My husband is bee mad, so I have planted loads of bee friendly plants. He says different bees like different flower forms so it is good to have a variety. Also choose flowers that are not only accessible to bees but also nectar rich. The number one bee magnet in our garden is Agastache, closely followed by nepeta. These both like a sunny position. Also good are cornflowers, cosmos and rosemary.
As well as all the great suggestions you've already had, I have a hardy geranium, and a jasmine (jasminium beesianum) that are both always crawling with bees. And a shrub they seem to love (and so do the birds) is Leycesteria.
The bees have loved our borage and foxgloves this year. Now the Allium Nectaroscordum are open enugh to sneak inside they are getting a lot of attention too. These are just a couple of pics taken earlier today. Really lifts your spirits hearing the buzzing.
well, anything that hasn't been messed about with by gardeners. So go for any British natives that flower. Seriously, I watched a bee the other day land on a grass stalk, it did a little shimmy all the way up it. That was odd, I thought, then it did it again on another, and another and another. It could only have been collecting pollen. I have over 365 different natives plus a few non-natives that I inherited. The bees love all the natives. Bugle, Vipers Bugloss, Foxgloves, Hesperis, Yellow Rattle, Common Rock Rose, Small Scabious,Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed, Bird’S-Foot Trefoil, Hemp Agrimony, Red Campion, Chives!, Clover, Speedwell, Broom, Viburnum opulus, buttercups, thyme, Lavender, wild roses and their close relatives, Oxeyedaisy, Corn Marigold, Cornflowers, Rasperry, Blackberry, violas but the natives ones don't go for messed up ones that are just for attracting nanas, Lesser Teasel, Teasel, Deptford Pink, Spiked Speedwel.
I haven't mentioned many shrubs because most of mine are early flowerers and lately there just haven't been bees out at this time but Amelanchiers, Cherries, Plums, Apples, Crab apples, Pears but make sure they are NOT double and try if you can to go for ones that are grown for their fruit so that way you know the flower hasn't been messed about with and it's going to do its job which is to attract bees. Amelanchier smokey has great blueberry like fruit. The biggest thing gardeners can do to help bees though is NOT use any pesticides above all things like ant killer. Grow organically. If you need to use loads of chemicals to grow something then find something else that hasn't been made helpless by breeders who's main aim is to attract people not wildlife. Good luck. Jim
Gillian53 wrote "The neighbours think I'm really mad now!"
Let them. Mine think I'm mad or lazy or both, because I grow Welsh poppies.
'They're weeds they are' piped up one on his way past. Laughing to himself as I collected seed from my Mechanopsis cambrica to sow in my meadow at the back.
'A weed is an unwanted plant' I replied, 'And, since I want 'em, then, they can't be weeds'.
He frowned like I just spoke to him in Swahili and tugged his dog away that was peeing on the Jacobs Ladder that had been swaying in the wind as if singing a ballad to itself but now just spluttering and dripping dog pee, another 'weed' no doubt.
It's funny watching them on the salvias they work their way up the flower like going up an helter skelter.
Not sure if you can spot the bee on this one, not the pot with the dailia, but front of photo is flower spikes of hecura plum pudding the flowers are tiny but the bees love them.It's a good foliage plant and bee freindly to
bees also on snapdragon, verbenas, foxgloves, hardy geraniumns, sweet rocket,
raspberry flowers. The only problem i have is there are bees nesting in the cavity wall of our house, they are going in through a air vent brick!
I decided this year to sow my whole front garden with Phacelia tanacetifolia. It is usually grown as a green manure and dug in before it flowers.
I let it flower and am know the proud owner of bee heaven. I estimate 20 to 30 bumblebees per square metre at peak times, have identified at least 7 different species and have tree bumblebees nesting in the eaves of the house.
The only down side is that I have read that Phacelia self seeds freely, so I may be growing it every year from now on, whether I like it or not.
Try and find room for a winter flowering honeysuckle shrub. Lonicera fragrantissima. It flowers on bare wood in the early spring and is always covered in the first emerging bees. Smells good too Grow Helenium for autumn flowers. They love those too.
