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What are the best white flowers for bees and butterflies??

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Posts

  • ightenighten Posts: 184

    My Verbascums (think its "flush of white") are usually covered as soon as the sun pops out  - though this year they are looking a bit down in the dumps after being moved from garden to garden.

  • Pottie PamPottie Pam Posts: 887

    Athough not a perennial as you asked Natter Jack, my winter flowering honeysuckle was a magnet for early bees when there was'nt much else about.

    image

     There's also white foxgloves too.

  • Invicta2Invicta2 Posts: 663

    Hi

    Some cotoneasters are very attractive to bees though the flowers are not impressive, but they are white.  

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,110

    I inherited  a couple of cotoneasters here- the flowers aren't even open yet but they're 'humming' with bees. The blackies love the berries later too so it's a very useful shrub even if it's not the most spectacular.

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • CaralCaral Posts: 301

    How about a white lavender?. Lavender is a guaranteed bee magnet. Also white comfrey is another.  

  • CaralCaral Posts: 301

    I think you can't beat shrubs. I have a white lilac, well its a tree now, but as that finishes the Fuzzy Deutzia (Pride of Rochester) comes into flower, and the whole thing is literally vibrating with bees. 

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  • MarineliliumMarinelilium Posts: 213

    Shasta are a butterfly, moth and bee friendly white. The leucanthemum x Superbum ( yer really) is a good open flower which is what the butterflies prefer as their wings can flutter on take off.

    Long flowering period too.

  • Thanks everyone. Some great suggestions there. I've already got a few but there are certainly a number of things for me to seek out.

    Invicta2 and Fairygirl mentioned Cotoneasters and I totally agree. I've got one which I think is Cotoneaster franchetii, but I've never been certain.  The flowers are really really small, but the whole plant is alive with bees for about 3-4 weeks with a distinct humming.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,110

    It's  a vastly underrated plant because it's everywhere NJ, but none the worse for that. I just bought three of the prostrate kind for a feature on my back fence so the bees and later the birds can enjoy it. It's great for poor soil areas. I had some at the foot of a large maple in  a previous garden - it didn't do as well as it would have done in a better location, but it got enough sun and nutrition to produce flowers and berries and earn it's keep image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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