I have a cotoneaster shrub which is always smothered in bees. There are some Topmix single dahlias in pots which are also covered in bees all summer. Also, the single french marigolds and cosmos.
Current bee hotspots here are the Laburnum and Wisteria, they are literally humming. We have a tree bumblebee nest in our eaves at the moment just by the wisteria and close to the laburnums so they don’t need to go very far. We also get a lot of bees on the alkanet and cotoneaster.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
For us it is lungwort pulmonaria in the back garden, and Ceanothus in the front garden. I also have picked up a luminescent blue senetti for the patio and it’s a bee magnet. Anything blue is a winner.
I think this maybe because they don't have pollen sacs for collecting, like some other bees, but use their hairs on their belly to collect pollen. It's called a 'pollen brush'. Honey bees are more interested in collecting nectar, where mason bees need mostly pollen for the nest cell to feed their larvae when the hatch.
It'll be over too quickly but the bumblebees have been enjoying my Taiyo sunflower
As the taiyo reaches the end of it's serving, this self-seaded suflower of unknown origin (dropped birdfood?) is coming to life. It's a lot smaller than the Taiyo but it has brilliant, large petals.
Posts
We also get a lot of bees on the alkanet and cotoneaster.
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham