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Which plant in *your* garden do bees best like?

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  • I haven't seen any kind of bee on the borage yet.
    It's probably still a bit early for the borage. Mine are only just coming into flower, but for the rest of the summer it will be a magnet. Just need to be careful of it growing out of control.
    “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    Cotoneaster and comfrey at the moment. Pulmonaria earlier in the year, Geranium Rozanne becomes increasingly popular as the summer goes on. French lavender and thyme as it comes in to flower are both particularly popular with the smaller bees - foxgloves for the bumbles. 
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    Apart from the many and varied plants already listed by members, if any of you grow Box plants, [Buxus sempervirens], and would care for an alternative, may I recommend to you Rhododendron 'Bloombux', which can be used the same as Box, clipped and shaped if needed, and is lime tolerant - any soil - and flowers throughout June with small pink flowers, which bees swarm over, as I've noticed this warm month...
    East Anglia, England
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  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I've got a cotoneaster hedge about 70ft long and 10ft high.
    When in flower the buzz is so loud it's like standing next to a power sub-station.

    When my Veronicastrum comes into flower the spikes bend over with the weight of the bees - they even seem to sleep in the flower heads

    Agastache & salvias also have lots of bees as does the lavender, but the cotoneaster makes the most noise!

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • JemulaJemula Posts: 196
    Two more which are later lowering and always covered in bees - Abelia Grandiflora which has a very long flowering period and Origanum Hopleys.
  • Lena11Lena11 Posts: 5
    Nemesia, sweet pea, nastersium and scabious at the moment. Lavender just starting to flower
  • Fennel. Nepeta. Lavender. Ivy.
  • ju1i3ju1i3 Posts: 189
    globe thistles and artichokes
  • Surprised noones mentioned chives it's 2nd favourite to foxgloves in my garden at the moment, so pretty and you can eat them too but I've just left them for the bees
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