What Flowers to Plant to Get a Queen Bee

Honeybees and Bumblebees

• If you are going to attract queen bees to your garden, you'll probably be attracting bumblebee queens as opposed to honeybee queens. Honeybee queens are fed by workers and don't visit flowers. When new hives break off from old ones, a portion of the hive swarms with the queen until they find a new home, but mating and finding a new hive are her only objectives. Bumblebee queens, on the other hand, overwinter in bark crevices or other sheltered places and emerge in the spring to find a nesting site. Before she sets up her new hive she'll gorge herself on nectar to feed her first brood. So if you want a queen in your garden, the bumblebee may just be your lady.

Spring Flowers

• Spring blooming flowers are critical to attracting a queen and establishing a hive. As soon as the queen emerges from her overwintering site in early spring she'll need food. According to the University of California, Berkeley bumblebees adore the wild lilac cultivar "Ray Hartmann." Other popular spring flowers include California poppy, tansy phacelia, heather, crocus, primrose, rhododendron, borage and lavender.

Summer Flowers

• Attracting the queen is only part of the process. Once you've got her, you need to maintain her and her hive. Summer blooming flowers are perfect for that job. Geraniums, strawberries, sage, thyme, viper's bugloss, mint, sunflower and penstemon are among the many plants suitable for bumblebees. Avoid flowers bred for showy blossoms as they may not produce nectar. Some double-flowered varieties are hard for bees to get into so avoid those as well.

Fall Flowers

• Bumblebee hives are annual so all of the bees will die at the end of the year. In late summer the queen begins to produce breeding males and females. Once mated these females will overwinter and become next year's queens. Fall blooming flowers can help ensure these queens have a successful hibernation. Lavender, sage, salvia, honeysuckle and most culinary herbs will produce late flowers for bumblebees.