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*Perennial - any plant that flowers for 2-3 years; any long-lived plant from the smallest flower to the largest tree that returns year after year, growing in size and stature until it reaches its full maturity. Most perennial plants can be divided in sections to produce new plants, or they can be grown from seeds and cuttings.

* Annual - any plant that only flowers for 1-year; from the seed to blooms, and back to seed. Removing the flowers as they fade prolongs the blooming cycle, but if the pod is left to produce seeds, then many annuals will readily reseed themselves.

* Beinerial - any plant that flowers for 2-years.

NOTICE: If you have pictures of your local Haywood County “bee garden” and would like to share them with others, please email a couple images to the webmaster@hcbees.org for consideration. Images need to be at least 96 dpi and 400 pixels x 300 pixels. Most email programs have a limit on the size of the message that you can process through their server and that limit can be 2 Mb or in rare cases 3 Mb in size.

Sourwood blooms

In late March honeybees are getting actively gathering pollen from many trees and other foliages. Soon, pollen will fill the air and it will be a welcome sight for bees and their beekeepers. There is a wide array of common plants which support honeybees, from annual flowers to popular perennials, fruits, garden vegetables, shrubs and even trees. Below is a partial list of tried-and-true bee attractors for our Western North Carolina mountain counties. Help beekeepers by planting some of these “bee-friendly” foliages to keep the honeybee pollinating and producing.

Haywood County, North Carolina is located in plant hardiness zone 6a to 6b and this link lists some bee flower seeds pertinent to this planting zone. Honey Floral Source Guide.

Here are some sites which can help you choose the best plants and flowers for your area.

• Beekeeping- Flowers to Harvesting, per Amie and Sam at McDowell Honey Bees
• For the young “wanna-bee” enthusiast- Kids and Bees
• Bee Spotter - creating a “bee-friendly” garden. This link is associated with the University of Illinois
• DIY Gardens - Tips about British Bees and “bee-friendly” gardens.
• WNC Vegetable and Small Fruits News - information for growers in Buncombe, Haywood, and Henderson counties of North Carolina

• NC Natural - view the approximate blooming times for the mountain area.
• NCSBA - see bloom schedule for North Carolina mountain plants and trees.
• Wikipedia - color list of pollen sources for honeybees with bloom months.