I am planning on planting about one acre of zinnias this spring. The seed I find, in bulk, are multi colored, do bees like one color or do they care if the flowers are the same kind? I am thinking about California giant zinnia. Are there any suggestions for other flowers.
I always heard that bees do not like red.
>I always heard that bees do not like red.
Perhaps they are more attracted to other colors. They don't dislike red. They just can't see red... but flowers often have hidden UV markings that we can't see...
Quote from: Michael Bush on January 08, 2018, 02:51:57 PM
>I always heard that bees do not like red.
Perhaps they are more attracted to other colors. They don't dislike red. They just can't see red... but flowers often have hidden UV markings that we can't see...
Yeah that was probably what I have heard.
If you like sainfoin flowers then you can plant an acre of that.
I like the daisy like yellow Nyger flowers too.
If you're planting zinnias for the love of them, wonderful. I have several varieties that attract butterflies like crazy and a few hummingbirds but, I have seen very few honey bees on them. The few HBs that I have seen on zinnias tend to go to those with simple flowers in the violet to pink color range and I think it is more for pollen than nectar. the floribunda varieties get no attention from HBs that I have noticed. This is simply my local observation, mind you.
I personally would not plant a whole acre of a single just for bees, though. I think there are better flowers for that purpose, and I believe in using variety rather than single floral source. Your purpose may be different than mine.
Here is a list of HB nectar flowers. Note that zinnia is not listed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Northern_American_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees
I always plant a large area if zinnias each year. Multi colored and varieties. Im In Georgia and can plant in spring, which after a couple months they begins to look bad and slow blooming and then I replant and those last til frost.
They are easy to grown, look nice, cheap seed to obtain, and I plant them for those reasons plus for my wife to have fresh cut flowers. With that said, I have 7 hives and never seen a bee on them, not even in dearth time.
We had maybe 15 California Giants Zinnia on a garden fence, bees covered them up. These replies are an indicator of my previous philosophical saying "bees do what bees want to do" . What about Maximillian Sunflower, I know very little about these plants. Since bees cover about 18000 acres in their foraging according to Mr. Bush would an acre or two of sunflowers and Zinnias make any significant difference for the bees or could I justify planting these flowers for the beauty, to make my wife happy.