To celebrate National Pollinator Week, give the bees their favorite plants

Yarrow, top, and lantana, foreground, are popular with
pollinators. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

What do they like? Follow the buzzing sound

At the Elk Grove Green Acres Nursery & Supply the other morning, there were tables and tables of summer-blooming plants. Bright zinnias and Million Bells, impatiens and bidens and hydrangeas all beckoned. But all the action was at the table packed with pots of lavender and salvia. 

These spiky plants were buzzing like an open bar at a wedding. In that vast garden area, with so many blooms that were easy pickings, bees of varied sizes were flitting among the English lavender and "Mirage Deep Purple" salvia and many others in the violet/blue/purple color family. 

Second most popular: salvias with maroon or fuchsia or red blooms, such as the "Heatwave" varieties. (The amazing "Hot Lips" salvias weren't as showy that day but are a reliable choice for bees and hummingbirds, too.)

Other bee favorites were nearby: lantana and yarrow and coneflowers.

Bees were bellying up to the bar in this long row of lavender
varieties. Salvias were on the other side. 

So if you despair over the lack of bees in your yard, try following them right to their favorites at your local nursery. Maybe even get them a nice gift for National Pollinator Week, which runs through Sunday, June 24.

Want to learn more about all pollinators? At 10 a.m. Saturday, June 23, the Green Acres stores in  Elk Grove, Folsom and Rocklin will present a free garden talk to celebrate the bees, bugs and birds that do so much for our gardens. For more information: www.idiggreenacres.com.

-- Kathy Morrison