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My husband is bee mad, so I have planted loads of bee friendly plants. He says different bees like different flower forms so it is good to have a variety. Also choose flowers that are not only accessible to bees but also nectar rich. The number one bee magnet in our garden is Agastache, closely followed by nepeta. These both like a sunny position. Also good are cornflowers, cosmos and rosemary.
As well as all the great suggestions you've already had, I have a hardy geranium, and a jasmine (jasminium beesianum) that are both always crawling with bees. And a shrub they seem to love (and so do the birds) is Leycesteria.
The bees have loved our borage and foxgloves this year. Now the Allium Nectaroscordum are open enugh to sneak inside they are getting a lot of attention too. These are just a couple of pics taken earlier today. Really lifts your spirits hearing the buzzing.
Hi Midget25,
I haven't mentioned many shrubs because most of mine are early flowerers and lately there just haven't been bees out at this time but Amelanchiers, Cherries, Plums, Apples, Crab apples, Pears but make sure they are NOT double and try if you can to go for ones that are grown for their fruit so that way you know the flower hasn't been messed about with and it's going to do its job which is to attract bees. Amelanchier smokey has great blueberry like fruit. The biggest thing gardeners can do to help bees though is NOT use any pesticides above all things like ant killer. Grow organically. If you need to use loads of chemicals to grow something then find something else that hasn't been made helpless by breeders who's main aim is to attract people not wildlife. Good luck. Jimwell, anything that hasn't been messed about with by gardeners. So go for any British natives that flower. Seriously, I watched a bee the other day land on a grass stalk, it did a little shimmy all the way up it. That was odd, I thought, then it did it again on another, and another and another. It could only have been collecting pollen. I have over 365 different natives plus a few non-natives that I inherited. The bees love all the natives. Bugle, Vipers Bugloss, Foxgloves, Hesperis, Yellow Rattle, Common Rock Rose, Small Scabious,Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed, Bird’S-Foot Trefoil, Hemp Agrimony, Red Campion, Chives!, Clover, Speedwell, Broom, Viburnum opulus, buttercups, thyme, Lavender, wild roses and their close relatives, Oxeyedaisy, Corn Marigold, Cornflowers, Rasperry, Blackberry, violas but the natives ones don't go for messed up ones that are just for attracting nanas, Lesser Teasel, Teasel, Deptford Pink, Spiked Speedwel.
Gillian53 wrote "The neighbours think I'm really mad now!"
Let them. Mine think I'm mad or lazy or both, because I grow Welsh poppies.
'They're weeds they are' piped up one on his way past. Laughing to himself as I collected seed from my Mechanopsis cambrica to sow in my meadow at the back.
'A weed is an unwanted plant' I replied, 'And, since I want 'em, then, they can't be weeds'.
He frowned like I just spoke to him in Swahili and tugged his dog away that was peeing on the Jacobs Ladder that had been swaying in the wind as if singing a ballad to itself but now just spluttering and dripping dog pee, another 'weed' no doubt.
The bees in my garden are loving this penstomen
Salvia
It's funny watching them on the salvias they work their way up the flower like going up an helter skelter.
Not sure if you can spot the bee on this one, not the pot with the dailia, but front of photo is flower spikes of hecura plum pudding the flowers are tiny but the bees love them.It's a good foliage plant and bee freindly to
bees also on snapdragon, verbenas, foxgloves, hardy geraniumns, sweet rocket,
raspberry flowers. The only problem i have is there are bees nesting in the cavity wall of our house, they are going in through a air vent brick!
it's viper's bugloss today, covered in them
Miss Willmott's Ghost anyday now
In the sticks near Peterborough
I decided this year to sow my whole front garden with Phacelia tanacetifolia. It is usually grown as a green manure and dug in before it flowers.
I let it flower and am know the proud owner of bee heaven. I estimate 20 to 30 bumblebees per square metre at peak times, have identified at least 7 different species and have tree bumblebees nesting in the eaves of the house.
The only down side is that I have read that Phacelia self seeds freely, so I may be growing it every year from now on, whether I like it or not.
C'est la vie.
Try and find room for a winter flowering honeysuckle shrub. Lonicera fragrantissima. It flowers on bare wood in the early spring and is always covered in the first emerging bees. Smells good too
Grow Helenium for autumn flowers. They love those too.