flowers

[colbees]

do bees like bee balm, and does anybody have any suggestions on what i should plant for my bees i live in the northeast so i will probably need hardy plants

[AllenF]

Just how many acres are you going to plant?

[AllenF]

Something to think about.   Honey bees will tap about two million flowers and fly 50,000 miles to make one pound of honey.   Lots and lots of flowering plants are needed. 

[SerenaSYH]

Nooooo, bee balm is a misnomer. Only carpenter bees like that stuff. Useless for a honeybee garden. Mine, before the neighbors' somehow killed the feral hive) used to swarm the Russian sage and the oregano....They are go completely nuts over the Russian sage. But talking about this is depressing the hell out of me. I'm not coping well with the disappearance of the honeybees. Lavender, honeybees are ok-ish. They love the Snowfountain cherry blossoms and holly, but still, nothing compares to the quantity of honeybees with Russian sage.  You might check the video section that MrILoveAnts put online too. You just have to find the plants there that are non-invasive. I have full-blown rose garden so I have to be careful about invasive species....

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Honeybees tend to fly about 6 miles away from the hive. I'm not sure where 50,000 came from.

Anything in the composite/aster family (daisy-like or sunflower-like flowers), or Mint family such as Anise Hyssop tend to be great plants for honeybee attention.

Honeybees will work Bee Balm but the flowers are designed more for bumblebees and the occasional hummingbird. The fact that the flowers have to be opened discourages honeybees from using them.

[SerenaSYH]

I forgot to clarify, I have/had bee balm, lots of it and the honeybees never visited it. I also forgot to mention that Kansas honeybees are very finicky and fussy. They only like certain blooms. Dug up all of my bee balm....You'll have much better luck with Russian sage and Italian oregano, holly. I forgot to mention the Italian oregano which they also love.