Horticulturists and Honey-Makers

Although bees can quickly spoil a day at the park, you really do want to welcome them to your garden.

Nearly 5,000 species of bees make their home in the United States. Most of these will not sting humans, unless they are threatened.

Bees are the natural pollinators. They help with to propagate your plantings, and they stimulate fruit-bearing. By seeking nectar for honey-making, these busybodies zip from flower to flower. They take what they need and cross-fertilize the flowers for reproduction.

If you plant perennial flowers, then you will need your apian assistants to spread their pollen. After all, that's how your many of your plants will return and increase each year.

How can you draw bees to your backyard? If your garden includes plants that give bees what they seek, they will be eager to visit.

Offer a welcoming environment.

As you plan your garden, incorporate local plants, whenever possible. Look for vegetation that is native to your region. Local bees will be naturally attracted to this.

Select many colorful flowers and herbs that appeal to bees. Gardens containing a dozen or more types of apian-attractive plants will draw the most. Arrange plants in like groupings. The bigger the clumps of flowers, the denser your bee population will be.

Include a rainbow of colors in your garden. Bees have excellent color vision. Bright colors attract them, as they seek nectar. Favorite colors seem to be yellow, violet, blue, purple, and orange.

Be sure to plant several varieties of bee-attracting plants, so you will have blooms throughout the spring, summer, and fall. This way, you will have a continuous buzzing population of pollinators!

Look for fragrant flowers and herbs that contain plenty of pollen. Spring choices might include calendulas, daffodils, larkspur, lilacs, poppies, tulips, violas, wallflowers, and daisies. Summer bloomers could be anemones, basils, catnip, daylilies, gladioli,impatiens, lavender, lilies, lupine, peonies, roses, rosemary, thyme, and yarrow. Fall bee favorites might be asters, black-eyed Susans. coneflowers, coreopsis, cosmos, heliopsis, salvias, and verbenas.

Of course, fruit-bearing shrubs and trees are magnets for bees. Berries are too.

If you roll out the welcome mat, by planting what they like, the bees will swarm to your garden. Soon, you will reap the benefits, as your flowers multiply and your trees and shrubs bear fruit!

Consider your own safety.

Perfume and bright-colored clothing will also attract bees, so be careful! It's a good idea to wear gardening gloves when you reach into your plantings, just in case.

Perfume and bright-colored clothing will also attract bees, so be careful!