Yes, it is a great bee plant. For honeybees, there needs to be warm weather when it is in bloom, or the nectar doesn't really flow well. Here in Scotland that probably only happens every five or so years .... but it can be really busy with bees if the weather does cooperate
If I had to chose just one tree, it would be tilia (lime). When in bloom the bees are on it all day and into the evening ..... it sounds like a swarm at times. And lime blossom honey is delicious ... but they are big trees, and not really suitable for most gardens.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
The RHS has a downloadable list of "Plants for Pollinators" which includes all types of plants.
You can use the "Find a Plant" feature on their website to ask it to list, for example, hardy trees which are good for pollinators. I did and it came back with 27 including varieties of prunus, malus, cercis, arbutus unedo, koelreuteria.......
You could have a look yourself and include eventual size, soil type etc to refine the results.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
As for hawthorn, I have Crataegus laevigata "Paul's Scarlet" in the garden. Indeed the double flowers are lovely, but I don't get many berries - I don't know if this variety ever gets many berries, but it's common in cultivars selected for 'double' flowers that all the extra petals are what should really have been stamens, so maybe they're not the best for supplying pollen to bees, or berries for birds later.
Posts
Yes, it is a great bee plant.
For honeybees, there needs to be warm weather when it is in bloom, or the nectar doesn't really flow well. Here in Scotland that probably only happens every five or so years .... but it can be really busy with bees if the weather does cooperate
If I had to chose just one tree, it would be tilia (lime). When in bloom the bees are on it all day and into the evening ..... it sounds like a swarm at times.
And lime blossom honey is delicious
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
You can use the "Find a Plant" feature on their website to ask it to list, for example, hardy trees which are good for pollinators. I did and it came back with 27 including varieties of prunus, malus, cercis, arbutus unedo, koelreuteria.......
You could have a look yourself and include eventual size, soil type etc to refine the results.