What are your favorite flowers and pollinator attractors?

The gaillardia I planted last year were bee magnets! Also, May Night Salvia, Rudbeckia Hirta, and Mealy Blue Sage were quite popular for the bees.

Butterfly weed

Karen

Also digitalis, larkspur, salvia, sedum, so many. Common zinnias are great, too.

Karen

I'm growing zinnias and cosmos this year to attract the bees to my yard in general. I'm also going to grow more flowers near my veggies this year. I'll even put some in pots to help out if I don't have enough space in the beds to grow them.

Our bees love the spiderwort. I have lots of it.

The bees and butterflies definitely love the zinnias and cosmos!

I have seen much activity on the flowering herbs which may have attracted the bees over to the flowering vegetables, especially squash!

Bombus straddles to get the pollen from this zucchini blossom.

There has been quite a large number of bumble bees visiting the garden this year... more than in the past it seems.

Right now the Holy Basil is flowering, which has brought many visitors.

This little bumble bee has cute red pollen sacs on his hind legs!!

I've always had lots of bumblebees but I am seeing an increase in honey bees, too. With colony collapse disorder, I had few honeybees for a couple of years. But last year and this year there's a definite increase. I'm very happy to see that.

I get a lot of bugs, both the good and bad guys because I don't use pesticides. (I gave them up years ago to avoid poinsoning my friends like the bees and hummingbirds). I think that a lot of gardeners don't stop to think about that when they douse their plants with pesticides, especially the systemic ones. It's no wonder the bees are disappearing.

The Japanese beetles are here. They are destroying some of my plants, especially the coleus. Isn't this early for Jap. beetles in zone 6?

I have also been plagued with red spider mites since moving into this house in 1983. Even when I did use pesticides, I couldn't get rid of them. They laugh at my soapy water.

Karen

Yes, the number of honey bees is much improved this year even more than last year! Last year I noticed the bees were only actively buzzing around the native flowers, but not visiting the garden much at all! I'm not sure why?? This year it's nice to see so many more of them in the garden.

I'm with you concerning pesticides!! It seems people are so willing to run for the round-up and other chemicals without even considering the effects on the "Good bugs" or other wildlife like the birds. I've read many articles about how pesticides are definitely linked to colony collapse disorder, among other disgusting effects on produce from corporate farms. Not to mention how GMO's are now a part of the food chain!

I haven't seen any Japanese beetles here to date; but the flea beetles are rampant eating many leaves, especially from the eggplants.

Attracting beneficial insects seems to be a good way to keep the pests in check.

Parasitic wasps and flies are natural enemies of the Japanese beetle.

Lacewings and Ladybugs two predators of the red spider mite.
Big-Eyed-Bugs, Geocoris spp. is another predator. I wish I had another solution right now?? Maybe if you applied some diatomacious earth directly on the leaves that are infested. I used this method on plants with aphids being farmed by ants. In 24 hours the aphids and ants were gone and never returned to date! I was amazed!

But wouldn't it be wonderful if we could attract these beneficial insects to the garden; since the beneficials have favorite plants they are drawn to?

In the meantime, soapy spray and hand removal seems to be working a little bit. I had an outbreak of squash beetles in the garden this spring but haven't seen any this past week.... maybe I actually got them all!! Or that strange looking bug I haven't identified has a liking for them?

There are plants that we can include in our garden that attract these beneficials. I will put something together to help us all out.

Yes, I am determined to put a list together!!

I have always had a lot of ladybugs but they don't usually arrive until about July. I'm talking about the regular little red guys with black dots. I assume they came en masse for the spider mite buffet. Last year I had very few red ladybugs, but I did have some black ones with red dots. I had never seen them before last summer.

My biggest garden nemesis in recent years has been a plant not a bug. I planted verbena bonariensis a few years ago, grew it for two years. It about took over.I tried to eradicate it for 3 years but they were popping up everywhere. I am plagued with reseeding flowers, think mats of them that keep coming. This year it was larkspur. I worked hard for years to get the tall stately ones. This spring I was overrun with them. So I did bite the proverbial (organic) bullet and applied Preen. Success. I still have volunteers popping up, but at least they're manageable. OK, you do have to be nuts to grow this many plants per square foot, I admit.

Karen

The bees have been going crazy all over my lemon cucumber plants! The other morning I was out after the rain and there were 3 bees buzzing around. A few mornings previous, I counted no fewer than 5. They also LOVE my cantaloupe blossoms. Is it any wonder I've got at least 3 lemon cukes and about 5 cantaloupes in various stages growing??

Hi Stephanie! I'm growing the mini white cukes this year. Both the honey and bumbles are constantly on them. Also the gray hairstreak and skipper butterflies. My cantaloupes (Hollybrook Luscious) have been blooming but I haven't seen any melons yet!! I'll have to go out and inspect!

Karen, that is beautiful!!!

The lady bugs have been here for a couple of weeks, so maybe they will show up at your place early !! I've seen quite a few more of them than usual also. These are the real thing too!!

That bed was beautiful, but impossible to maintain. I couldn't get to anything to deadhead or weed. I had a blanket of volunteer larkspur in winter. I hoed them out, and new blankets appeared, Took forever to clear them again. No more larkspur for me!

Karen

The thing that's attracted the most bees to my garden has been the dill! They absolutely LOVE my dill. I'll soon have seeds if anyone's in the market! LOL

Love it!! I can vouch for this dill, it is wonderful!!

I grow some garden thugs just because of the number of insects they attract.
This is garlic chives
Note no insects today??
Can you see why?

Here she is just waiting for lunch

Gooseneck loostrife can be a problem but it feeds so many insects.
I also like bronze fennel
and the tall sedum for fall nectar

Love all your garden thugs!! That Gooseneck Loosestrife would be welcome in my garden too! It seems the flowering herbs are really attracting many insects in my garden. Garlic chives is a good idea too!

Little Miss Mantis sure is pretty sitting there and I'm not familiar with the next one with the turquoise shawl? Pretty!