Bee Campus USA

Image of pipevine swallowtail butterfly on a salvia.

Potted Plants for Pollinators

Potted Plants for Pollinators are an easy DIY project to stay connected to nature at home, nurture a mix of interesting plants, and do your part to help maintain healthy and diverse pollinator populations.
Monarch on Milkweed

Make Habitat a Habit

  • by Ellen Zagory, Director of Horticulture
We are fortunate to live in California, with its wondrous diversity of flora and large natural areas that are not only places of beauty but also sources of spiritual and emotional refreshment.
Image of Elizabeth Hursh '22 placing a hummingbird feeder in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden as part of an ongoing research project.

Students keep our landscapes alive with pollinators

Elizabeth Hursh ’22 is happiest when surrounded by hummingbirds, bees and other busy pollinators in the Arboretum and Public Garden. Their presence means she’s doing her job right.

As a Co-Coordinator with our Learning by Leading™ Habitat Horticulture program, Elizabeth is helping transform landscapes into gorgeous garden habitats, with an emphasis on sustainable practices and plant-pollinator interactions.

Image of Learning by Leading Sustainable Horticulture interns in a student-planted wildflower meadow.

California Native Wildflower Seeds

The Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is piloting the sale of native wildflower seeds at its upcoming plant sales. Most of the wildflower seeds selected for sale to the public were chosen based on research done by the UC Davis Pollination Ecology lab led by  Dr. Neal Williams which found that these species attract local pollinators that will continually revisit! 
close up of bee on a yellow flower

Bee Campus USA

UC Davis is the first University of California campus to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program.

Designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators, UC Davis joins more than one-hundred-fifty other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators.

Image of native bee on flowers in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.

Support California native bees with these 10 plants

The plants included here were selected based on information available through this work and that of others both in the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley.  These plants were chosen for spring, summer and fall bloom, low to medium-low watering need, low maintenance requirements and the variety of bee species they attract.
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