In
our bee-ornamental plant research we have adopted and modified a
popular cliché, “plant it and they will come.”
This phrase is appropriate for the results we can expect if gardens
are designed with some science in mind. That is, do the proven things
that will encourage bees to forage, pollinate, and even nest in
your yard or community garden. We have also pieced together, from
our workshops, a rationale for urbanites wanting to encourage selected
wildlife, like native bees, to their home environments. The rationale
is tied to an awareness that pollinators are declining world wide,
and urbanites can do something in a small way to aid these beneficial
insects.
For
thousands of years, humans have known the value of bees in agriculture.
As the most effective pollinators in the world, bees are an invaluable
resource to ag productivity. Anybody who’s driven past an
orchard has seen the dozens of white wooden boxes containing
the farmer’s most valuable tool. Though we’ve known
the power of bees in our agriculture for centuries, we are just
beginning to realize their power in our humble residential gardens.
Just as they are used to dramatically increase fruit and vegetable
production, these seemingly insignificant little creatures can be
used to dramatically bolster the health and productivity of your
home garden. You need only do a few simple things to enlist the
help of bees in your pursuit of a more beautiful and healthy garden;
This website was created to let you in on these simple secrets.
There are a lot of other factors that make a garden
attractive to bees besides the flowers it contains. Our research
has shown that bees are more strongly attracted to gardens with
a greater diversity of bee-friendly flowers. In addition,
simple things like the layout and light exposure of your garden
can have a huge effect on the number and variety of bees it attracts.
Continue on to learn more about the non-planting-related things
you can do to make your garden a veritable bee Mecca.
Unlike honey bees, most native bees are solitary
in habit, meaning they make individual nests. Limited knowledge
exists about where these bees nest in urban environments, however,
three general nesting habits are known of solitary native bees.
The most common is the ground nesting habit, and probably 85% or
more of species build their nests in some type of soil. Another
nest substrate is the preexisting cavity, which can be found in
dead tree branches (for example, in old oak trees) or holes in human
structures of wood, metal, or masonry blocks. A third uncommon substrate
is wood frames and paneling that large carpenter bees may use to
bore out holes for their nests, often the great displeasure of urbanites.
It is not always easy to observe bees at close range, except for a few such as the honey bee or bumble bees. Even then, you may want to examine bees without harming them to see the fine details of the body. First, buy an insect net from a local supplier and practice swinging it a few times. After you master the swing, a flip of the net bag back over the hoop to close off the net, you are ready to sweep a bee off a flower. It is best to approach the bee from beneath or from the side of the flower and not from the top as the bee will see the net coming and will immediately leave. Simply make a quick sweep across the flower to capture the bee. Once the bee is in the net, take a transparent plastic or glass container and work it into the net bag to enclose the bee. then put the lid on. Take the contained bee and put it into the refrigerator or ice chest for about 30 minutes to cool it down. Then remove the bee from the container, which is still alive, healthy and chilled to look at it closely. You may also use a 3-5x magnifying glass for closer inspections. The bee with warm up in 4-5 minutes and then fly off unharmed.
From the perspective of a bee and its floral needs,
any plant that provides attractive and useful pollen and nectar
looks good. The rest of us tend to distinguish between the plants
we put in our gardens and those we call weeds that volunteer their
presence. When in bloom, weeds such as dandelions and white clover
in lawns may provide bees with a good source of pollen and nectar
for a short period. There is always plenty of time to remove the
weeds once their flowers are spent and the bees have moved on.
Ornamental plants have predictable flowering seasons
such that we can expect certain plants to bloom in Spring, Summer,
and/or early Fall in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many gardeners
plan their gardening schedules around this predictable flowering
information. Urban bees also have predictable flight/nesting seasons.
For example, in the Spring we can expect several bee groups that
only are found during these early months . One of
these groups is the bumble bee, which is very common at this time,
with some individuals lingering on in low numbers into Summer. During
Summer, large leaf cutter bees and fuzzy, robust anthophorid
bees become common. Because of their social and other habits, honey
bees can be found on urban flowers most of the year when the weather
is favorable.
Depending on what your goals are, the use California native or exotic plants is one of many factors you will have to consider when planning your garden. If your priority is to attract bees, it makes good ecological sense to consider a plant's bee-attractiveness, rather than focusing on whether the plant is native or exotic. We have evaluated many plants that bees like and present these results in two lists. One long list has all of our bee-plant evaluations. The second is a short list (selections from the long list) of the easiest, most attractive plants to grow in the shortest time period. Both lists will provide you with a lot of options based on your goals for your garden. For example, some plants are highly attractive to mostly honey bees, others are highly attractive to mostly large native bees, and still others attract a mixture of bee types. Using this information, we have designed four experimental gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area that focus on attracting a diverse assortment of mostly native bee species. We use native California plants whenever possible in order to attract local native California bees – for the greatest diversity.
