Thank you everyone you have given me a great place to start, and some very useful information reguarding plants to use. I will keep you posted with hopefully my success over the season.
For a list of plants that bumble bees like search for bumble bee conservatioN (can't remember the exact name of the web site).
As someone has already said, the key is getting something in flower all year (crocus early on through to asters later perhaps).
Golden rod - now the rain has stopped I counted approximately 200 insects - mainly honey bees - at one time this afternoon on a patch of Golden rod approx 3 x 1 feet. Not, perhaps, the prettiest plant going but pretty much maintenance free and good at tbhis time of year.
Also attracting the bees today in my garden is buddleia, majoram, fennel and some of the smaller (very invasive) sunflowers which are just starting to open.
In my garden the bees are always on the Dahlia/Lavender and Cosmos. The first two especially.Everytime I look at the Lavender there are multiple bees on it which is lovely to see.
This year I put up some solitary bee houses and drilled logs to provide homes for the bees that were congregating on our sunny wall. This then started an interest in all the visiting bees so I widened all the borders of the front lawn and only planted 'bee friendly' plants. The most popular with the bumble bees seem to be the Hyssops, Salvias and Penstemons. I have tried to plant things that will flower early such as pulmonarias and will soon be putting early flowering bulbs in.
I think the neighbours thought I was mad when I would stand outside for ages watching the solitary bees fill in the tubes. Now they think I'm crackers when I take my cuppa out to watch the Bumbles.
The bees love my climbing hydrangea and the low growing pink sedums. I pass an ivy on my way to work, it has highly scented tiny flowers in the autumn. And the bees love it. I also have a very pretty hardy geranium with small white lowers with pink lines. Not sure of the variety but will post a photo when the rain stops. I sit watch the bees going inside the flower. It is quite mesmerising watching the insects at work.
When I arrived home from work yesterday it was raining really hard. There were a number of bumbles on and dangling from the flower heads of my large sedum. Sadly they were soaked through and very still. Coaxed them gently onto a piece of kitchen roll to soak up excess water, fed them a dilute sugar solution and put each under a glass for 5 minutes until their wings dried and they could separate them. The rain stopped,the sun came out and they were ready for off.
We have been having some landscaping work done in the garden and they had to pull out some overgrown heathers under a golden Leylandii-style cypress. They disturbed what the thought at first was a wasps' nest but fotunately for them it turned out to be 'bourdons', which my dictionary translates as bumble bees. These bees are about honey-bee size, but shorter and fatter, and they seem to be sociable, whereas most bumble bees I am used to are solitary.
Hi All, in June this year I started a FREE classified Ads website and Forum called BeekeepingOnline.co.uk. The aim is to try and bring down the high start up costs of beekeeping, something that deters some people from taking up the hobby.
I am also running a competition in association with Paynes Bee Farm to give away 2 Poly National Hives with Frames so please check out the website its free to enter the competition and the website could help reduce the start up costs for anyone thinking of becoming a Beekeeper.
Gillian it is not mad to support the bees everyone should try. The bees really like my pumpkin flowers at the moment which is a lovely sight to show the children. So if your mad then I must be to as I sit and watch the bees to.
Posts
Thank you everyone you have given me a great place to start, and some very useful information reguarding plants to use. I will keep you posted with hopefully my success over the season.
For a list of plants that bumble bees like search for bumble bee conservatioN (can't remember the exact name of the web site).
As someone has already said, the key is getting something in flower all year (crocus early on through to asters later perhaps).
Golden rod - now the rain has stopped I counted approximately 200 insects - mainly honey bees - at one time this afternoon on a patch of Golden rod approx 3 x 1 feet. Not, perhaps, the prettiest plant going but pretty much maintenance free and good at tbhis time of year.
Also attracting the bees today in my garden is buddleia, majoram, fennel and some of the smaller (very invasive) sunflowers which are just starting to open.
In my garden the bees are always on the Dahlia/Lavender and Cosmos. The first two especially.Everytime I look at the Lavender there are multiple bees on it which is lovely to see.
This year I put up some solitary bee houses and drilled logs to provide homes for the bees that were congregating on our sunny wall. This then started an interest in all the visiting bees so I widened all the borders of the front lawn and only planted 'bee friendly' plants. The most popular with the bumble bees seem to be the Hyssops, Salvias and Penstemons. I have tried to plant things that will flower early such as pulmonarias and will soon be putting early flowering bulbs in.
I think the neighbours thought I was mad when I would stand outside for ages watching the solitary bees fill in the tubes. Now they think I'm crackers when I take my cuppa out to watch the Bumbles.
When I arrived home from work yesterday it was raining really hard. There were a number of bumbles on and dangling from the flower heads of my large sedum. Sadly they were soaked through and very still. Coaxed them gently onto a piece of kitchen roll to soak up excess water, fed them a dilute sugar solution and put each under a glass for 5 minutes until their wings dried and they could separate them. The rain stopped,the sun came out and they were ready for off.
The neighbours think I'm really mad now!
We have been having some landscaping work done in the garden and they had to pull out some overgrown heathers under a golden Leylandii-style cypress. They disturbed what the thought at first was a wasps' nest but fotunately for them it turned out to be 'bourdons', which my dictionary translates as bumble bees. These bees are about honey-bee size, but shorter and fatter, and they seem to be sociable, whereas most bumble bees I am used to are solitary.
I am also running a competition in association with Paynes Bee Farm to give away 2 Poly National Hives with Frames so please check out the website its free to enter the competition and the website could help reduce the start up costs for anyone thinking of becoming a Beekeeper.
Andrew??
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