I just had my first blooming of goldenrod and was thrilled by how many bees it attracted.
I was hoping you good folks here would help me locating plants that would be as productive for spring and summer as goldenrod is for fall. I have had good results in the past with 'snow square stem' (Melanthera nivea), but the new plant I set out this year has been quite a dud.
Zone9B- anyone have any suggestions for plants that the bees can't pull themselves away from?
thnx

Conjuay
There is a nearly endless selection of pollinator-attracting plants. Your location is the key to choosing.

What kind of bees do you wish to attract? Have you researched what species are native to your location? There is a fascinating world of natives beyond honeybees that you might find extremely satisfying.

Try going about it from the other end; first determine what you're trying to attract, then research what they feed on. Xerces society is an excellent resource
https://xerces.org/

Pycnanthemum.. mountain mint.. which species I have to look up but we grow it where I work and it blooms midsummer to fall and gets incredible insect activity.

The showy garden flowers that people like for big petals are not always the ones doing the most for insect activity.

sallyg said: Pycnanthemum.. mountain mint..

Please tell us where you are gardening...
A zone number isn't nearly as helpful as we would prefer.

Best suited to the local pollinators is locally native plants that they recognize.

What types of goldenrod did you grow?
There is the super aggressive canada goldenrod which needs constant thinning... but there is also a number of non-running types.

Consider verbesina...



How much area are you looking to plant?
I have a lot of really good shrubs and trees for pollinators...

Edit:
Just google searched Melanthera nivea.
Saw a great pic of the florida state butterfly...

You know, the Zebra Longwing uses various passiflora as a host plant... Which does produce lots of great flowers for the pollinators...

Always fun seeing a butterfly that uses the plant as to raise a family, and also as a nectar source... like this gulf fritillary:

Hmmm...
Here's a pic of the zebra longwing visiting lantana

sallyg said: Pycnanthemum.. mountain mint.. which species I have to look up but we grow it where I work and it blooms midsummer to fall and gets incredible insect activity.

The showy garden flowers that people like for big petals are not always the ones doing the most for insect activity.

I agree that many bees and other pollinators LOVE Pycnanthemum species. Here's a database list: https://garden.org/plants/sear...

We always have honey bees visiting our ground clovers. Maybe surprisingly, honey bees also seem to love flowering brassicas and arugula flowers. If you grow your own, you may want to let them flower for the bees. In the spring, bees will search for early spring blooms and you will find them visiting your native wildflowers and blooms of fruiting trees.

Don't forget the weeds. Dedicate a section of your yard for weeds, ie Clover, dandelions, violets.

Mountain mint is also an excellent choice.

Those weeds sound like more wildflowers to me. The invading grasses would be more of an issue for me.

Long blooming annuals can provide a baseline of food for a big chunk of the year.

Two things I have had great luck with:
- Sunflowers - Native to most of the Americas. Get one of the multi-branching/multi-flowering variants and watch the pollinators go wild until fall kills them off. If you have goldfinches in your area expect frequent visitors when they start going to seed. The squirrels also love them ...which is annoying because they are perfectly willing to jump branch to branch breaking off future food for a meal today.

- Zinnias - my mixed bed of mystery zinnia from the Dollar Tree were an all you can eat buffet last year. Not native to me in the upper midwest but native in some parts of the southwestern US and on into South America. Native visitors were not shy about visiting frequently when some of the short bloom time perennial natives were not in bloom. They were even getting lots of visitors while my goldenrod was in bloom just not as many.

I've also had some moderate success with snapdragons and nasturtiums. It's not the frenzy of the others but visitors are common. The snapdragons mostly seemed to attract my various local bumblebee species. It takes a big, strong bee to push in far enough for the good stuff.

That still leaves spring and early summer barren if you are direct sowing or relying on volunteers in my area. You'd still need to fill in that early gap for a full year food supply.

Hi PattyPan, I love growing all of your favorites too. Zinnias are definitely the most visited flowers in my garden and they last all summer and fall.

Dandelions are loved by bees and other pollinators as a first source of food in the spring. Unfortunately, they've been given a bad name as a weed, instead of nurtured as the amazing plants that they are. Here in my neck of the hard wood trees, trout lilies grow plentifully in the understory and I've noticed the honey bees all over them. Next comes the perennial Coral Honeysuckle vines. The hummingbirds arrive just as they start to bloom every April.