Mission

Honey Bee Suite is dedicated to honey bees, beekeeping, wild bees, other pollinators, and pollination ecology. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. Although they may seem small and insignificant, pollinators are vital to anyone who eats.

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Plants that Attract Pollinators

Popular Garden Plants:

Basil (Ocimum)
Bee balm (Monardia)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
Borage (Borago)
Caltrop (Kallstroemia)
Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)
English Lavendar (Lavandula)
Escallonia (Escallonia)
Globe thistle (Echinops)
Hyssop (Hyssopus)
Licorice Mint (Agastache)
Marjoram (Origanum)
Mexican sunflower (Tithonia)
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus)
Russian Sage (Perovskia)
Sage (Salvia)
Wallflower (Erysimum)
Wild lilac (Ceanothus)
Zinnia (Zinnia)

Northwest Native Plants:

Aster (Aster)
California poppy (Eschscholzia)
Currant (Ribes)
Elder (Sambucus)
Fireweed (Epilobium)
Goldenrod (Solidago)
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium)
Larkspur (Delphinium)
Lupine (Lupinus)
Madrone (Arbutus)
Mint (Mentha)
Oregon grape (Berberis)
Penstemon (Penstemon)
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus)
Rhododendron (Rhododendron)
Saskatoon (Amalanchier)
Scorpion-weed (Phacelia)
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos)
Stonecrop (Sedum)
Sunflower (Helianthus)
Wild buckwheat (Eriogonum)
Willow (Salix)
Yarrow (Achillea)

Fifteen ways to attract pollinators to your yard

Here are fifteen easy ways to assure you will have a plentiful supply of pollinators all season long. Although we’re half way through summer, it’s not too soon to start planning for next year.

Plant clover in your lawn. White Dutch clover planted in your lawn will attract dozens of pollinators. In addition, it [...]

From the far side of the pond: AntBlog

Friends like this make the Revolutionary War seem so unnecessary! Thank you so much, Richard.

Rusty

“How do I kill my neighbor’s honey bees?”

This is an open letter to the person who looked for the answer to this question on my website:

Dear Angry Person,

In case you hadn’t noticed, the world population is edging toward 7 billion—that’s a 7 with nine zeros after it. Among these people are a whole lot that don’t like each other, [...]

Sweat bee in a buttercup

Sweat bees are small bees usually about 1/4- to 1/2-inch long (0.6-1.3 cm). Their common name refers to the fact that they are attracted to the salt in human sweat. In the United States, sweat bees are usually brown, black, red, or metallic green.They are the most common type of bee [...]

Queen cups: cut them or leave them?

Like nearly everything else in beekeeping, the answer to this question depends on a number of factors. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish and whether you are a commercial beekeeper or a hobbyist. It is also influenced by your general attitude toward messing with nature. Oddly enough, it also changes with [...]

The color of honey

The USDA classifies honey into seven categories of color. These are named as follows:

Water white Extra white White Extra light amber Light amber Amber Dark Amber

“White” is one of those odd words. In this case it means “colorless,” in the same way that white vinegar is colorless. White honey is no more [...]

Bees pollinate one-third of what? Do we really know?

Dear Readers,

Almost every day I read something like this: “One third of all the food we eat is pollinated by bees.” I just read it again today–twice. Some say “every third bite” which sounds like volume; some say “one-third of all crops” which sounds like a species count.

Please tell me about this [...]

The Great Sunflower Project continues to grow

In case you haven’t heard about it, The Great Sunflower Project is an on-going survey of pollinators in North America that uses “citizen scientists” to collect and submit data about pollinators. Each participant receives seeds for a particular variety of sunflower (Lemon Queen) which can be planted where he or she lives, works, or [...]

Ten ways to help the bees, starting today

Humans are so intimidated by insects that we continually try to eradicate them even while we mourn the loss of biodiversity in other species. But it doesn’t work that way. The interplay of life on Earth is vastly complicated and the species are all interdependent.

Saturday May 22 is International Biodiversity Day and I [...]