Favourite Garden Flower for your Bees?

[kighill]

Hello Ellem Saturday or Sunday would be fine. I will pm you my phone number.

 

[kighill]

Hebe Seeds

I noticed ALOT of bumble bees on the Hebe varieties and some honey bees, problem is i cant seem to find seeds for these anywhere online. What other names may they be under? i would like a little variety

I found this on the internet, hope it helps.Hebes show a marked tendency to form hybrids, so any group of hebes in a garden can give rise to hebe seedlings that are hybrids. Indeed most hebes grown in the UK are hybrids. For this reason it is best to propagate garden varieties by cuttings. A hebe cuttings exchange is available to members of the Hebe Society, we also have an excellent quarterly magazine ‘Hebe News’.

Most nurseries and garden centres sell a few hebes, at usually £3 to £9. So a tour of you local nurseries would yield a reasonable collection. Container grown hebes can be planted any time that the ground is not frozen.

Hebe seeds (and seeds for other New Zealand plants) can be obtained from the New Zealand Alpine Garden Society, www.backyardgardener.com/nz.html – there is an annual seed distribution for members. Also from Southern Seeds [email protected] – this is a commercial seed distributor. Remember hebes will only come true from seed if the parent was grown in isolation.

Sow ripe seed on to a 50:50 mixture of John Innes No 2 compost and a peat-based compost. Cover the seeds with a fine layer of grit and place out of the sun, in an unheated greenhouse or coldframe. Seeds sown in autumn should have germinated by spring. Pot on once they are large enough to handle.

 

[kighill]

Free Borage

I have just started using my greenhouse again and I am currently trying to grow a few bee friendly flowers.

I have sown two types of borage, white and blue both are coming along nicely.

I would like to know what other beekeepers are growing/planting.

To promote Bee friendly gardening If interested I will give away Ten small pots of Borage to any beekeepers willing to collect.

Ps Not all to one beekeeper.

Sorry everyone, I have now given away the Borage plants and a few pots of Poppies. I hope to do the same again next year and meet a few more beekeepers from far and wide.

 

[Silly Bee]

I grow a lot of Dahlias from seed saved from the previous year, cheap as chips, and the bees like the simple open flowers.

 

[John M]

Hebes for me too -the ones that have sausages of florettes.My wifes favourite plant becuause always covered in honey bees until I 'pruned' it last year and it died. I am growing on a number of cuttings.

 

[For want of a better word]

View attachment 4252




Golden rod.. Solidago

Huge swathe of this on the Elm Grove allotments in Wallington when I was a lad and Grandad had his bees... masses of golden flowers in late autumn.
Honey bees smothered it!!
Allotments now concreted over for a housing estate or golf course, like so many of the once green corners in the Urban conurburations of the then creeping cancer that is now greater London ?

Told at Tamar View garden center that there was no such plant, which is most annoying, particularly as SWMBO is a florist, and then in a neglected corner we found a pot that must have been there for some time as once at home split into a dozen good sized plants. Hope it is the right variety!

 

[For want of a better word]

Someone likes me..... a flowerpot on my doorstep with a root of Solidago ... thanks!!!

 

[JCD]

Noone's mentioned sunflowers, and the bees love my Queen Alexander climbing rose.....it looks like a wild rose....very open. They're supposed to like michaelmass (?) daisies in the autumn too, but I didn't see much interest in ours last year.

 

[For want of a better word]

AND..... Daphne, a first spring flower that drenches the garden with scent and honey bees

 

[huntsman666]

I've just planted a bed of 48 lavender plants in my veg garden.

 

[louiseww]

I have just started using my greenhouse again and I am currently trying to grow a few bee friendly flowers.

I have sown two types of borage, white and blue both are coming along nicely.

I would like to know what other beekeepers are growing/planting.

To promote Bee friendly gardening If interested I will give away Ten small pots of Borage to any beekeepers willing to collect.

Ps Not all to one beekeeper.

Nice offer but as your profile says 'location UK' I think you need to be a bit more specific!
Mine are loving the campanula proscharkya at the moment and the cistus shrubs!
Louise

 

[louiseww]

Nice offer but as your profile says 'location UK' I think you need to be a bit more specific!
Mine are loving the campanula proscharkya at the moment and the cistus shrubs!
Louise

And loving the flowers on the Phormium, which are ugly, but if the ladies like them thats okay.

 

[kighill]

Location

Nice offer but as your profile says 'location UK' I think you need to be a bit more specific!
Mine are loving the campanula proscharkya at the moment and the cistus shrubs!
Louise

Thank you for the suggestion regards Cistus.

I am aware my location was not in my first offer. Fortunately I did put it in a few PMs and a couple of times more in later updates.

Would of been a nice day out from Eastbourne though

 

[justme]

View attachment 4252




Golden rod.. Solidago

Huge swathe of this on the Elm Grove allotments in Wallington when I was a lad and Grandad had his bees... masses of golden flowers in late autumn.
Honey bees smothered it!!
Allotments now concreted over for a housing estate or golf course, like so many of the once green corners in the Urban conurburations of the then creeping cancer that is now greater London ?

Told at Tamar View garden center that there was no such plant, which is most annoying, particularly as SWMBO is a florist, and then in a neglected corner we found a pot that must have been there for some time as once at home split into a dozen good sized plants. Hope it is the right variety!

Amazing, some places employ anyone dont they? of course solidago, golden rod is a plant. Oh well as they say, 'people are funny animals'.

 

[kazmcc]

Every summer I've had bees of all types all over the wild geranium in my garden. The kids plow through it with footballs or bikes, but have never been stung. The bees will not touch the tea roses i have nearby, but once the geranium is spent they will have a go at the dog roses. So it's wild geranium for me. I am going to divide it and take some to the school, and also spread it around my garden as it is obviously good forage.

The raspberries were covered in bees too at school this year.

 

[Swarm]

Look for 'old' type when growing roses, the dog rose is a good example. Simple, five petalled, open. I have a rambler, Francis E Lester. Beautiful clusters of delicate flowers with a gorgeous scent, the bees loved it.

 

[Alleree]

I've planted all types of bee friendly flowers in my garden - zinnias, lavender, borage, lupins etc, even chose an 'open' rose rather than a double. The bumble bees love it - my bees are nowhere to be seen! Fetching dandelion from the central reservation of the motorway I think!

 

[freethorpe bees]

I have two small trees in my garden, no idea what they are, they have bunches of tiny flowers which turn to red and stay on the tree over winter. I'll put a pic on here. I don't like the trees personally but the bees love them so I suppose they'll have to stay!

 

[Swarm]

I've planted all types of bee friendly flowers in my garden - zinnias, lavender, borage, lupins etc, even chose an 'open' rose rather than a double. The bumble bees love it - my bees are nowhere to be seen! Fetching dandelion from the central reservation of the motorway I think!

Strange, I'd expect to see a few. I like to think of the garden as a handy place to stop off when needs must. With a flow on, the majority are off but we always have a few lazy characters buzzing around.

 

[susbees]

Revamped an overgrown lavender border with cuttings from the original and two new sorts. Over twenty plants and not had one bee near them yet.

Double dahlias do attract honey bees...had them in the greenhouse at LASI the other week.

Phacelia....we have a big slab of the stuff, been covered in bumbles for a fortnight or more. Honey bees? Ours do NOT take nectar from them but lunge at the purplish pollen on the long stamens; likewise the bees at Ryton Organic Garden this week. So my plans for an acre of phacelia for honey is on hold.

The bees at Ryton were all over the coriander flowers. Ours are simpler creatures...bramble, bit of clover...