Best Herbs and Perennials for Bees

Why herbs punch above their weight

Culinary and cottage-garden herbs are disproportionately valuable for bees because most flower for weeks rather than days, tolerate poor soil and drought (so they keep producing nectar even in a dry summer when other plants shut down), and many belong to the mint family (Lamiaceae), whose tubular-but-open flower shape suits a honeybee's tongue length well. A herb bed or border of mixed Mediterranean herbs can outperform a much larger area of ornamental bedding for total bee visits per square metre.

The core herb list, rated for bee value

Herb	Bloom window (UK)	Bee value
Lavender	June–August	Outstanding — one of the most bee-attractive garden plants, long flowering, drought tolerant
Sage (Salvia officinalis)	May–June	Very good; ornamental salvias extend this further into late summer
Rosemary	Can flower Feb–May, sometimes again in autumn	Valuable for its unusually early bloom, useful before most other herbs start
Thyme	June–July	Excellent nectar quality for its size; low mat-forming habit suits path edging and rockeries
Mint (Mentha spp.)	July–September	Good, long-flowering, but spreads aggressively — best contained in pots
Oregano / marjoram	July–September	Very good, long summer flowering, drought tolerant, attracts a wide range of pollinators
Borage	June–September (self-seeds readily)	Exceptional — refills its nectar every few minutes, so flowers are almost always rewarding to visit
Echium (Viper's bugloss / E. vulgare and garden E. pininana)	June–August	Outstanding, especially the tall garden Echium pininana, prolific nectar producer much loved by bees
Verbena (Verbena bonariensis)	July–October	Very good and long-flowering, popular with both bees and butterflies
Sedum (Hylotelephium/ice plant)	August–October	Important late-season source, flowering right through early autumn when options thin out
Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia)	6–8 weeks after sowing, often June–August	Exceptional — often used as an agricultural/allotment 'bee pasture' cover crop for its very high nectar output

Perennials and cottage-garden staples

Beyond the herb bed, classic cottage-garden perennials extend forage through the same summer window: catmint (Nepeta), foxglove, geranium (cranesbill), penstemon and single-flowered dahlias are all well used by bees, while double-flowered cultivars of many garden favourites (roses, dahlias) should generally be avoided for pollinators since breeding for extra petals often removes the nectaries or blocks access to them entirely.

Putting together a bee-friendly herb and perennial bed

For continuous forage, pair rosemary (earliest) with lavender, sage and thyme (early-mid summer), then oregano, mint, verbena, borage and phacelia (mid-late summer), finishing with sedum in early autumn. Because most of these are low-water, low-maintenance plants suited to a sunny UK border, a herb-and-perennial bed is often the single best return-on-effort planting choice for a garden or allotment aiming to support bees.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single best herb to plant for bees?

Borage and Echium are often rated the very best for sheer nectar output, but lavender is the most reliably excellent all-round choice for a UK garden given its long bloom period and hardiness.

Why is phacelia used as a farm cover crop for bees?

Phacelia produces exceptionally high nectar volumes relative to the effort of sowing it, flowers within weeks of sowing, and is often planted specifically as a 'bee pasture' green manure/cover crop on farms and allotments.

Should I avoid double-flowered garden plants for bees?

Generally yes — many double-flowered cultivars (roses, dahlias, etc.) have been bred with extra petals in place of reproductive parts, which often removes or blocks the nectaries bees need to access.

What herb flowers earliest in the UK for bees?

Rosemary is usually the earliest of the common culinary herbs, capable of flowering from February in a mild year, well before lavender, thyme or sage.

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