What Flowers Make the Best Honey? What Our Bay Area Bees Are Foraging On (Summer 2026)

One of the questions we hear most is, "What flowers make the best honey?"

The honest answer: there isn't one.

Every flower's nectar has its own flavor, color and sweetness, and honey is simply a reflection of what the bees found blooming. Some beekeepers place hives near a single crop, like orange groves or clover fields, to produce a "varietal" honey with a distinct flavor. Others, like us, let the bees choose from whatever the neighborhood has to offer.

That mix is what makes our honey taste a little different from season to season. And we love that about it.

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A Quick Note Before We Start

Honeybees can fly a couple of miles or more from the hive to find food, covering far more ground than we could ever keep an eye on. So while we can tell you what we've seen bees visiting, we can't tell you exactly which flowers went into any particular jar.

Think of this post as a peek at what's blooming around our hives, not a label on the honey.

In Our Yard

Lavender, salvia and herbs. These have been some of the busiest spots in the garden all summer. On warm afternoons, you can hear the hum before you see the bees.

Vegetable garden blooms. Our veggie beds have been buzzing too. It's a good reminder that bees and gardeners help each other: they get a meal, and we get better harvests from the pollination.

Fruit trees and berries. We've watched bees working our fruit trees and berry bushes this year as well, another win-win for the garden and the hive. (Thinking of planting one? Here are the best pollinator trees for the Bay Area.)

Around the Neighborhood and the Hills

Star thistle and summer wildflowers. As the hills around the East Bay dry out and turn golden, some of the toughest plants keep blooming. Yellow star thistle is one bees are known to love. It's an invasive weed in California, so it's not something we'd ever plant, but it's hard to deny the bees find it useful late in the season.

Clover and "lawn weeds." Those little white and purple flowers popping up in lawns and along sidewalks are a big deal for bees. If you've ever held off on mowing for a week or two, the bees thank you.

Wild anise. Those tall, feathery, licorice-scented plants you see along roadsides and empty lots around here, often called wild anise (it's actually wild fennel), put out big, flat clusters of tiny yellow flowers that attract all kinds of pollinators.

Why This Changes Every Season

What's blooming in spring is completely different from what's blooming in late summer. Early in the year, fruit trees and spring flowers take center stage. By mid-summer, as things dry out, bees shift to whatever can handle the heat.

That's a big part of why one batch of our honey might be lighter and more delicate, while another is darker and richer. The bees are telling the story of the season, one flower at a time.

Want to Help the Bees in Your Neighborhood?

You don't need a big yard. A pot of lavender or salvia on a balcony, letting your herbs flower instead of cutting them back, or leaving a patch of clover in the lawn can all make a real difference, especially during the dry summer months. (More ideas in How to Support Pollinators Even If You Don't Have a Garden and The Best Pollinator-Friendly Plants to Grow in Fremont.)

Easy ways to start: lavender seeds for a sunny pot, or clover lawn seed to overseed a patch of grass.

Have you spotted bees on something blooming in your garden this summer? We'd love to hear about it. 🐝

Want to taste what our bees gathered this season? Pick up a jar of our raw, small-batch Fremont honey. And curious what the bees turned to once the hills dried out and the weather cooled? See what's blooming now in What Our Bay Area Bees Are Foraging On (Fall 2026).