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Bee plants in your garden

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  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Teasels, Inula and Eryngium giganteum.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Interesting that ox eyes are on the list. I have a lot of that and never see any bees on it. The occasional fly - I have been watching it. Buddleja - no bees, no butterflies.
  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    In my garden, Bees love - Erysimum Bowles mauve, buddleia, echinacea, single dahlias, salvia mainacht, lavender, Aster Monch, penstemon, liatris, alliums, Rhapsody in Blue rose,

    They’re just everywhere!
    East Yorkshire
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Maybe there's regional variation in bee delicacies. I wouldn't consider tripe and onions or stargazy pie, but some would.😜
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Sweet peas, chives, thymes, sunflowers, buddleia, astrantias, hellebores, cornflowers, knapweed, teasels,kniphofias, sedums, agapanthus and  a whole range of soft fruit bushes and fruit trees
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Jenny-R said:
    In my garden Nepeta Walker’s Low is the most popular With the bees 
    Catnip? Do they actually attract cats? Is that the plant that draws cats to it and has a hypnotic effect?
    They tend to rub themselves on it and can also eat it;my cat LOVES the smell on my hands when I come in from tidying it up. 

    I'm guessing that's why one of my nepeta is called Purrsian Blue. 😊
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    Morning all

    My Budlea seems to have been avoided this year too @Fire

    Nasturtiums, dahlia, marigolds, cosmos, sunflower have been very busy this year.

    I have this plant and it has tall purple spikes. The bees love to just perch on it. A
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    It's also about having a succession. I grow very few perennials, especially of the supposedly 'bee attracting' kind, but I have plants from early in the year that bees use - species tulips, hellebores, crocus, shrubs like pyracantha, through to sedums, acteas, clematis and cyclamen etc for this time of year. They also need places to nest and to drink etc.
    They must like my garden well enough as I've had a colony nesting all summer.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Maybe the differences in preference are related to the species we have locally - I have yet to learn how to distinguish between the various wasps, bees, honeybees etc (on my list of ttd) and also whats available for them locally. 
     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
  • Another plant I forgot which is popular is Linaria especially the common purpurea. Not sure the link Wentwirth is as well visited.
    Interesting they dint seem interested in my scabious at all, I’ve just got the one variety growing Black Knight 
     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
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