French Marigolds. (They are yellow.)

I planted some ornamental alliums last fall in the veggie garden. The bees were all over them this summer. I forget the name of the variety. They are about 2-3ft tall, large purple globes. Very pretty. Not sure about your zone though. They need a cold winter.
Sudzy

You want bees,or rather, pollinators? Plant some buckwheat if you can. When it flowers they will come in hordes, all sorts. Turn it in or mow and compost it just when it sets seeds unless you want it to come back.

Lavender attracts a huge number of bumblebees. Also, if you want to use shrubs, butterfly bush and honeysuckle are two of my personal faves and they attract them as well.

Echinachea, aka purple cone flower. Comfrey is another plant that attracts bees yearly.
Also as a suggestion, check out the winter sowing foum.

Alberta

Lamb's ears, aka stachys. So many bees it is dangerous to cut down the flower stalks even after their prime. They are easy (!) to grow, will grow anywhere, come back year after year, and are pretty.

I have all the other plants listed, except for buckwheat, and stachys is the hands-down winner, in my opinion.

The herb Borage attracts bees, but it got a little big for my one square foot area it was in. It also is rough, almost prickly to the touch, and can look less than attractive after a while.

Laura

Our bees love African Basil, which you can grow from seed next spring. Also, they like the mealy blue sage and our culinary sage plants. Zinnias are a big hit with the buzzing crowd, too.
We just harvested our first honey from our two hives! Off topic, I know, but I just had to brag.

Favorites of my bees seem to be lavender, borage, radish flowers (once they've bolted), and any sort of squash flower.

Jill

My squash-cucumber pollinating bees are visiting my nausturtiums, and the deer won't touch them. The smaller bees that pollinate my tomatoes and peppers are attracted to Queen Anne's lace, which also attracts ladybugs. The deer leave Q.A.L. alone too. What really attracted bees to the garden was my Minnesota Midget mellon plants. They put out alot of flowers early, long before the nausturtiums etc were large enough to be noticed. As it is, the vegetable flowers out number and are attracting bees to the ornamental flowers.

toma verde.....easy to grow,,,,,bees and salsa

Monarda, basil. Also I have a*wild* flower I believe is call *Virgina Wild Flower*, about 4ft. tall w/ blue bell shaped flowers, was growing as a weed when I moved here, the bees love it so much I tranplanted some out by my hoophouse. The bees were all over my squashes , though a bit late in coming due to cool spring. There are a lot of choices, bees like flowers, granted some more than others.

Nepeta, easy to grow. Bees LOVE it.
Borage, also easy, bees on it constantly, but it got huge. Far bigger than I ever planned that it would... I also inherited a patch of mint (spearmint, I think) that grows in some dirt and gravel in our alley. HUGE attractor for all kinds of pollinators. Very invasive, though, so containers are reccommended for that :)

Another member of the mint family, Agastache, aka Hyssop. I call them 'bee-sicles'. Wonderful flowers, great fragrance, easy perennial plants. There are lots of different kinds. I strongly recommend it as a plant to attract all kinds of pollinators.

Mint. Ours flowered and there are so many bees that we can't approach the plant to harvest mint until night.

Wow! Lots of suggestions.

Mustard is quick to grow and bolts readily, producing masses of little yellow flowers. In my garden it attracts lots of honey bees, whereas other plants seem to attract more bumble bees (which are useful too).

Jim

NOTHING attracts more bees than bee balm. It's beautiful to boot. Hummingbirds also love it.

Basil, basil, BASIL!!! Regular Genovese basil that we love in salads and tomato sauce and pesto, and also self-seeds vigorously here, has attracted bees like nothing else I've seen. We call them our "busy basil bees." Also, bees need fresh, clean water. We've got solar-powered bird baths that keep the water recirculating and there have been times I've had to wait until 5 or 10 bees were finished drinking before I filled/cleaned the bird baths. Good luck!

I'll second Nepeta. It attracts bees and has a long bloom time.

To add to the list, these are the plants in my garden that have bees and more bees (bumble, honey, native bees)around them:

Hyssop
Catnip (favorite of honeybees)
Black and Blue Salvia
Salvia - greggii varieties
Bee balm
Native Honeysuckle
Mallow (favorite of honeybees)
Echinacea/Purple cone flower
Yellow mystery flower - may be Jeruselum Artichock

Later in the season:
Joe Pye Weed
Goldenrod

Bellatrix

Lamb's ears, which I noticed attracted lots of bees as it flowered near a path.
I also like verbena bonariensis, which is very pretty in flower (purple).
Borage (blue) is good too.
All of these are ridiculously easy to grow, in fact I don't think it is possible to get rid of lamb's ears once you plant some.
CA poppies are good too, but you aren't in CA. Bumblebees roll around in the orange flowers. It's fun to watch.

