I'm not much of a flower person. My general philosophy with gardening is "If I can't eat it, I'm not growing it." I can't tell you what's an annual or a perennial; what kind of growing conditions a certain flower needs; hell, I can't even tell you the name of most flowers. BUT, I do grow flowers in my garden, specifically for the bees.
I also don't know much about bees. Although, I do have many friends who are avid beekeepers. AI do that know is that bees are vital for pollination, there are many different types of bees (honey, bumble), and that each type of bee likes a certain kind of flower (such as easier access). I don't know the specifics of that last item, so I just grow a variety of flowers hoping that at least one of them suits the bees in my garden.
I need bees in my garden for my fruit bushes and trees to cross pollinate. I also recently learned on Gardener's World that bees contribute to nearly 1/3 of what we eat. (I'm guessing that's a UK statistic though.) So I do my part, not only for my garden, but for rest of the world too. Here are some of the flowers I grow in my garden, just for the bees.
Okay, so to be fair, this isn't my plant. This is Brennan's Phlox. It's a bush that has flowers. We thought this was dead over the winter based on how black the leaves had turned. But I put it in the greenhouse, and it literally transformed. It's never bloomed this much. I've moved it outside now that the risk of frost is (mostly) passed, so the bees can enjoy it too.
There are two types of flowers here: the blue ones you can clearly see, and the ones on the far right that have yet to bloom. I don't know what either of these are called. We got the blue ones last summer (Brennan's choice again; yes, he has good taste in flowers too), and whatever they are, they've either grown or self-seeded to fill up the outside rim of the border. The yet-to-bloom flowers were given to us by our neighbors. They were like this last summer when they gave them to us, so I have absolutely no idea what they'll actually look like. I'm looking forward to finding out soon though!
These flowers are on Brennan's lime tree. (Okay, I'm realizing most of these flower plants are Brennan's, so really he's the one helping the bees. Lol.) We bought this lemon-lime tree combo from our local nursery, thinking it was one tree. Nope; it's two. This spring I separated them into their own containers because this one (the lime tree) was clearly dominating the other. The bees LOVE the flowers from this tree.
Last, but not least, are the flowers from my (yes, these are mine!) apple trees. This is year two with these trees, so we should get some edible fruit from them this year. Fingers crossed! They've just started to bloom in the last week or so with the summer weather here. Fruit trees are the perfect combination of beautiful flowers and edible food.
Whether they're traditional flowers, bushes, or trees, consider planting some food this season for our friends the bees. (Hey, that rhymed!)
Happy playing in the dirt!
Holly