You’ve probably visited a Bird-Friendly Garden or a Butterfly-Friendly Garden or even a Wildlife-Friendly Garden. These gardens are all planted to appeal to birds, butterflies, or other wildlife.
A Bee-Friendly Garden is planted to attract bees, especially native bees. as a bonus, the bee-friendly garden is also going to attract other pollinators.
For many years, most money for research into bees went to studying honeybees. Consequently, little was known about native bees or the plants that they found particularly attractive. One of the few scientists that has studied native bees in urban environments for several years is Dr. Gordon Frankie at the University of California, Berkeley.
I started Texas Bee Watchers after meeting with Dr. Frankie in 2007 to learn about his research and visit his demonstration gardens. Dr. Frankie and his students have a wonderful website that can answer most of your questions about native bees and bee-friendly plants.
Dr. Gordon Frankie's Urban Bee Garden Website
Following Dr. Frankie's lead, Texas Bee Watchers are slowly compiling a list of Bee-Friendly plants for Texas.
Plant List at the Austin Community Landfill Pollinator Garden
Would you like to find Bee-friendly plants in your area? You do not have to catch and kill any native bees, nor do you have to be able to identify the native bees. You can collect data for one plant or many. It’s your choice. Dr. Frankie describes how to determine if a plant is Bee-friendly on his website. Follow the link below, identify your plants(s), watch for bees, and send me your information (beewatchers@mac.com). It's that simple. New Texas bee-friendly plant names will be added to the site as you send them in.
The list of Bee-friendly plants compiled by Texas Bee Watchers can be used by you, land managers, homeowners, golf course managers, highway departments, park departments, and any person, organization, or group interested in planting Bee-Friendly species of plants.
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