best Flowers for bees??

[bob777]

Hi my wife wants to buy some flowers for her garden (mail order) that will be bee friendly what would you say are the best for bees???? thanks

 

[Hivemaker.]

Borage for one, i'm sure a long list of others will follow.

 

[Queens59]

Phycealia?? Not sure how you spell it - but bees love it...and scabious

 

[SixFooter]

Crocus, heather, aconites seem to attract all kinds of bees on warm days at this time of year. As suggested above, borage is a favourite later on, but bees seem to like most blue flowers. They go mad for alliums and they like poppies. Egg plant flowers can be alive with bees, but not manyof them are honey bees.
www.beehappyplants.co.uk as mentioned in bbka news

 

[simonwig]

Hi

First post but been learning from all the interesting posts for a long time so thanks to all for the advice you’ve unknowingly been passing on! I thought it was time to add something.

I’m planting a strip of Agastache rugosa f. albiflora 'Liquorice Blue' and White, Chinese Hyssop. I saw it at RHS Harlow **** last summer and with all the hundreds of flowers the bees had to choose from there, this was absolutely covered in bees, and nice to look at. According to the blurb on the sites selling seeds it flowers within 10 weeks of planting and is hardy in the UK and has a long flowering season. Worth a couple of quid for a packet of seeds to try in my book. I’ll let you know in the summer, seeds just gone in.

I can also recommend Echium vulgare, Viper's Bugloss, which used to be covered in bees in our garden even before we got our own bees.

Simon

 

[REDWOOD]

Echium "Vipers Bugloss",
Tithonia rotundifolia - Mexican Sunflower
Verbena bonariensis, Tall Verbena,
Glebionis segetum - Corn Marigold
Calendula officinalis
Rudbeckia
Phacelia tanacetifolia
These are only a few, but whatever flowers you buy make sure they are single petal flowers (like sunflowers ) and not hybrids

 

[Finman]

.
SALVIA HOT LIPS

when flowers drop onto ground, bees suck the nectar from the end of flower tube.

 

[Silly Bee]

Basically, any simple open flowers.

 

[Firefly]

I've been surprised to see them working Hellebores in my garden - which of course are really early

Also some simple early tulips that have masses of pollen

Another oddity I spotted last year was globe artichokes which had been left to flower on a neighbouring allotment - and the bees, bumbles and pollen beetles were fighting over

 

[susbees]

I've been surprised to see them working Hellebores in my garden - which of course are really early

We've had pitched battles on the first hellebores: the new ones this year have not been popular. They seem to prefer big singles...less hassle. Interestingly it's been ignore the snowdrops year even with banks of them. Odd things bees, but the alder and box has been covered in them.

A cherry tree's a good one, but not the frilly ones!

 

[Finman]

.
Paeonia anomala

Marvellous pollen plant

This too

Papever orientale

 

[itma]

The most useful are those which flower when others aren't.
And that may be different for each neighbourhood. Early, late or June might be most in need of help.
But Borage and Phacelia should provide lots of bee-attracting flowers for a long season, AND self-seed madly so that they grow like, umm, weeds...
There's plenty, plenty, plenty Ivy here for late season forage. But all my crocuses have just fed the b****y squirrels. Fortunately, there seem to be quite a lot somewhere thattaway that haven't been dug up ... yet.

 

[Winker]

Borage for one, i'm sure a long list of others will follow.

i just planted 15,000 borage seeds in a small field next to me that the farmer kindly ploughed up to stop the travellers camping on it. It never gets used for anything, so i thought what a nice spot to grow Borage

 

[busybee53]

Lavender and Tree Mallow (which is really a shrub and I cant think of its other name) last for years and have long seasons. Bees love them.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Pumpkins, Squash and Courgettes. The bees try to collect so much pollen from them that they find it hard to take off. Okay, so they aren't strictly 'flowers', they're veg.

Almost any flowers that are open-faced are good for bees, and most herbs too.

Avoid too complicated-looking or double flowers, they can't get at either the nectar or the pollen.

 

[madasafish]

Bee tree and Himalayan Balsam...

Bees adore Opium Poppies...for their pollen..

 

[Finman]

Bee tree and Himalayan Balsam...

Bees adore Opium Poppies...for their pollen..

Seems to me perennial Papaver orientale.

Opipum poppy has quite little pollen

 

[Andre cardona]

www.beehappyplants.co.uk
i bort my seeds from this site
free posting Extra Rich Nectar & Pollen Wildflower Meadow Mix Medium/Heavy Soil 100g for 7.95 that a good price il post a image as soon as it up good luck planting

 

[Holly Bees]

Lavender (lots of flower heads per surface area)

 

[Firefly]

But all my crocuses have just fed the b****y squirrels.

Do you mean the squirrels dug up the bulbs? Could it just as likely be other rodents?

I planted some beside a (neighbours) rat-infested poultry run - also have lots of squirrels - crocus seem to have survived the 1st winter, but maybe they couldn't find them among the acorns. The books say put wire over them when you plant, which ok for a small garden plot...

My office has many crocus and many squirrels, but they are under well established lawn (the crocus!), so maybe that helps