The Best Pollinator-Friendly Plants to Grow in Fremont, California

Steven likes to joke that buying pollinator plants is my addiction. He's not wrong. Once we started keeping bees on our urban homestead in Fremont, I couldn't walk past a nursery without coming home with something purple.

The good news is that you don't need a big yard or a fussy garden to feed the bees here. Our climate does most of the work. You just have to plant the right things.

These are the plants I'd recommend to any neighbor in Fremont or the East Bay. They're easy to find at local nurseries, they handle our dry summers, and the bees actually use them.

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Why our yards matter so much

Fremont has mild winters, dry summers, and a long growing season. That's a great setup for pollinators, as long as they can find food. The trouble is that neighborhoods tend to have stretches with almost nothing blooming, especially in late summer and early fall. A few plants in your yard or on your patio can fill those gaps.

The plants I'd start with

Lavender

If you only plant one thing, make it lavender. Ours hums with bees from late spring through summer, and once it's established it barely needs water. Low effort, big payoff.

Rosemary

Rosemary blooms when almost nothing else does, in winter and early spring, which makes it a lifeline for bees that time of year. And you can cook with it.

Salvia

Salvias are all over Bay Area landscaping for good reason. They bloom for a long time, they're drought tolerant, and ours are still flowering well into fall.

California poppies

Our state flower is a native food source that needs almost no water. Poppies bloom early, right when bees are building back up after winter. We scatter California poppy seeds in the fall and let them do their thing. (More on what to plant in October for happy bees next spring.)

Sunflowers

Sunflowers give both pollen and nectar, and those big open faces are easy for bees to work. They carry the garden in summer when smaller flowers dry out. Start with a packet of sunflower seeds.

Borage

Borage is a little wild-looking, but bees love it. The blue star-shaped flowers keep making nectar for weeks, and it grows easily from borage seeds.

Cosmos and zinnias

Both are cheap, easy, and bloom like crazy in our hot summers. They're great for filling empty spots. Grab some cosmos seeds and zinnia seeds.

Clover

Clover is one of the most underrated bee plants out there. It feeds bees, improves your soil, and makes a pretty lawn alternative if you're tired of fighting your grass. Try clover lawn seed in a patch first.

Thyme and mint

Let your herbs flower. Those tiny clusters of blooms are bee magnets. Just keep mint in a pot unless you want it everywhere.

Lantana, asters, and sweet alyssum

These three keep our garden going into fall. Lantana blooms through the heat, asters show up when summer flowers are fading, and sweet alyssum fills in low spots with tiny honey-scented flowers.

Bee balm, coneflower, and milkweed

Bee balm brings in bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Coneflowers are hardy and bloom for a long time. Milkweed is best known for monarchs, but bees use it too. Ask your nursery for a variety that's right for our area.

A wildflower mix

If you'd rather not choose, a California wildflower seed mix gives you a range of bloom times in one packet. Native flowers feed our native bees, too.

The one rule I follow

Plant so something is always blooming. If your lavender finishes in July, have salvia and zinnias ready to take over, then asters and alyssum for fall, then rosemary for winter. Overlapping bloom times are what really keep bees fed.

You don't need much space

A few pots on a patio, a strip along the driveway, or one corner of the yard really does help. The bees will find it. Ours certainly do, and I'll keep buying plants for them whether Steven likes it or not. (No yard at all? See How to Support Pollinators Even If You Don't Have a Garden. And don't forget water: here's how to build a bee bath.)

Ready to think bigger? See The Best Pollinator Trees to Plant in the Bay Area. And once your garden is buzzing, let the neighbors know with our Welcome to Our Pollinator Garden flag.