Honeybee Plants for an Ornamental Garden

Dr. Vetaley Stashenko, who is from the Ukraine and now lives in Florida, was one of our consultants on The Melissa Garden. He first trained in apiculture, and then later as a naturopath. He taught apiculture at the National Agricultural University (Kiev, Ukraine) and now teaches biology at South University and Palm Beach College in Florida. He also lectures around the world on apitherapy, the therapeutic use of honeybee hive products.

To maintain hive health, Stashenko emphasizes the importance of providing botanicals with high nectar flow, good quality pollen sources, and that provide adequate sources for propolis production. These must be available to meet the needs of the hive throughout the different seasons of the year. His top five honeybee plants are borage, phacelia, echium, melissa and goldenrod. An extended list of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees is included in order to present a range of other plants to draw from to create a pleasing garden aesthetic.

Honey and pollen yield per acre, which has real meaning for agricultural plantings intended for commercial honey and pollen production, is included here to give a relative idea of yield when selecting plants for a honeybee garden. These estimates would be very useful in commercial beekeeping to calculate how many hives a property could support.

Top 5 Honeybee Plants

Click here for Dr. Stashenko’s complete list of honeybee plants.