

Carrot flowers, lady beetles, and other beetles

Lady beetles seem to enjoy carrot flowers

Coriander 

Much like other Apiaceae, coriander (called 'cilantro' in North America) produces huge numbers of flowers.  

Coriander produces lovely purple pollen that is sometimes collected by my bees.  Honey bees certainly do work coriander here, but they don't seem particularly interested in it compared with some of the other flowers available at the same time.  

The photo below did not have a single honey bee even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of flowers open.  It does have many other species of beneficial insects.

Coriander flowers - no honey bees

Elderberry 

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) produces huge numbers of flowers in a small area.  Many people assume it would be useful to honey bees. 

Strangely I rarely ever see a honey bee on any elderflowers.  I do see plenty of other beneficial insects working these flowers, and it produces ample berries in my garden, so it isn't a huge loss.

Elderberry flowers - no honey bees

Flowers Honey Bees Seem To Prefer

Mustard and various Brassicas 

Brassicas are some of the most reliable honey-bee flowers in my garden.  Many species produce numerous flowers in a small area, and if the weather is warm they almost always have bees working them in my garden.  

I often see honey bees drive other insects off these flowers.  Some are grown in the garden, some are roadside weeds, while others are agricultural crops.

Honey bees seem to prefer my Brassicas

Brassica flowers and honey bee

Clovers 

Honey bees appear to love clover.  Many species produce ample nectar, and a good patch of clover hums with all the bee activity.  

I like clover as it is a legume that sequesters nitrogen form the air and (after the clover has died and began to break down) increases available nitrogen in the soil.  Clover grows in my lawn, as a roadside weed, and can flower in fields.  Clover doesn't love the heat of summer here, and won't flower in my winter, but I like it.

Clover Flowers

Lemon Flowers

Honey bees love many fruit trees as they can collect a lot of pollen and nectar from a small area.  Honey bees seem to also love apple and stone fruit flowers, which only flower for a very short window each year.  Unlike those deciduous fruit trees, citrus can flower for most of the year in wet or mild years in my garden.  

The bees love lemon trees and as long as the weather is not too extreme, bees are never far from any open flowers.  I have a Meyer Lemon tree, which acts as a host for the orchard swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, which I think are a lovely butterfly.  Lemon tree flowers smell amazing, plus they turn into lemons, so I consider it worth my time to have a lemon tree.

Lemon tree flowers attract honey bees

Bottlebrush 

Honey bees love bottlebrush when it is in flower.  I have heard of people grow this for native birds and then have the bush inundated with so many bees that the birds did not forage on it.  

Some varieties of bottlebrush can grow to be large trees and when covered in flowers the humming from bees can be impressive.  Other varieties form short shrubs.  

Bottlebrush flowers attract honey bees

Bottlebrush produce a lot of flowers

Rosemary for Bees

Rosemary is a favourite of honey bees in my garden.  I grow several varieties of rosemary, and all of them become covered in honey bees when they flower.  Rosemary usually flowers for many months of the year in my garden, and often is covered in honey bees as well as other beneficial insects.

This is one of the plants where the difference between "bee-friendly" in theory and what I actually see in my garden is particularly obvious, the bees clearly do love it.  

Blue rosemary flowers and foraging honey bees

More rosemary and more honey bees

The Surprising Ones

Poppy 

Poppies are an interesting exception because the honey bees aren't there for nectar.  They are there for high protein pollen.

I have watched the bees frantically fight to collect the pollen while it lasts.  Each flower opens in the morning, has a short time of frantic bee activity as they collect the pollen, once the pollen is gone the bees leave.  The flowers usually die that afternoon.  

The number of bees working each poppy flower is incredible. Sometimes more than a dozen bees will crowd into a single flower, all working frantically to collect the pollen. 

Honey bees collecting pollen from poppy flower

Sweet Corn

Corn is primarily wind pollinated, so it does not need to attract insects to pollinate its flowers.  In most years I don't see any honey bees on my corn plants.

One year we had a severe drought, very few other flowers were open, and the honey bees started working my corn.  My honey bees collected a surprising amount of corn pollen from it that year.

I would not grow corn specifically for honey bees, but it was interesting to see that they can and do make use of corn as a food source when very little else is available.

Honey bee collecting corn pollen

Many bees collecting corn pollen

Lawn weeds and Roadside weeds 

These are often overlooked but are a valuable source of bee forage.  Some are better than others, some are ephemeral, and others flower for most of the year.  They all need rain and will not flower in a dry year here.

Dandelions always seem to be a favourite of honey bees in my yard, as does Persian speedwell.  Many of the lawn weeds are exotic, which makes them well suited to honey bees.

Dandelions and honey bees

Persian speedwell and honey bees

The Takeaway Lesson

The biggest lesson I've learned from watching honey bees in the garden is that a flower being described as "bee friendly" doesn't tell me very much.  Some plants are covered in honey bees, some attract mostly other insects, and some seem to be ignored unless there is nothing else available.

If I want to help feed my honey bees, I pay much more attention to what the bees are actually doing in my yard than to a list of supposedly bee-friendly plants. 

Further Reading

Knowing which flowers honey bees prefer is only part of the picture.  What is flowering nearby, and what else is available to the bees, and how far they may travel to find it can make a big difference.

What is in flower - a month by month guide to flowering plants that can provide forage for honey bees

Bee forage map - an interactive map showing how far honey bees may travel from the hive to forage. 

I grow and sell many plants, some attract honey bees and other beneficial insects, if interested they are listed on my plant catalogue.  I grow everything organically, and only sell plants and seeds that I have grown and have excess of.