How to attract more bees to your garden

Bees are the quiet engine of a productive garden, pollinating everything from vegetables and fruit to the flowers that feed butterflies and birds. Attracting more of them — both honeybees and our many native bees — makes a yard healthier, more abundant, and more alive.

The recipe is straightforward: plenty of the right flowers, a little habitat, and a hands-off approach to chemicals. Here is how to bring more bees to your Palm Beach County garden and keep them coming back.

Plant a long season of bloom

Bees need nectar and pollen across the whole year, not just in spring, so the most important thing you can do is provide a continuous succession of blooms. A garden with something always flowering supports far more bees than one that peaks briefly and goes quiet.

Aim for overlapping bloom times among your plants so the table is never bare. In Florida's long growing season this is very achievable, and it benefits butterflies and hummingbirds at the same time.

Choose bee-favored flowers

Bees are drawn to flowers rich in nectar and pollen, and they particularly favor blue, purple, and yellow blooms with open or clustered shapes they can land on. Salvia, porterweed, salvias, pentas, and many herbs left to flower are all strong bee plants.

Single-flower forms are better than densely doubled ones, which often hide or lack accessible pollen. Choosing simple, open flowers makes the nectar and pollen easy for bees to reach.

Lean on native plants

Native bees evolved alongside native plants, so a yard with Florida natives supports a wider diversity of bees than one built only on exotics. Native wildflowers like tickseed, blanketflower, and blazing star, plus native shrubs and trees, are powerful bee magnets.

Natives also tend to be lower-maintenance and more drought-tolerant, so supporting bees and easing your workload go hand in hand. A native-rich garden quietly does a lot of ecological good.

Provide water and bare ground

Bees get thirsty, and a shallow water source with landing spots — a dish with pebbles, or a slow-dripping spot — gives them a safe place to drink. It is a small addition that makes a garden more hospitable.

Many native bees nest in the ground or in plant stems, so leaving a patch of undisturbed bare soil and a few hollow stems gives them places to nest. A perfectly mulched, tidied yard offers fewer of these opportunities.

Stop spraying

Insecticides are the single biggest threat to garden bees, and many common products are lethal to them even in small amounts. The most important thing you can do for bees is to stop using broad-spectrum sprays in the garden.

Rely instead on plant diversity, healthy soil, and natural predators to keep pests in check, and tolerate a little imperfection. A garden managed without chemicals quickly becomes a haven for bees and the other beneficial insects that control pests for you.

Plant in generous patches

Bees forage most efficiently when flowers of one kind are grouped together, so plant in patches and drifts rather than scattering single plants around the yard. A solid block of bloom is both easier for bees to find and more rewarding for them to work.

Larger patches also make a bigger visual impact and read as intentional. It is a rare case where what is best for the bees is also best for the design.

Build your bee garden

A bee-friendly garden is mostly a matter of abundant, varied, pesticide-free flowers with a little habitat thrown in — and it rewards you with better pollination and a livelier yard. Start with a few strong bee plants and expand from there.

We can help you choose a long-blooming, bee-favored, native-rich palette for your conditions. Come tell us about your garden at the nursery and we will help you bring on the bees.

Frequently asked questions