I am interested in planting more for the bees, although I don't care for honey so am not thinking of an actual hive system (unless I could just set it up and forget about it, which doesn't seem likely). What have been your best plants for bee magnets? I have the following which are all good attractants: monarda, sunflower, borage, raspberries, blueberries, sedums, fruit trees, comfrey, pieris (trying to think back to more).

Also, any thoughts on adding structures or watering hole type things to encourage them to nest? I did have my husband drill me a mason bee structure, but haven't noticed anyone using it yet. Put it up last spring before the pieris bloomed, sited on a south facing wall near pear, cherry, and pieris.

I will do a search of our database, but am looking more for tried-and-true plants that others have seen large numbers of bees pollinating. Thanks - a winter planning project...

These three were the biggest bee magnets this year:

Caryopteris Sunshine Blue
Greek Oregano
Perovskia Little Spire

Thanks, Debra, that's exactly what I'm looking for -- the plants that are literally buzzing with bees for others. I'd forgotten that my plain jane common oregano was also pretty buzzy this year. I don't have a lot of luck with perovskia, but I do have one struggling plant that I'll try to nurse back to life. Do you cut it back hard in the spring as I've read several times? Mine never quite recovers from that, so perhaps is not a good strategy in my area. Or it may like a more alkaline soil, I'm pretty acidic.

Two major bee magnets for me have been...
African Blue Basil (Ocimum 'African Blue')
Sage (Salvia Mystic Spires Blue)

Deb, I cut it back almost to the ground in late February.

If you are looking for shrubs: Willows (totally a hit! Short early spring bloom period but VERY popular), serviceberries (Amelanchier sp) beautiful spring blooms too.

Agastache was a hit with my bumbles this year...and then the goldfinches liked eating the seeds...

Fall ones I love are any of the asters and goldenrods...I'm trying a few new ones this year from plugs hopefully have lots of flowers next year. (had Calico, it was always covered with bees, but it spread way to much from the rhizomes, worse spreader than Canada Goldenrod by far! Beautiful little rascal...) In my butterfly observations the Monarchs always seem to be nectaring on New England Aster so thats always a nice one too, should be fairly "well behaved" and beautiful colour too.

Top bee magnets in my yard--what fun to think about this!--I'd have to say:
for spring to early summer: penstemon (species), cosmos bipinnatus, monarda fistulosa, spirea japonica, lavender
for midsummer: salvia 'May Night', agastaches, yarrow, sunflowers, basil 'African Blue', catnip, cosmos sulphureus
for late summer to early fall: caryopteris, calamentha nepeta, celosia plumosa, fennel blooms, sedum 'Autumn Fire', aster 'Purple Dome'

Wild New Eng Aster is my greatest BF and bee magnet. It exceeds all others by multiple layers of magnitude. They get quite tall and try to self seed a lot, but these possible detractors have been manageable.

Good responses - I have some of these plants, will put others on my ongoing 'wish list.'

From today. I found four bees in this one shot, but there may be more.

Bidens Deb. They account for 1/3 of honey bee nectaring. Find out which ones grow in your area.

Just read your Bidens article (nicely done) and reviewed the map link. Looks like B. beckii or cernua are the two that are native to my region. I'll keep my eye out for those, and try to introduce them to my front field. A neighbor used to keep bees and I always welcomed his buddies to my yard, but since his death several years ago, there are noticeably less. I don't really want to do the whole beekeeping thing - honey is not my favorite food - but do want to encourage more bees.

Bonehead said: Looks like B. beckii or cernua are the two that are native to my region.

Here is what I see for Washington.

Native:
Bidens amplissima (rare)
Bidens cernua
Bidens frondosa

Adventive:
Bidens beckii
Bidens tripartita
Bidens vulgata

Jay you are a fount of information.

I was just out walking today & bees & wasps & butterflies were all mobbing the bidens but I am not fast enough nor my camera good enough to capture the little buzzers images. By the time I focus on one it goes zip! off to another bloom.

Thanks, Horntoad - I'll add the natives to my Wish List (an ever-changing computer file I print out before going to a nursery). Does adventive mean it is introduced or has migrated over rather than true native?

Deb, adventive means not native and usually not yet well established.

BONAP is a database of plants in North America so if a plants origin is outside of North American it is classified as introduced. If it is a North American native, but introduced to a particular region then it is an adventive plant in that region.

That clarifies it. Thanks Jay.

Cool website, Jay--thanks!

Rosemary is the one that are many times filled with bees. Different varieties bloom at different times.