Asters are great fall forage plants
Here’s a bit of wild aster growing on my property, photographed in mid-October. The bees (plus many other pollinators) worked this stuff constantly. Hopefully they got a lot of nutrition from in their last gasp of foraging before winter set in. Asters are a late-blooming flower and important fall forage plants for bees, but the honey derived from asters is said to crystallize very quickly. If your bees feed on lots of asters late in the season, you might consider adding some sugar water to the hive to give them a mix of food sources.
Image may be NSFW.
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Honeybee in front, and a smaller bee (maybe Orchard) working a bloom behind it.
Much maligned as invasive, Japanese Knotweeds are great fall forage plants
Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is one of the world’s most invasive plant species, but like much of our globalized world, it may be best to make lemonade out of those lemons. Bees and a dozen other varieties of pollinators worked the knotweed out back from sun up to sundown every day that it lasted, well into September. Given the relative lack of blooms during that time period in Atlanta, the knotweeds were great fall forage plants. In areas where knotweed is especially prevalent, beekeepers market so-called “bamboo honey,” with a flavor profile said to be similar to buckwheat honey.
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Japanese knotweed blooms
Goldenrods are simply amazing fall forage plants in the southeast. Weedy and covered in bright yellow flowers, goldenrod grows profusely along margins everywhere, and bees are able to easily locate nectar along roadsides and empty lots all over the urban landscape. Goldenrod is a bright indicator that fall has arrived, for people and for bees.
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