CORVALLIS, Ore. — Honey bees get most of the attention, but they aren’t the only bees pollinating our gardens. In Oregon, more than 500 native bees are doing their part, too.

As National Pollinator Week nears, it’s time to bring them into the limelight. Many are beautiful — like the metallic sweat bee with an emerald-green head and thorax or the cute, fuzzy digger bee. Many are docile, leaving people alone as they move from plant to plant.

Without insect pollinators, cucumbers, apples and berries — and thousands of other plants — wouldn’t bear fruit or vegetables. That makes conservation vital, said Gail Langellotto, entomologist and professor in the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences. To help, she is surveying bee species from 24 Portland-area gardens, all tended by OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers.

For this Garden Ecology Lab research project, Langellotto visits the gardens monthly to collect bees. Specimens are sent to experts at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for identification. The information enhances the Oregon Bee Atlas, a volunteer program charged with surveying the whole state.

“We want to generate a species list from Oregon gardens,” she said. “Other states have them, but we don’t know what native bees appear in Oregon. If we know which bees we have, we can determine their health and how we might help them.”

The Oregon Bee Atlas is one of several projects under the Oregon Bee Project, a collaboration of OSU Extension, the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Forestry. The legislature supported the project after 50,000 bumble bees were killed when blooming linden trees in a parking lot were sprayed with pesticide.

“The Oregon Bee Project is about putting tools in people’s hands to literally build and care for native bee pollinator habitat, and gardeners are really at the forefront of that effort,” said Andony Melathopoulos, OSU Extension bee specialist and leader of OSU’s participation in the project.

Habitat in cities and on campus

On the Oregon State campus in Corvallis, horticulture instructor Al Shay and his students build pollinator houses and plant accompanying gardens. They’ve installed them on campus and around town at the Corvallis Fire Department downtown, the Methodist Church and Sunset Park.

Shay hopes to place 20 more pollinator houses in public locations by next year, some with gardens. “As we become more urbanized, it makes sense to provide habitat for pollinators,” he said. “We’re trying to get the word out and tell people to do the same things in their own backyards.”

What gardeners can do

Langellotto’s team is examining volunteer gardens to note conditions where pollinators thrive, using mapping and GIS to see what surrounds each site.

“We expect gardens can be a fantastic habitat for bees,” she said. “Gardens can be incredible for conservation in general. If we’re able to identify garden features that help conserve bees we will communicate that and hopefully get gardeners to do some of these things.”

Plant selection matters most. One tiny garden in the study sits next to Interstate 5 yet had the second-highest number of bees of the 24 surveyed and likely ranks first or second in diversity. “It suggests that intentional plant choices make a difference,” Langellotto said. “If you plant it, they will come.”

• Favor native plants, but many nonnatives also perform well. Choose single flowers with flat faces; fluffy double flowers can deter bees.
• Provide season-long bloom with plants that flower at different times — some, like Oregon grape, even bloom in winter.
• Plant in swaths. A single plant rarely draws many pollinators.
• Limit pesticide use. (Check with your local OSU Extension office or Master Gardener volunteers to diagnose plant problems before treating.)
• Leave some bare, undisturbed ground. Many native bees are solitary ground nesters.

“Bees are crucial to the food we eat,” Langellotto said. “They help maintain the plants we love. Something as simple as planting a sustainable garden can help with conservation.”

Top 25 plants for attracting pollinators

List compiled by Signe Danler, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University.

Bloom winter through early spring (February through April)

• Vine maple (Acer circinatum). Native, deciduous large shrub or small tree that can be trained to a single- or multi-trunked form. Good as an understory plant under tall evergreens. Zone 5.
• Tall Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium, formerly Mahonia). Oregon’s state flower; this native evergreen shrub bursts with large clusters of yellow blooms. Zone 5.
• Camas (Camassia spp.). Native bulb with tall foliage and an even taller stalk of blue flowers. Zone 6.
• Crabapple (Malus floribunda). Deciduous tree with masses of pink or white blooms, followed by red berries. Zone 4.
• Willow (Salix spp.). Many deciduous shrubs or trees, including graceful weeping forms. Various zones.

Bloom spring through early summer (April through June)

• Western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia). Native deciduous shrub or small tree with star-shaped white flowers and maroon-purple berries. Zone 2.
• Borage (Borago officinalis). Annual herb with fuzzy foliage and clusters of blue flowers; will reseed.
• California lilac (Ceanothus spp.). Tough evergreen shrub with blankets of blue flowers; drought tolerant. Many cultivars. Zones 6–8.
• Tickseed (Coreopsis spp.). Adaptable perennial with bright yellow flowers, often with a red eye; drought tolerant. Various zones.
• Geranium (Geranium spp.). Hardy perennials (not the annual pelargoniums) with five-petaled flowers in many pinks and purples. Various zones.
• Globe gilia (Gilia capitata). Native annual with puffs of lavender flowers; may reseed.
• Lupine (Lupinus spp.). Distinctive spikes; species and hybrids in blue, pink, red, yellow, white and bi-colors. Various zones.
• Western chokecherry (Prunus virginiana var. demissa). Native deciduous shrub or small tree with pendulous white flowers and attractive bark. Zone 4.

Bloom mid- to late summer (July through September)

• Blue giant hyssop (Agastache foeniculum and spp.). Drought-tolerant perennial with rods of lavender-blue flowers; anise-scented foliage. Zone 4.
• California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Tough, drought-tolerant orange annual wildflower.
• Willamette Valley gumweed (Grindelia integrifolia). Native perennial with school-bus-yellow, daisy-like flowers; great near the coast. Zone 6a.
• Showy tarweed (Madia elegans). Native annual herb with yellow flowers and a red ring at the center.
• Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii). Pest-free perennial with gray-green, fragrant foliage and blue-purple flower spikes. Zone 4.
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). Airy clouds of lavender flowers; heat-loving, low-water perennial. Zone 4.
• Phacelia (Phacelia spp.). Fast-growing annual with fernlike foliage and blue flowers that unfurl like a fiddlehead.
• Stonecrop (Sedum spp.). Many succulent species, tall and low. Groundcovers have small yellow flowers; tall species bloom in pinks. Drought tolerant. Various zones.

Bloom late summer to fall (September through November)

• Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale). Native yellow perennial with daisy-like flowers and a prominent cone. Zone 3.
• Michaelmas daisy (Aster amellus). Easy perennial with daisy-like flowers in purple, pink and white. Zone 4.
• Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis). Native perennial with abundant sprays of sunshine yellow. Zone 3.
• Douglas aster (Symphyotrichum subspicatum). Adaptable, very long-blooming native perennial with lavender-blue, daisy-like flowers. Zone 6a.

Previously titled 25 plants for attracting native bees to the garden