There’s one big reason you might be reluctant
to attract more bees to your garden, and it can probably
be summed up in one word: Ouch! We all have memories, as a child
or as an adult, of getting stung by a bee. It’s never a fond
memory. As a result, understandably, a lot of people are afraid
of being stung again. However, there are a lot of myths and unfounded
fears surrounding bee stings. For example, did you know that only
female honeybees have stingers? That means only half of the honeybees
in your garden are even capable of stinging you! There are
people on our bee research team that have been working with bees
for decades, and most of us have never once been stung! We have
no secret pact with the bees, stinging is simply not as common as
many people think. We’ve included here a lot of information
about bees and stinging; when and why they do it, how it works,
and how to avoid it. We’ve marched out the most common myths
about bee stings and dispelled them, as well as included some home
remedies to ease the pain in the rare event you do get stung.
In
our bee-ornamental plant research we have adopted and modified a
popular cliché, “plant it and they will come.”
This phrase is appropriate for the results we can expect if gardens
are designed with some science in mind. That is, do the proven things
that will encourage bees to forage, pollinate, and even nest in
your yard or community garden. We have also pieced together, from
our workshops, a rationale for urbanites wanting to encourage selected
wildlife, like native bees, to their home environments. The rationale
is tied to an awareness that pollinators are declining world wide,
and urbanites can do something in a small way to aid these beneficial
insects.
For
thousands of years, humans have known the value of bees in agriculture.
As the most effective pollinators in the world, bees are an invaluable
resource to ag productivity. Anybody who’s driven past an
orchard has seen the dozens of 
There are a lot of other factors that make a garden
attractive to bees besides the flowers it contains. Our 
Unlike honey bees, most native bees are solitary
in habit, meaning they make individual nests. Limited knowledge
exists about where these bees nest in urban environments, however,
three general nesting habits are known of solitary native bees.
The most common is the ground nesting habit, and probably 85% or
more of species build their nests in some type of soil. Another
nest substrate is the preexisting cavity, which can be found in
dead tree branches (for example, in old oak trees) or holes in human
structures of wood, metal, or masonry blocks. A third uncommon substrate
is wood frames and paneling that large carpenter bees may use to
bore out holes for their nests, often the great displeasure of urbanites.
It is not always easy to observe bees at close range, except for a few such as the honey bee or bumble bees. Even then, you may want to examine bees without harming them to see the fine details of the body. First, buy an insect net from a local supplier and practice swinging it a few times. After you master the swing, a flip of the net bag back over the hoop to close off the net, you are ready to sweep a bee off a flower. It is best to approach the bee from beneath or from the side of the flower and not from the top as the bee will see the net coming and will immediately leave. Simply make a quick sweep across the flower to capture the bee. Once the bee is in the net, take a transparent plastic or glass container and work it into the net bag to enclose the bee. then put the lid on. Take the contained bee and put it into the refrigerator or ice chest for about 30 minutes to cool it down. Then remove the bee from the container, which is still alive, healthy and chilled to look at it closely. You may also use a 3-5x magnifying glass for closer inspections. The bee with warm up in 4-5 minutes and then fly off unharmed.
From the perspective of a bee and its floral needs,
any plant that provides attractive and useful pollen and nectar
looks good. The rest of us tend to distinguish between the plants
we put in our gardens and those we call weeds that volunteer their
presence. When in bloom, weeds such as dandelions and white clover
in lawns may provide bees with a good source of pollen and nectar
for a short period. There is always plenty of time to remove the
weeds once their flowers are spent and the bees have moved on.
Ornamental plants have predictable flowering seasons
such that we can expect certain plants to bloom in Spring, Summer,
and/or early Fall in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many gardeners
plan their gardening schedules around this predictable flowering
information. Urban bees also have predictable flight/nesting seasons.
For example, in the Spring we can expect several bee groups that
only are 
Depending on what your goals are, the use California native or exotic plants is one of many factors you will have to consider when planning your garden. If your priority is to attract bees, it makes good ecological sense to consider a plant's bee-attractiveness, rather than focusing on whether the plant is native or exotic. We have evaluated many plants that bees like and present these results in two lists. One 
There’s one big reason you might be reluctant
to attract more bees to your garden, and it can probably
be summed up in one word: Ouch! We all have memories, as a child
or as an adult, of getting stung by a bee. It’s never a fond
memory. As a result, understandably, a lot of people are afraid
of being stung again. However, there are a lot of myths and unfounded
fears surrounding bee stings. For example, did you know that only
female honeybees have stingers? That means only half of the honeybees
in your garden are even capable of stinging you! There are
people on our bee research team that have been working with bees
for decades, and most of us have never once been stung! We have
no secret pact with the bees, stinging is simply not as common as
many people think. We’ve included here a lot of information
about bees and stinging; when and why they do it, how it works,
and how to avoid it. We’ve marched out the most common myths
about bee stings and dispelled them, as well as included some home
remedies to ease the pain in the rare event you do get stung.