In addition to Sedums like "Autumn Fire" (see related thread), I find that Agastache and Helenium varieties along with rugosa roses are very attractive to bees and other flying pollinators. Nothing however is a magnet like African basil, whose flowers are always alive with bees and smaller flying creatures.

note: appreciation for bee plants is enhanced when one is not allergic to bee stings. I used to get severe reactions to wasp stings, but apparently got desensitized after numerous fire ant stings while living in Texas. :) In my experience, you really have to provoke honeybees and bumblebees to cause a problem.

Other good ones: Helenium, Veronica (really good) and any Sedum.

I noticed the bees were all over the sedum a good couple of weeks before the flowers even opened. Not sure if they were just excited with anticipation or if there was something else that attracted the.

Kevin

Right now
Helianthus microcephalus Lemon Queen
Late raspberries

And some Asters

Not frost-hardy but flowering non-stop Basil African Blue ( Ocimum purpurascens x kilimandsharicum or something), excellent for containers and fine in good soil
Lin

Had read that bees like flowers in the form of tall spikes. Certainly the culver's root in July attracts large numbers of bees. I also know that bees are really attracted to purple loosestrife.

Tall spikes aside, the bees most recently have been all over the helenium flowers.

Judging from last year, they'll next move to several types of fall aster, the last of the season to attract large numbers of bees being calico aster.

Linda

They also like the sedums, salvia greggii Furmans Red and Wild Thing and red-, orange- and pink-flowered agastaches but blue is definitely preferred. Just as well because the hummers own all red flowers in our garden.

Cheryl

They also like butterfly bush but not nearly as much as the salvia. I've noticed they even prefer salvia over sedum - and I've got nice drifts of sedum right next to some of the salvias but nope, they hang out on the salvia and ignore the sedum.

They like caryopteris this time of year, and when the catmint is blooming, the bees enjoy that, too. When I used to grow veronica, that seemed to attract them, as well.

This week I had the first honey bees I have seen this season visiting the basil in the veggie garden, though I have had many other bees all season.

Besides the many bee varieties that cover my Agastache, I also spotted this Alianthus Webworm Moth the other day. Off the topic, I know.... but it's such a striking critter that I had to share.

Every other plant in the garden pales in comparison. Dill, Cilantro, Sedums, Agastaches, all were covered with pollinators at one time or another but Majoram allowed to flower has been covered in pollinators for weeks and weeks and weeks. Longer than any other perennial. It shows no sign of stopping either.

Unfortunately, it did flop open in the middle, so next year I plan to give it support. It makes a nice cut flower for a vase to go with other cut flowers too.

If (big if) the Japanese beetle population continues to be depressed, it'll only help the bees rebound, as sprays for JBs tend to be toxic to bees.