Free Ohio Bee & Garden Guides
Get FREE bee, plant, garden and project guides to help native bees thrive. Even one flowering plant or tree is a power-full act that helps restore habitat for bees and other wildlife.
FREE Guides & Resources
Our curated library of free bee, plant, garden, nursery, seed guides, videos, and other resources give you information to help you support pollinators and beautify communities where you live, work, or play. Check out the video library here.
OHIO NATIVE PLANTs for pollinators/
Taft & Knapke
This detailed guide provides basic information about tons of native plants, with a special section listing the pollinators they attract. It includes common names, latin names, color, height, bloom time, and preferred growing conditions.
29 TREES FOR BEES / The OSU Bee Lab
Ohio trees can provide food for bees from early spring through late summer, with most tree species in Ohio blooming in spring and early summer. This fact sheet describes some of the Ohio trees that provide food for bees described as important by multiple researchers and bee experts.
OHIO NATIVE PLANT GUIDE /
Naturalist, Lynda Price
This detailed guide provides basic information about tons of native plants, including their common names, latin names, color, height, bloom time, and preferred growing conditions.
100+ OHIO NURSERIES / Ohio Native
PlantS
Looking for a local native plant nursery? This interactive list from Ohio Native Plants includes an alphabetical list along with an interactive map to help you.
12 Ohio Wildflowers Guide
This gorgeous guide from Lorain County Soil & Water District helps you learn about 12 Ohio wildflowers, including where they grow best, how to care for them, and what pollinators they attract.
OHIO BEE GUIDE / Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center
This Fact Sheet helps you identify 10 bee species that you might find in your own backyard, including their size, physical features, nesting behaviors, and other fun facts.
BEGINNERS BEE ID GUIDE / Pollinator Partnership
This incredibly robust Beginners Bee ID Guide includes 65 illustrated pages to help you identify native bees. It is organized by family, and includes taxonomy basics, common names, nesting and social behaviors, and pollination abilities.
NATIVE TREE SELECTOR / Cleveland Metroparks
This web-based Tree Selector helps you select the right trees for the right project, including homeowners, landscape architects, land stewards, and arborists.
Pollinator PLANT GUIDE /
Pollinator Partnership
This guide helps you identify the Plants for Pollinators that grow well in the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Region, of which Ohio is a part. It includes guidance for home landscapes and larger land stewards, along with checklists and resources.
BEES VS. WASPS / Ohio Dept. of Wildlife
This helpful guide gives you easy ways to tell the difference between bees and wasps, and how to identify the insect you’ve found. Tip: Bees are always fuzzy, unlike wasps.
BUMBLE BEES OF EASTERN U.S. /
USDA & Pollinator partnership
Bumble bees are the most efficient pollinators in North America, in part because of their unique body structure, flight capabilities, and buzz pollination ability. Learn more about these wildlife wizards in this guide.
POLLINATOR GARDEN GUIDE / Pollinator Partnership
HOW TO PLANT WILDFLOWERS & Native Grasses / OPN Seed
HOW TO BUILD A BEE CONDO / Pollinator Partnership
How to Start a Veggie Garden / Farmers Almanac
BEE-FRIENDLY SEED MIXES / OPN SEED
Ohio Seed Companies
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Partners Program
Do you own a larger piece of land that you’d like to transform into wildlife habitat? About 70% of the land in the U.S. is privately owned. The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program provides technical and financial assistance to landowners, managers, Tribes, corporations, schools and nonprofits interested in improving wildlife habitat. All private landowners interested in restoring wildlife habitat on their land are eligible to participate.
Since 1987, they have helped more than 25,000 landowners complete more than 40,000 projects, restoring more than six million acres of forest, prairie, wetland, and stream habitats for wildlife. These projects range in size from a few acres to several hundred thousand acres. Many Partners for Fish and Wildlife projects take place on working landscapes such as forests, farms and ranches. They focus on areas of conservation concern, such upland forests, wetlands, native prairies, marshes, rivers and streams. They design projects to benefit migratory birds, and endangered, threatened and at-risk species.
Ohio Department of Transportation
Pollinator Habitat Program
In 2016, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) created a fully-funded Highway Beautification and Pollinator Habitat Program to establish new pollinator habitat on ODOT’s right of way. ODOT has expanded the number of roadside pollinator habitats from 15 in 2016 to 266 in 2025. Currently, ODOT has more than 640 acres of roadside pollinator habitats in development with plans to add 110 more fields covering more than 300 acres. It has also committed to developing at least one roadside pollinator habitat in each of Ohio’s 88 counties by 2030. ODOT has also changed its mowing policy, reducing full “mow backs” from up to 10 times per year to once per year. Contact them to learn more about this program.
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POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP
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XERCES SOCIETY
How to Plant Bulbs or Ephemerals
Popular in Europe for hundreds of years, creating a bulb lawn, meadow, or lane, is a wonderful way to replace or naturalize turf areas with low-cost, easy-care, flowers that are support early-emerging native bees. If you don’t have access to spring ephemerals or they don’t grow well in your habitat, this is an easy alternative. Bulbs or tubers naturally spread over time, and you don’t have to mow the greens until they are done blooming.
Here are some native plants to consider before selecting bulbs:
Wild Leeks & Ramps (Allium tricoccum): A cherished native Ohio spring ephemeral that grows from an elongated bulb, featuring broad, smooth green leaves and a distinct garlic-onion flavor.
Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus): Also known as sunchokes, this native sunflower produces edible, knobby tubers underground. It grows aggressively in moist soils and sunny meadows.
Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum): Wild Geranium features pink to lavender flowers and utilizes a thick perennial rhizome to spread across woodland floors.
Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum): The great white trillium is an herbaceous, long-lived, woodland, perennial wildflower with a broad distribution in eastern North America. This trillium occurs on well-drained, rich, mesic soils in deciduous or mixed deciduous/coniferous forests.
Citizen science APPS
If you’d rather use your smartphone and become a citizen scientist by using cool nature apps when you’re out exploring the garden, park, forest, or other wilderness areas, here’s the section for you.
Bumble Bee Watch App
Track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. The Bumble Bee Watch app is the best way to learn and engage with bumble bees and to contribute sightings to this important citizen science project.
iNaturalist App
Identify plants and animals with visually similar suggestions. Get connected with a community of over a million scientists and naturalists who can help you learn more about nature.
Seek by iNaturalist App
Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges.
Wild Bee ID App for iPad
Your go-to guide for ID’ing bees and bee-friendly plants, creating pollinator gardens, and learning how to get involved in the fight to protect these critical species. For iPad.
Download our coloring page
Click on the image to download the Save Ohio Bees coloring page featuring our beloved bumble bee mascot.
This coloring page helps kids understand the connection between healthy bees, people, and places. Feel free to download and print this coloring page to create coloring stations for your next nature-themed event.
BEE NEWS
Learn why bees native bees are imperiled and what you can do to help them.