LimeWatch UK

[Erichalfbee]

The small amount of privet nectar foraged just becomes part of my “hedge honey” crop.

Thanks. I was hoping you might know. Privet is rumoured to be bitter but as you say it gets mixed in with the rest.

 

[Dodge]

Walk last night and the smaller Lime trees are flowering and covered in bees of all varieties. You could smell the flowers too. They seem a different variety of Tilia and flower later.

 

[madasafish]

Lime flow on - lovely smell (It usually rains when it is flowering.

Need to start extracting as run out of supers.

It will not last.

 

[SWEET]

 

[enrico]

View attachment 40712

I have a box just like that too and I have just extracted it. Once in a blue moon the lime produces and this must be a blue moon . Delicate with a floral taste, a green tinge to a clear honey. And a couple more boxes to come off

 

[holmbee]

I have a box just like that too and I have just extracted it. Once in a blue moon the lime produces and this must be a blue moon . Delicate with a floral taste, a green tinge to a clear honey. And a couple more boxes to come off

Great when it is like that! It happened to me a few years ago - the limes flowered just as I went to Italy with my family. The result when I returned was honey in every nook of brood and supers as I had not added more supers before leaving. You learn from experience.

 

[JohnRB]

I have just extracted a lot of lime honey - very pale with a greenish tinge. To me it tastes strongly of mint, but my wife thinks I am imagining it. I hope there is a market for toothpaste flavour honey.....

 

[enrico]

I have just extracted a lot of lime honey - very pale with a greenish tinge. To me it tastes strongly of mint, but my wife thinks I am imagining it. I hope there is a market for toothpaste flavour honey.....

The beauty is that it NEVER sets if it is pure

 

[Amari]

View attachment 40680
This 40/50ft lime is just opening across the road.
A hell of a lot of privet flowering which was covered in bees.View attachment 40681

Your second pic looks more like cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus than privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium. We have dozens of hedges of the former in this very rural village - shame because it doesn't look natural - huge numbers of these hedging plants were raised by a local nursery - now defunct and occupied by my apiary!

 

[Dodge]

Your second pic looks more like cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus than privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium. We have dozens of hedges of the former in this very rural village - shame because it doesn't look natural - huge numbers of these hedging plants were raised by a local nursery - now defunct and occupied by my apiary!

Definitely looks like Cherry Laurel

 

[alancooper]

Neighbours have half an acre of laurel which flowers in time with a willow to dandelion transition period in April-ish. Often other things flowering so not used much.

 

[Dodge]

Neighbours have half an acre of laurel which flowers in time with a willow to dandelion transition period in April-ish. Often other things flowering so not used much.

Cherry Laurel also has extra floral nectaries which are loved by Honey Bees.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Definitely looks like Cherry Laurel

Nope. It's privet.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Anyway, I'm still waiting for the lime tree near me to start flowering. There are buds there, but they are taking an eternity to open.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nope. It's privet.

Cherry Laurel isn’t flowering just now and one sniff would tell you it was privet.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Cherry laurel has a totally different flower shape

 

[Amari]

Cherry Laurel isn’t flowering just now and one sniff would tell you it was privet.

I agree my laurel hedge has finished flowering. RHS website states that cherry laurel has leaves 15cm long cf. 'garden privet' leaves (Ligustrum ovalifolium) are 6 cm long - Curley's privet leaves look longer than 6 cm. However RHS website lists many different types of privet so maybe there's room for confusion?.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/91966/ligustrum-ovalifolium/details

 

[Curly green finger's]

Nope. It's privet.

It’s privet for sure 100%

 

[holmbee]

Lime flower aroma becoming rather faint but a couple of trees still being worked. Still a little bramble but receiving skant attention. Just hoping the white clover will become more interesting - plently under the nearby solar panels.

 

[enrico]

Lime flower aroma becoming rather faint but a couple of trees still being worked. Still a little bramble but receiving skant attention. Just hoping the white clover will become more interesting - plently under the nearby solar panels.

Mine are just beginning to move onto the clover and a brassica plant on the river banks we call bargemans csbbage