Native Plants for Bees in Oregon

The native flowers that feed honey bees, bumblebees, and the hundreds of solitary native bees most gardeners never notice. Oregon sits in a landscape of Willamette Valley, Cascades & high desert, and the natives that thrive here are the ones built for its wet west, dry summer-dry east character. The list below — led by Red-Flowering Currant and Rocky Mountain Penstemon — is filtered to species genuinely native to Oregon and the wider flora of the Pacific Northwest and hardy through zones 4–9. Most of our native bees are solitary and unfussy, but they depend on a steady supply of pollen-rich, single (not double) flowers. Open daisy and umbel shapes are easiest for short-tongued bees, while tubular flowers reward the long-tongued bumblebees. Skip pesticides entirely and leave some bare, undisturbed ground and pithy stems where ground- and stem-nesting bees raise their young.

19 native species for Oregon

Each one native to your region and hardy in zones 4–9 · see this collection in other states.