Pyracantha

[psafloyd]

Does anyone have pyracantha in flower? Is it just me, or does it seem to be busier than normal?

Mine is absolutely teeming with bees, including many bumbles and honey bees.

http://youtu.be/IkcU8DiZ1pg

 

[yeogi75]

mine are about two to three days behind you at the moment , it seems only bumbles and hover flies visit mine , my bees are to busy else where .

 

[theeggman]

Just been to check ours, still probably a week to open flowers but then all variants of bees work it.

Must be the hot air from Westminster that has advanced your's PSAFLOYD.

I doubt we'll get a 'June Gap' down here because everything is soooo late this year.

Tim.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A while off yet
There's masses of holly blossom, the trees are groaning with it but ne'er a bee.
I noticed the sycamore leaves are covered in honeydew so that's where they'll be,I guess.

 

[Luminos]

Yes it's flowering here but I haven't seen any bees on it

 

[richardbees]

mine's not flowering yet....but don't expect they'll use it when it is, as they've totally ignored the adjacent Hawthorn and Plum trees!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Cotoneaster is the thing!
There was a huge one on a neighbour's south facing wall when I lived in Cumbria and you could hear it buzzing yards away.
Anybody know a fast growing type?

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Cotoneaster is the thing!
There was a huge one on a neighbour's south facing wall when I lived in Cumbria and you could hear it buzzing yards away.
Anybody know a fast growing type?

Most Cotoneaster are pretty fast growing but the genus has very diverse habits,from the horizontal to the tree like. So what you plant should depend on where you want to plant it.
The area you have free for it and the height you would like it to grow to are important as well as the likelyhood of severe winter conditions and the soil conditions you are planting into.
Give me a rundown of these things and I will research in my library for the best one to suit, though you may have to travel a way to get one or order online.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Give me a rundown of these things and I will research in my library for the best one to suit, though you may have to travel a way to get one or order online.

How lovely of you.

Area is maybe 10 feet x 20 feet
Up a south facing wall
We live in mid-west Wales so wetter than most but the valley is sheltered and climate is mildish in the winter (last winter and this spring are exceptions for everybody though)
Soil is clay.

The pyracantha planted some years ago by the previous owners is a joy and has romped over half the house. We are trying a wisteria on the other half and the cotoneaster would go on the garage/workshop

Thanks so much

PS we had a smallish tree maybe ten feet high in our Cumbria garden and that looked cotoneasterish it was covered in wasps when it flowered!!!

 

[sainfoin]

It is so soothing to stand beneath our huge holly tree which is covered in flowers and loudly humming with bees. The nearest hives apart from our own are about two miles away I think so I hope we are listening to our own happy girls. The unusual heat has made the flowers open more than I've ever seen before and there is a lot of whitish pollen in the frames.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I love pyracantha as a hedge. Very few. Intruders want to come through it !

 

[Luminos]

Seems that mine are favouring the acacias to the pyracantha big time!

 

[Erichalfbee]

It is so soothing to stand beneath our huge holly tree which is covered in flowers and loudly humming with bees.

Holly is very heavy with blossom here too.Not a bee on it though

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

How lovely of you.

Area is maybe 10 feet x 20 feet
Up a south facing wall

I presume the height is ten feet and the length twenty.
Which way does the wall face that is taking the Wisteria. South facing would be best for Wisteria the Cotoneaster is likely to stand a better chance of survival than a Wisteria on an east or north facing wall. also to get the Wisteria to flower you need to bend the branches to fool it. they only flower when the plant has reached its maximum height unless you do this. it has to do with chemicals produced when the branches bend.
will now look at Cotoneasters info and get back to you perhaps tomorrow.

 

[protheroe]

my bees were all over it last year but just bumbles on it at the moment

 

[london_flower_guy]

My bees rarely touch the Pyracantha in our garden in the suburbs as there are usually more profitable flowers for them to forage on when it is in flower, same for bumbles. Solitary bees mining bees on the other hand often visit them as the short nectar well and readily accessible pollen are attractive to them having shorter tongues. However today in Cavendish Square, central London Honey and buff tailed bumble bees were smothering Pyracantha to the rear of John Lewis. Hardly surprising as there is nothing else in that part of central London for them to forage on.

I'd suggest Pyracantha is only visited by Honey bees when there is a lack of more favourable sources of forage available to them.

Earlier flowering varieties such as the Asian form P. rogersiana might be more beneficial to honey bees as they are earlier flowering, appearing when there are fewer sources of nectar and pollen available.

 

[djg]

Hi London Flower Guy,

I hear what you say about pyracantha and I am sure that your evaluation of honeybee forage priorities is correct. But let's not forget that Hyde Park is less than half a mile away from John Lewis in the west and Regent's Park can't be more than 3/4 mile north.

While London's parks are not always dripping in nectar and bursting with pollen, the distances here should logicallly offer both these locations as an available alternative forage source - which makes your and psa floyd's observations even more interesting !

 

[london_flower_guy]

That is true Hyde park is not that far away and there are several small garden squares in that part of central London, but most are dominated by London plane which produces neither nectar or pollen for honey bees and short cut grass (there are areas of Hyde park with decent forage and the parks ecology officer does a grand job trying to plant more flower rich meadow areas where he can).

Sunday was quite chilly even in the centre of town so perhaps the bees were focussing on the fire thorn as it was close by. It would be interesting to see if they are still smothering it on warmer days when they may be more inclined to fly further afield?

Bee researchers do know that honey bees travel less far in cooler air temperatures focussing on forage nearer the hive, when the weather is warmer they are able to fly much further.

 

[london_flower_guy]

another factor could be the late spring this year - many flowering plants were delayed in flowering, in my neighbourhood horse chestnut is almost over, Lime is at various stages of flowering in different parts of the city I've visited this last few days whilst my hawthorn bush is yet to flower (May flower needs to be renamed to June flower this year). My Escalonia usually popular with bees about now is also just coming into fresh leaf, never mind flowering.

So the timing of emergence of the Pyracantha this spring might also be a factor in why its proving popular in some areas this year?

The influencing factors are so many

 

[richardbees]

London_flower_guy ?

.....looks like another lbka committee member posting under a alternative username!