Another vote for lavender. We have some in the walkway to
our house, and the bees just congregate there.

Don't plant mint in the ground....be sure that if you add mint near a garden that you plant it in a metal tub that is raised above the ground at least 2".

Ok, thyme, catmint (which does not spread invasively like other mints), lavender, marigolds, bee balm

I use sunflowers and marigolds in my tomato and cucumber garden

Just remember: "B" is for Bees.

Bee Balm,
Borage,
Basil.

C isn't bad either! (chives)

I have dill in my squash bed and when it blooms I am afraid to walk too close because it is covered with bees. So is my lavendar. My neighbor plants tall hollyhock smack in the middle of his raspberrie patch to attract bees to his raspberries. He also has a row of zinnias that runs down the middle of his 100 ft x 50 foot garden.

Laurie

Most veggies that you let go to flower and seed, like chard, lettuces, radishes, cole family plants, allium flowers big time, all curcubitacea flowers, bean flowers...

The flowers of: oregano, marjoram, mint (big time), sage, lemon verbena, lemon balm, and of course, basil, also, rosemary and shiso.

Honey bees, and especially bumble bees are all over my tomato flowers all day long. I feel lucky to have so many helpful little friends! :-)

I worried that I didn't notice any bees this spring when the tomatos flowered there were bees all over them
then the cilanto flowered and they really came right now the whole garden buzzes with little friends

Tetradium danielii is a huge bonus added to the garden and can be maintained as a shrub form or a tree...it's also a tree that the public needs to be educated about and it is a must for people with acreage. The "Bee Bee Tree" because it produces blue bee bee like seed capsules and too because it is a tree used by beekeepers.

Dax

Basil, and let some of it come to flower! Bees go wild for it and it smells great, and you can make awesome pesto or tomato sauce with it.

The thing is, if there are a lot of blooms near the honey bees hives, The bees are not going to travel long distance to your garden. But when there is a draught and there are few blooms bees can travel miles in surch of nectar.
That is why I think you should have locals, which is BUMBLE bees. I have (not that I own them) a lot of bumble bees around. They just eat and eat and get fat and fater. I have seen them falling sleep on passiflora flowers. Some times there are 3 of them on one flowers, pushing one another.
I don't know how to raise bumble bees. If I knew it I would have done it.

The bees love our Russian Sage...the postman walks in the street instead of down the walk in front of the house because he is afraid of the bees that are all over the RS. I work around it and have not had a problem yet :) I'm redoing the bed next year...will bring the Russian Sage to the back garden to increase the bee population for my veggies.

Peggy

Or you could provide a safe place for them to live. :-) Here are some Bumble Bee Nesters:

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Lot's of good advise on doing the thing right. How about considering doing the right thing? What vegetables were you thinking of planting that require pollination by bees to produce a crop? I may be completely off-center here but my fall gardens have included cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and other greens, sometimes cauliflower, radish, beets, etc. Obviously my brain is on the wrong track. What am I missing?

I think Billy hits on a good topic that I would like to expand upon a bit.

Planting things for the pollinators to feed on is terrific, but a lot of what we grow doesn't require pollinators so it won't necessarily lead to higher yields for us.

Many plants such as lettuce and other greens are harvested before they flower at all so clearly no pollination is needed. Many flowering plants such as beans, peas, tomatos, peppers etc. also require no insect pollination to yield well. Corn is wind pollinated. Roots crops don't require pollination. You get the idea.

Things like many vine crops (cukes, squash, pumpkin, melons) do require insect pollination, but will having a wildflower garden filled with nectar/pollen rich flowers get the job done or will it just attract pollinators to the wildflower garden? .

Hypothetically it could reduce pollination of the plants we need pollinated if more preferred food sources for the pollinators are close by.

Personally I love the pollinators and plant things to attract them every year. I don't do this for better yields from my plants, but for the enjoyment of watching them go about their business and support their overall population.

I have noticed alot of bees (several species that are visiting my vegetables) working on my sweet corn tassles. Corn is wind pollinated so must produce massive amounts of pollen relative to insect pollinated, large flowered plants. This means more food for producing more baby bees next year, but this is dependent on the availability of nesting areas for these bees. It makes me wonder if my bee populations cycle with the crop rotation [corn, soybeans] on the farm across the road.

By far my best plants for bees have been the following:

Butterfly bushes
Russian Sage
Coneflowers
Lavender

If there is sun, there are bees all over these plants. They won't disappoint!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kim's Garden

The May Night Salvias are covered in bees. And once the squash started flowering and the bees found them, the have been attracting large numbers of bees.