Consider planting any of the following list of plants to supply Bumblebees with nectar throughout the year. From early in the spring through the summer and late into the fall season, Bumblebees are searching for flowers to visit. By planning a succession of blooming plants throughout the year in your garden, Bumblebees will be happy frequent visitors.
Scabiosa – there are lots of different varieties to choose from including blue, pink or white flowers. Try Scabiosa Butterfly Blue which, as the name suggests, will attract butterflies as well.
Lavender – One of the best plants for growing in Colorado gardens that will attract bees and butterflies. Easy to grow and smells great too!
Snowdrops – Grown from a bulb planted in the fall, one of the first flowers to bloom in early spring. Perfect for bees emerging from winter hibernation.
Buddleia – Available in lavender, pink or white flowers, this hardy shrub is also called the Butterfly Bush. Bees love it too!
Sweet Peas – Best grown from seed in the early spring will require a trellis or fence for support. The fragrant pastel flowers will attract bees and bumblebees.
Crocus – Another bulb planted in the fall producing early spring flowers. The early spring flowers provide much needed nectar for the bees when not much else is available.
Apple or Crabapple tree – Bumblebees love apple blossoms! And birds and bats as well. And you doesn’t enjoy a freshly picked apple on a late summer day? Or a batch of crabapple jelly.
Cosmos – annuals like cosmos, sunflowers, California poppies and candytuft are easy to grow from inexpensive seed. Plant in a container or add to a perennial or shrub bed for colorful summer blooms that bees will adore.
Asters – late season blooming perennials will provide nectar to Bumblebees after all the mid-summer bloomers have finished flowering.
