I am new to gardening and am looking for a new plant. A plant that is good for bees, or that bees are naturally attracted too.
Preferably a plant that could also be useful in other ways I was considering Rosemary, since I also use that in cooking but I’m asking for other recommendations.
Plant will have to be suitable for California conditions.
>2870839 >california You want bees? Buy a 99 cent pouch of Morning Glory. You will never get rid of them. As for "useful in other ways" Literally anything that flowers. Literaĺly. Not figuratively. Literally Theyre fucking bees. Drones. Their job is to seek out flowers, collect pollen and return to the hive.
>>2870839(OP) you don't want a specific flower, you want native flowers blooming from about may through october. the main workhorses that pop up are things like wild violet, erigerons, milkweed, and phlox. then your job becomes managing the evil plants that come up. i personally use pic related foam dispenser from green shoots online to precisely kill common invasive weeds like ground ivy and swallow wort. sometimes i use cut stump treatments, rarely spraying, but there is an art to killing invasive plants that involves a high degree of precision. if you manage you lawn in such a way that ground ivy and dame's rocket don't kill the entire landscape, you don't need to attract bees. tl;dr plant native sunflowers, strawberries, thornless raspberries, red mulberries, hazelnut bushes, elderberries, etc.
>>2871028 >>2871029 >i hecking love glyphosate! Disregard this monsanto shill aside for the point about having something always blooming at any given time
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Anonymous06/06/26(Sat)03:21:02
>>2871033 bro, it's not about loving or hating glyphosate, it's about having a tool you can deploy against specific invasives with minimal native collateral. i am just a homeowner using the concentrated chemical in highly specific ways to kill certain plants, in addition to regularly using undiluted triclopyr for woody plants, not next to water. the ways i deploy these chemicals are literally by the single drop with a syringe, and by small pums of concentrated foam on individual leaves. my form of weeding is taking one day to say, i will kill all black swallow wort today, one day is autumn clematis, one day is bush remnants like japanese barberry and privets and burning bush, etc. dame's rocket doesn't need anything more than snipping it off and composting before the flowers die, i think. jap knotweed required shanking its hollow stem and injecting 5 mL neat glyphosate into its vascularity as the plant moves carbs to the rhizome after flowering. there are certain techniques for certain plants, almost all of which are aided by selective herbicide application, not all of which need herbicide
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Anonymous06/06/26(Sat)04:02:24
>>2871028 >native flowers >California Dude its a desert. Native flowers are cactus and thistle.
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Anonymous06/06/26(Sat)04:17:12
>>2871044 let me run your state's lack of flowers through AI for you
Top California Native FlowersCalifornia Poppy (Eschscholzia californica): The iconic state flower, known for its brilliant orange-gold petals. It thrives in full sun and poor, well-drained soil.Bush Monkey Flower (Mimulus aurantiacus): An evergreen shrub that produces tubular, sticky flowers in colors ranging from bright yellow to deep red. It is highly attractive to hummingbirds.California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum): Blooms in late summer to fall, providing bright red to orange tubular flowers when many other plants have gone dormant.Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii): A delicate annual featuring sky-blue flowers with white centers. It prefers partial shade and makes an excellent ground cover.Lupines (Lupinus spp.): Spikes of dense, vibrant purple, blue, or yellow flowers that help fix nitrogen in the soil.Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): A tough, herbaceous perennial featuring flat-topped clusters of white or pale pink flowers that attract butterflies.Why Plant Natives?Water Conservation: Deep root systems allow native plants to survive long, dry summers with minimal irrigation.Wildlife Support: They are the primary food and shelter source for native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.Low Maintenance: Because they evolved in California, they are naturally adapted to local pests, soils, and fire cycles.If you are planning a native garden, explore Calscape, a comprehensive database maintained by the California Native Plant Society that helps you find exactly which plants and wildflowers are native to your specific zip code or county.
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Anonymous06/07/26(Sun)17:35:16
>>2870839(OP) I've got some climbing jasmine (don't know which variety exactly) but I've had dozens of bumblebees. They love it. Not happy with the runners they constantly send out.
>>2870839(OP) My personal recommendation is basil, grow some for yourself, some for the bees. My purple basil tends to flower for ages because the flowers don't all bloom at once. It's suitable temp wise but you'll probably have to rely on watering it. As other anons have pointed out though, natives are beneficial to bees and lots of other pollinators and critters. There's myriad databases online so just research your specific location. The other tip I'd second is to make sure there's something flowering at all possible times. Most gardeners pick plants for the flower and end up with an empty garden come fall. So even if you're just picking out one plant right now, give some thought to how it fits in with everything else wrt flowering period.