Gardens of Suburbia : Forage month by month

[Tom Jay]

19th March and this is the first whole day of foraging for my bees! At last! really busy from 9.30am and some brave foragers still coming home at 6pm. Here's to more days like this then!

They were not on anything in my garden: plum [only just opened], rosemary, laurel, flowering redcurrent, gooseberry.

Nearby they were in large number on: ornamental cherry [don't the various early single varieties of this have a long span between them] and on a large patch of grape hyacinth. Lots of other things in flower in the gardens near me but I saw not a honey bee on them.

There was loads of dandelion pollen coming in of course. And a few other colours I don't know for sure but I suspect the bees, mostly absent from the gardens around me, were in the coppices and woods just a bit further for:

Willow. Bird Cherry. Gorse. All three flowering in huge abundance.

Too soon around here for Sycamore, May, and Horse Chestnut but those trees and bushes are budding magnificently. Early spring rains have set them away really well.

That's my mid April take!

 

[Tom Jay]

And a day later they have started on the plum blossom. Copious! If all these flowers set I'll be in those trees with scissors no end!

 

[Millet]

Not suburbia but Rural the bees are not interested in any of the 1500 bulbs i planted last year or the garden flowers, the odd one but not many, they have chosen the Willow wood and Gauze.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not suburbia but Rural the bees are not interested in any of the 1500 bulbs i planted last year or the garden flowers, the odd one but not many, they have chosen the Willow wood and Gauze.

I depends on what better forage is about. Don't worry your mix of crocus coming out at different times will come good some years, then you will be glad.
I added snowdrops to the apiary planting. I planted them in the green and the bees were on the remaining flowers while I had them in my hand.

 

[BeeJayBee]

... they have chosen the Willow wood and Gauze.

That'll be Gorse?

 

[Millet]

That'll be Gorse?

I typed Gauze so its Gauze why nit pick you know exactly what it meant or is this a English language forum now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Lasty time I looked it was - it's definitely not French n'est pa?

 

[Millet]

I depends on what better forage is about. Don't worry your mix of crocus coming out at different times will come good some years, then you will be glad.
I added snowdrops to the apiary planting. I planted them in the green and the bees were on the remaining flowers while I had them in my hand.

I did get a bit sick with the crocus Erica but like you said in earlier threads the colours flower at different times and you where 100% correct, the hyacinth where loved but not any more, i will wait and see what the anemones/freesia and snake head fritillary fire out.

 

[Millet]

Lasty time I looked it was - it's definitely not French n'est pa?

Don't be a TIT all your life, i respect you so respect me and other new people.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You earn respect not demand it and with your generally boorish behaviour - like your response to Beejatbee. You're lucky you get as good as you do

 

[Millet]

Granite.

 

[Tom Jay]

And then stone silence until tomorrow ... I hope! Goodnight beeks!

 

[BeeJayBee]

That'll be Gorse?

I typed Gauze so its Gauze why nit pick you know exactly what it meant or is this a English language forum now.

Not nit picking at all. English is a rich and complex language. If you mis-spell a word then it usually becomes another word, and so takes on an entirely different meaning. Not all those who use this forum have English as their first language, so they won't necessarily know what you meant.

'Gauze', by the way, is more often used as a wound dressing and some beekeepers use it to filter their honey or wax.

Gorse on the other hand, is a flowering plant.

 

[Barbarian]

Can anyone clarify about flowering cherry ?

Years ago the local council planted ornamental flowering cherry trees along the streets in my area. At the moment, they are a mass of blossom but the bees don't seem to be working them. Looks nice but a bit of a nuisance when the wind strips the petals.

I have a feeling that some ornamental cheery trees do not produce nectar or pollen.

 

[NickDub]

The bees are generally the best guide as to whether a flower has anything useful to them or not. Not all cherries are equal - most "flowering Cherries" are sterile.

Try putting on your high-vis vest and work boots and planting a few wild cherries in between the others ?

 

[chrisb]

Lasty time I looked it was - it's definitely not French n'est pa?

 

[HelenC]

Walking around the garden, here in sunny but windy rural Bedfordshire

the bees are going mad on the amelanchier, looks to be just pollen, a very pale yellow. I have 3 planted close together and they are covered in bees. A real buzz of noise!!!!

there was also activity on the muscari, Pulmonaria, damson which is close to finishing flowering and a bit on the ornamental cherries. The wild cherries are just starting to show thier flowers, another day of this warmish weather would be perfect.

Must grap the camera and see if I can get some shots.

 

[REDWOOD]

Can anyone clarify about flowering cherry ?

Years ago the local council planted ornamental flowering cherry trees along the streets in my area. At the moment, they are a mass of blossom but the bees don't seem to be working them. Looks nice but a bit of a nuisance when the wind strips the petals.

I have a feeling that some ornamental cheery trees do not produce nectar or pollen.

Useless, bees don't go near them

 

[Tom Jay]

Can anyone clarify about flowering cherry ?

Years ago the local council planted ornamental flowering cherry trees along the streets in my area. At the moment, they are a mass of blossom but the bees don't seem to be working them. Looks nice but a bit of a nuisance when the wind strips the petals.

I have a feeling that some ornamental cheery trees do not produce nectar or pollen.

Useless, bees don't go near them

My observation is that the single petal varieties are on the whole good for forage - nectar I think - and the double petal variety so popular a while back with local authority parks departments are of no interest to bees, basically pink litter dispensers.

But among the single flower varieties, there is a range of the ornamental cultivated ones that in my part of the world provides real interest to the bees for a five week stretch at least. They seem to prefer the cherry over other good options. And now that the five weeks of cultivated early single ornamental cherry is over, the wild 'Bird Cherry' has just begun and again the bees are really interested. So, for me, most kinds of single flower cherry are a real boon! And here's me in a part of the country where no way can you grow cherries as a crop which will ripen for human consumption!

 

[Goran]

Can anyone clarify about flowering cherry ?

Years ago the local council planted ornamental flowering cherry trees along the streets in my area. At the moment, they are a mass of blossom but the bees don't seem to be working them. Looks nice but a bit of a nuisance when the wind strips the petals.

I have a feeling that some ornamental cheery trees do not produce nectar or pollen.

Wild cherries are always better visited by the bees than domestic ones, as I observed. I have no gret experience with ornamental, but when saw some - none of bees on them.
Wild cherries give plenty of pollen and nectar, and when is that flow I like to work in the hives due its seducing smell from the hives. Bad weather in time of its flowering not rarely spoils forage..