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Plant flowers all year so bees never go

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lavender sprig

1Early spring: the hungriest gap

Pussy willow and other willows, plus serviceberry, bloom before almost anything else — exactly when the earliest-emerging bees have the least to eat. Dutch crocus and other early bulbs fill the same gap in a garden bed rather than a hedge line.

2Spring into summer: the main event

Highbush blueberry, raspberry and blackberry, sumac, ninebark, inkberry and winterberry holly, arrowwood and cranberrybush viburnum all bloom through this stretch — fruiting shrubs doing double duty as pollinator forage and a harvest for you.

3Late summer into fall: the last stretch

Sweet pepperbush, Virginia rose, buttonbush and panicle hydrangea carry bloom into the season's end, when most other nectar sources have already shut down for the year.

4Herbs left to flower are pollinator plants too

Basil, borage, catmint, chives, lavender, oregano and rosemary are all highly attractive to honey bees if you let them bloom instead of cutting them back — interspersed right in a vegetable garden, they pull double duty as kitchen herb and pollinator forage.

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