I've planted many plants for butterflies and hummingbirds gardens. Bees are naturally attracted to the same plants, but because they are so interested in the nectar bees will not really be a bother to you. It is so important to have pollinators in our gardens that unless you are highly allergic to bee stings you shouldn't worry. I have a young daughter that is in the garden with me all the time and neither of us have ever been stung by a bee -yellow jackets on the other hand #@

Do you mean hanging basket, when you say "basket"? Most of the herbs I grow would get too large for a hanging basket. Though I imagine they would enjoy the dryer conditions. If you mean combination planters then just about anything would work, except most of the perennial herbs still get too big for a container. I would go for mints in different flavors to be used in tea. People love the scent of mint. Lemon basil is one of my favorites along with Lemon Verbena. You could root full sized cuttings and insert them into a mint combo so that all the plants were at the same size at selling time (they both root easily from cuttings). You could do a mix of edible flowers mixed with lettuce. Johnny Jump-ups/Violas grow at about the same rate as lettuce for me. You could stick in a full blooming Calendula or Dianthus or the little Gem Marigolds at the last minute. They all grow under different conditions than the lettuce and need less water.

Gosh, quirkpod, all but the grasses you've mentioned will attract bees and other pollinators. The hens 'n' chicks, when they produce flowers, are a favorite! Dusty Miller does flower, remember, though you can keep the flowers clipped off so that you can enjoy the foliage only. I'd go back to the drawing board and try to come up with colorful foliage plants that are easy to keep disbudded. For what it's worth, I see very few bees on our 'Knock Out' Roses, so that's something you might consider. The most important comment has been made by Jean, who mentioned that bees aren't interested in anything else but their foraging efforts when they're out and about. One of our main annual and perennial bed is right by our front door and walk. We love the activity of the bees (and others) and have never worried about getting stung.

I was reading all the posts on this particular thread, because I wanted to go ahead and plant butterfly bushes that I'm going to grow from seed. I have 'Nanho Blue', but it doesn't attract them at all. Sometimes, I think it depends on the butterflies that frequent your part of the country, and not what someone in Canada may use that is a very good attractor. I am on the Butterfly forum constantly, and I raise Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, Red Admirals, Gulf Fritillaries, among other butterflies. I wanted something to attract the Swallowtails, though. I get plenty of eggs and caterpillars, but never see the BSTs nectaring. Several people on the Butterfly forum suggested buddleia, and the pink and white cultivars are the ones that most attract swallowtails. I asked about vitex (chaste tree), and most people said they do not attract the masses of butterflies that buddleia does. I had a B. davidii at one time, and it died after two years. I grew it in partial shade; never had any seedlings, but had plenty of blooms even in part shade. I wonder if the growing conditions prevented self-sowing? I don't know. But, I think I might just put mine in the partial shade to see if that will work. Glossy abelia was also suggested as a plant that attracts numerous butterflies, and the great thing is that it blooms all summer and into fall. I think I'll try that, too. There is a cultivar that apparently doesn't sucker very much. Placement is also part of the issue with butterfly bushes - I mean, placing them in a location where reseeding occurs at a minimum, like a strip garden located between a sidewalk and driveway. Anything in the lawn gets mowed anyway. I found my common zinnias and cosmos to be great nectar plants, as well as tropical milkweed. Now, before anyone gets upset because I planted tropical milkweed. It's not hardy in my zone for one thing. Also, it's the favorite host plant of the Monarchs over any other milkweed, because it is higher in cardiac glycosides, which is what the Monarchs NEED for protection from predators. The most palatable Monarchs are those that eat milkweed with lower levels of CGs, like cynanchum, for instance (milkweed vine). Other substitutes for butterfly bush are native perennial plants like verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard), verbena hastata, eupatorium maculata (as mentioned above), but Gregg's mistflower (native mistflower) is a great one, too. Early season nectar plants are spring beauty, larkspurs, linums, and phlox divaricata. Ceananthus americanus is another native shrub good for nectaring and the clethra mentioned is good, too. Bidens, monarda fistula, native echinaceas, rudbeckias, dogbane, blazing stars (liatris), and solidago are also fantastic nectaring plants. Non-natives like lantana, pentas, oregano, mints, agastaches, and globe amaranths are good, too. Wish me luck with my Buddleia plantings - I hope they don't prove to be too...