I just had to open this post as soon as I saw it too see why you were excited. I got a big smile out of reading it.

By the way, Bumblebees LOVE single flowered roses so if there are some that might work for you then they are great for attracting bees.

An easy to plant, just sow the seeds, plant that attracts bees like crazy is borage. Its an herb but don't ask me what cooking its for. I just grow it for the bees. It does have pretty tiny blue flowers. Self seeds so put it were it can seed itself year after year and pull up the extras.

Pus put white clover in your lawn unless you are one that needs the lawn to look like the perfection of the golf course. Bees love the clover.

I love my fat bumbles too! Plant some salvia; they adore it and more will visit your garden. You can hear them buzzing away; I love that sound.

I was so excited the other day to find a big, fat toad in my front garden. I haven't seen one in years. There was lots of little flies by Pretty Jessica and I think he was having breakfast. I hope he invites his cousins and siblings to stay around.
-terry

Keep planting and soon you'll get all sorts of bees. For the first time in the four years I've had my house, I have honey bees. They love John Cabot and a bunch of my other flowers. I think my bumblebees must have spread that news that there were flowers in the neighborhood.

I'm jealous of your toad, Terry. I had one last year but I think my dogs killed it because I found it dead one day only a few weeks after I first saw it. I hope your toad stays safe.

I just moved into a neighborhood where there's mainly trees, grass and shrubs. So I feel like I'm doing my part for the bees. I'm in the midst of planting perennials. All of my roses are in big pots and almost every flower seems to have a white spider in it! :) Hopefully they don't kill bees!

Carol

This year I have an over abundance of honey bees around my roses. They especially like my Playboy and Julio Iglesias. I was so glad to see them, they were sparse last year.

If you're fond of bumbles plant catmint. Ours is growing like a week and is very attractive to both bumble bees and hummingbirds. Love it.

Kate

Ser, you are so cute. I know what you mean. There is something so spiritual about letting go and letting God. One goes out into the garden and see if they only let nature or God work..it works. It is magic. The signs are subtle. A simple little bee. A few spiders. The sound of life in your yard. It's wonderful. Congratulations. XXXOOO

Plant Sweet Peas. We have an enormous black bumble bee that owns the sweet peas and is there every day. He chases away the honey bees and the hummingbirds and won't share. That's why we say he "owns" them. Bumble bees are loners (and we can see why!) Honey bees live in hive communities and are better at sharing.

Kathy

I read an article the other day which indicated that the honeybee die-off is slowing. Good news.

Somewhere up here on our hillside, there's a beekeeper -- I wasn't surprised to hear that, 'cause we've got a LOT of honeybees.
This morning I was standing near where a big Hotlips Salvia runs right up under 'Bishop Darlington,' and I was surrounded by a soft, gentle humming sound. The bees were all over that big single rose, and the salvia, and a few were trying stubbornly to push their way into more double blooms.
Someone's gonna have some interesting honey!

Jeri

I have seen Bumble Bees too, a couple of them anyway. But, what I was really excited about was I saw a couple of Ladybugs!!! The more the better!

This is probably an "only a gardener understands" post. Love it.

I usually wear my iPod when I work in the yard if I am outside by myself but I was out there Saturday afternoon without it working really hard trying to dig a trench and next to me was a huge nepeta and Austin's Tamora, Mary Rose and Jude the Obscure. When I was working, they buzzed along with me and when I would stop for a break, I would watch the fat bumblebees jump from one bud to the next. Fabulous.

Right... I am on the "Roses" forum and I just clarified that those were Austin roses. Because otherwise there are so many plants "Jude the Obscure" would be confused with.

Sorry! :-)

I'm fortunate to have many bees and the plant they are absolutely nuts about is marjoram. It grows into big bushes with little tiny flowers and my two plants are usually covered with bees until the sun goes down. I had no idea when I bought this herb in a tiny pot that it would grow into a more than two-foot tall shrub that the bees would love.

Ingrid

I wish all those that are in this forum to find out about spraying for everything would read this. This thinking does come from a higher place within ourselves.

I have a couple of plots at the community garden center and there is plenty of wildlife. Black and blue salvia is attracting the hummers like crazy. I just planted catmint and the lemon thyme I put in last summer is being divided to go everywhere this year. The best rose I have for bees is Morden Sunrise. They cover it! Now I just need to buy some praying mantis egg cases. They complete the picture.

awww, so happy about everyone's bees! And bless you, Rita and Iris! Yesterday I only got through the 1st 3 posts and as soooooon as I read Rita's borage, I immediately googled because since my last post on how to balance a garden organically, many had recommended several herbs and borage was a completely new one...and then I dropped everything and drove like mad to the all! the nurseries and garden centers near me to try to find Rita's and Mr. Bumblebee's borage... I haven't been able to find any yet and sites say to plant in early spring but I am definitely going to be ordering seeds for next year!

And the whole day yesterday I was doing a happy bumblebee buzzing dance. After I got back from 3 borage searches at various garden centers, I planted my herbs, verona, meadow sage/salvia until 9:00 p.m.! (all that's left is my bee baum, have to transplant my 3 lavender because of the gladiolus, and my catnip and 3 lilies) Then when I visited my parents later that evening to share some cake with them, every word out of my mouth was bumblebee, bumblebee.

And the hilarious part is that besides roses I love gourmet cooking (am a real fan of Iron Chef of America), but I can't bear to eat any of my herbs lol! I want to save every single leaf and flower for Mr. Bumblebee...
And look what a tempting treat this borage cupcake would be...

and would I ever eat Mr. Bumblebee's flowers????? no way! Rita, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I'll be once I get the chance to plant this flowering borage for fuzzy-wuzzy koochy-woochy super Cute-to-the-max Bumblebee....

Well, I can tell you that all you need is some seed packets. They must have some at a local nursery. Planting the seeds in early spring is fine but I can promise you from experience that you can start borage from seed at anytime. Mine would self seed in the middle of summer just from dropped seed. All you need to do is water if theres no rain. You don't have to wait until next year to attract those bees, get them going this year.

You can mail order the seeds here. I have gotten seeds from this company many times and they are great.

Here is a link that might be useful: Borage Seeds at Heirloom Seeds