Most Attractive To Bumblebees?

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

This tells me that different bees are attracted to different flowers. dthis confirms my thinking that bees are not attracted to tomato flowers as they are not interested in daisy flowers.

Bees in general can't see red, so to attract them from a distance, yellow, blue, white and purple work better. Red flowers with yellow in the center seem to be fine when it comes to attracting bees.

Bumblebees are, indeed, attracted to tomato flowers, but other bees aren't. However, they only visit tomato flowers for pollen, as there's no nectar (one reason why they're not attractive to regular bees). Only pollinators that buzz pollinate like bumblebees can vibrate the blossoms at the right frequency to eject the pollen for collection.

Bumblebees do, indeed, like tomato blossoms. But I suspect that they are more attractive to them during parts of the season when they have high protein needs vs. sugar needs.

Regionally dominant species of bumblebee may differ in their preferences as well.

Originally Posted by HudsonValley

I don't know whether certain tomato varieties are more attractive to bees than others, but I can attest to the fact that tomatillo blossoms are absolute bee magnets. Today I counted more than a dozen bees (bumblebees, honeybees, and smaller ones) on/around my four tomatillo plants at one time. My aunt, a Master Gardener, recommends planting tomatillos around pepper plants to help ensure pollination; I learned this too late to implement this year, but maybe it works for tomatoes, too??? Plus, you could enjoy some salsa verde!

I have ground cherries, which are very similar to tomatillos, all up next to my tomatoes. They seem to be a terrific trap crop for Colorado potato beetles. but, despite having flowers that look a lot like tomatillo flowers, nobody is interested in them except the ants. It's possible that the ants, which actually hang out in the blossoms drinking, may be harassing other visitors. I'm having the opposite of problems with ground cherry fruit set, though. Talk about prolific. The plants grow like weeds, too.