@Fire I have to correct myself. I had planted the Euryops pectinatus to another place by the fence, and discovered that this is not only a plant that needs to be next to other only-green plants and it looks suddenly very nice, but since Sunday, I saw 6x more animals, tiny ones, moths and bees, on it as I haven’t seen in the six weeks before. That’s what I call a huge improvement. Who had thought that a plant was ignored because it was on the wrong place. Maybe the lavender next to gave it a wrong “taste”.
@Simone_in_Wiltshire - yes there are many plants that are labelled as bee-friendly, such as limnathes douglasii (poached egg plant) ... BUT, the bees are only interested in them (I have read) if they are planted in large numbers - so one or two plants might not attract them as much as a bed of them.
@LeadFarmer Honeybells are literally invaded by bees in my garden, but as usually since I planted them in 2016, they grow better in a more shady and partly sunny position. I have some on the north side where they get sun from 3 pm to 7 pm and they always grow fine, whereas the ones on the sunny side with sunshine from 10 am to 7 pm grow not so well and their life is shorter.
@Simone_in_Wiltshire - yes there are many plants that are labelled as bee-friendly, such as limnathes douglasii (poached egg plant) ... BUT, the bees are only interested in them (I have read) if they are planted in large numbers - so one or two plants might not attract them as much as a bed of them.
The poached egg plant self seeds so well a few plants could easily end up turning into many and the bunches of the them in the garden here are very attractive to bees at the moment and their area is regularly humming with them. Comfrey and Ceanothus are also very popular at the moment. Lots in bloom right now and saw one bee seeming to be confused by the choice and bouncing from one type of flower to another without stopping on one for any length of time earlier.
Mine do @Fire I had five to start with and three of them have flowered again for the third year. Plus this autumn we added another 25 and they have all come up, so hopefully this will continue. P.S. Mine are not in full sun all day.
I put in a load of
Allium sphaerocephalon in the autumn and they are now budding. They are currently my fav allium, I think, like raspberry ice lollies; low key foliage, bees love them too.
Our buddleia globosa is now really doing the job now it's mostly out, yesterday I counted over a hundred bumblebees of potentially six species, plus the odd butterfly. It's a big plant, doesn't do much but provide a backdrop for most of the year but for a couple of weeks a year I wouldn't be without it.
Last year I put an edging of common thyme in the border next to my patio to prevent the blackbirds from digging close by! It worked and now that is in flower the bees are showing great interest, flitting merrily between the thyme and Nepeta nearby.
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I ♥ my garden.
I ♥ my garden.
P.S.
Mine are not in full sun all day.