In our garden the most popular through the seasons are alkanet and honesty then sage and ox eye daisies then poppies, oregano, lavender, allium sphaerocephalon and now Buddleja , echinacea, sunflowers and cosmos.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Things sold as great bee plants that I have not seen bees on in my garden - nemesia, erigeron, sedum.
I spent a few days at the beginning of Spring picking out plants for bees. They came during lockdown; I planted them out; they grew and flowered: NO BEES! The odd hover fly but no bees.
I've made a note of this thread so I can refer back to it next year when I'm looking for new plants.
In spring the Anemones (Blanda and Coronaria) were the most popular.
Our Campanula Garganica was popular with everything in early summer. Once the Fuchsias got going properly again the Bumbles switched to them whilst the honey bees and occasional Bumble stayed on the Campanula.
Lavender was popular once it got into full bloom, though the Carder Bees continued mainly on the Fuchsias with a few on the Lavender.
Once the Hibiscus Syriacus started all the Bumbles switched to going straight for that, stopping off on either the remaining Lavender flowers or the Fuchsias before leaving.
Various Roses have all been visited pretty regularly by Bees and Hoverflies.
Candytuft and Calendula were more popular with Hoverflies. Lavender, Candytuft and Hibiscus with the Butterflies.
Fuchsias and Roses (the open types) are always pretty popular with the Bumblebees for us at least and flower for ages, the Hibiscus takes a long time to do anything but once it does it's a magnet for everything really.
Royal Bumble bush salvia, geranium Rozanne, Dahlia Bishop of Llandfuff, lambs ears, golden privet, apple blossom, purple tansy, linaria, borage, oregano.
Things sold as great bee plants that I have not seen bees on in my garden - nemesia, erigeron, sedum.
I know what you mean, whilst I haven't got any of those plants, I've previously had a buddleja that never saw many butterflies.
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East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I've made a note of this thread so I can refer back to it next year when I'm looking for new plants.
Our Campanula Garganica was popular with everything in early summer. Once the Fuchsias got going properly again the Bumbles switched to them whilst the honey bees and occasional Bumble stayed on the Campanula.
Lavender was popular once it got into full bloom, though the Carder Bees continued mainly on the Fuchsias with a few on the Lavender.
Once the Hibiscus Syriacus started all the Bumbles switched to going straight for that, stopping off on either the remaining Lavender flowers or the Fuchsias before leaving.
Various Roses have all been visited pretty regularly by Bees and Hoverflies.
Candytuft and Calendula were more popular with Hoverflies. Lavender, Candytuft and Hibiscus with the Butterflies.
Fuchsias and Roses (the open types) are always pretty popular with the Bumblebees for us at least and flower for ages, the Hibiscus takes a long time to do anything but once it does it's a magnet for everything really.
Dead heading the scabious can feel a bit precarious because of the bees.