After our seemingly endless winter, most of us are itching to load up on plants and get our hands dirty. Whether you grow on a grand scale or tend a couple of pots, chances are you’ll be buying plants at a garden center or plant sale. When you do, a growing chorus of voices is urging you to keep bees in mind.

Bee die-offs, colony collapse disorder and possible causes have made headlines. They’ve also “made the public aware of our stewardship role with bees,” said Vera Krischik, associate professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota.

In fact, bee-friendly gardening was named a top national trend for 2014 by the Garden Media Group.

“The main thing is to plant more flowering plants,” said Heather Holm, of Minnetonka, Minn., a landscape designer and author of the new book “Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects With Native Plants.”

From the pollinators’ perspective, it’s important to have a continuous succession of plants flowering throughout the growing season, Holm said. “In most gardens there is a gap,” especially in early spring and late fall. Holm advises gardeners to evaluate their landscape, identify the flower gaps and fill them.

Good plants for bees include coneflowers, liatris, salvia, catmint, catnip, hyssop, black-eyed Susans and single-flower sunflowers, Krischik said.

Home gardeners who use insecticides are encouraged to avoid neonicotinoids, especially if they’re growing plants that are attractive to bees. “If people want to use perennial natives or heirlooms, they should not use systemic insecticides,” Krischik said.