Bee-friendly perennials: The most beautiful bee perennials

In order for bees to benefit from a colorfully planted garden, you should choose the right plants. We show the top 10 bee-friendly perennials.

Need from spring to late autumn Bees (Apidae) thousands of flowers that provide them with pollen and nectar. Long-flowering perennials are particularly easy to care for and productive, and are also a pleasure for the gardener. In this article we have summarized the top 10 most beautiful perennials for you. This list is also intended to provide you with ideas on how to make your garden even more insect-friendly.

Perennials are perennial plants, but - unlike shrubs - they die above ground in winter and sprout again and again in spring. Accordingly, we can look forward to the pretty garden dwellers for a long time. Below we present ten wonderfully blooming perennials for your own home garden.

1. Star umbels

A wonderful representative of the umbelliferae (Apiaceae) is the large star umbel (Astrantia major). It is a forest and meadow perennial native to Central Europe and occurs mainly at higher altitudes of up to 2000 meters. The flowers on long flower stalks at a height of around 70 centimeters are a very special sight. The small flower umbels are each surrounded by a star-shaped wreath of colored bracts. The star umbel likes to stand on chalky, moist clay soils with a good supply of nutrients. It doesn't need a lot of sun, but it can withstand it if the water supply is right. It is a real magnet for bumblebees, bees and other insects.

2. yarrow

Those belonging to the daisy family (Asteraceae) belonging yarrow (Achillea sp.) are available in a wide variety of colors and heights. Depending on Yarrow style the plant with the filigree pinnate leaves reaches a height of 10 to 150 centimeters. The many small flowers are arranged in sham umbels and beguile many busy pollinators with their very own scent from June to autumn. The outer petals appear in a strong pink over crimson to a fiery orange, yellow and white. The yarrow prefers to stand on light, well-drained soils in full sun. So that you can look forward to the splendor of flowers every year, the perennial should be divided every few years and thus rejuvenated.

3. Cockade flower

The large-flowered cockade flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora) is a hybrid of a perennial Gaillardia grandiflora and the annual Gaillardia pulchella. The cockade flower forms large basket flowers that are either yellow or dark in color in the middle. The outer halo of ray florets is either monochrome yellow to dark red or has an attractive two-tone color. The flowering period lasts from July to October and provides busy pollinators with food for an extremely long time. As a steppe plant, it is sensitive to waterlogging and likes to stand on porous and light soils.

4. Verbena

Verbena (Verbena officinalis) delights every year with its delicate purple flowers, which bees in particular find irresistible. It is closely related to the wonderfully fragrant one Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora). As a medicinal plant, it is used in alternative medicine for headaches and depression. Nowadays it can be found in many gardens as a flowering shrub, where it can reach heights of up to 80 centimeters in favorable locations. From June to October the verbena can produce long-stemmed flowers again and again and is therefore one of the long-blooming perennials. Verbena prefers to grow in nutrient-poor, rather dry and sunny to partially shaded locations.

5. Wasserdost

The Wasserdost (Eupatorium sp.) belongs to the composites (Asteraceae) and has long been known as a medicinal plant to accelerate wound healing and as a stimulating herb. As its name suggests, it feels particularly at home near ponds and bodies of water. Depending on the variety, it can reach a height of around 80 centimeters to over two meters. From June to September the pretty white, purple or wine-red sham umbels provide plenty of food. Unlike many other beehives, the water deast prefers a partially shaded, moist location. In early spring, the nutrient-hungry perennial is also happy to be given compost.

6. Catnip

The fragrant one so popular with our cuddly tigers Catnip (Nepeta cataria) also offers bees nectar and pollen in spring from April. The delicate blue, violet or white flowering perennial belongs like thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) to the mint family (Lamiaceae). Naturally, the perennial, which is up to 1.40 meters high, is swarmed by many insects. Catnip is very undemanding and grows best in poor, well drained soils in sunny locations. After the first bloom, you can cut it back and stimulate a second bloom in summer.

7. Sedum plant

the Sedum plant (Sedum spectabile) has coarse, thick-fleshed leaves and forms large inflorescences with many small individual flowers. All colors are represented, from white to sunny yellow to deep red. Depending on the species, the sedum plant reaches a height of up to 80 centimeters. The hardy perennial is popular from June to September Bee pasture. Well drained and nutrient-rich soil is ideal for planting sedum and because of them always carries its water supply in the thick leaves with it, drought does not affect it very much the end.

8. aster

The group of asters (aster) is the namesake of the sunflower plant family (Asteraceae). The name translates as "star", which alludes to the petals arranged in rays. One of the asters is primarily the smooth-leaf aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii) and the Raublatt aster (Symphyotrichum novi-angliae) and the myrtle aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides) and the small pillow aster (Symphyotrichum dumosus). All these perennials are popular with butterflies and bees. From July to late autumn, the asters, which can reach heights of up to three meters, are very busy every day. In terms of color, asters cover all nuances from dark violet to pink, but also red and orange to white and thus complement every bed wonderfully.

9. Goldenrod

Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) are real insect magnets, during the flowering period from June to September there is an audible buzzing around the tall perennials. This golden-yellow prairie shrub from North America forms long rods with many small, individual yellow flowers. In the wild, it spreads strongly by self-sowing and has already conquered all of Europe and large parts of Asia. Therefore, dead seed heads should be cut off directly and composted. Goldenrods prefer medium to heavy, chalky soils in full sun. The goldenrod is also extremely undemanding in terms of nutrients and water. It is used as a medicinal herb in homeopathy. It has a positive effect on kidney problems.

10. Indian nettle

The forest Indian nettle, up to 150 centimeters in size (Monarda didyma) is also called golden balm, although its flowers are deep red. From June to August it is eagerly visited by various bees and butterflies. This perennial smells fruity and fresh of lemon and its leaves can therefore also be prepared as tea. It originally comes from North America and loves bright and warm locations with a good water supply. In spring it shoots up rapidly and is therefore happy to receive annual fertilizers.

Tip: So that you don't have to look for different plants for your bee-friendly garden, there are also insect-friendly seed mixtures. the Plantura bee pasture for example, feeds the bees and bumblebees in your garden for months.

If you not only have bees, but also our native ones Butterflies want to do something good, take a look at our special article on the top 10 butterfly-friendly plants over or the 15 most beautiful bee bushes past.