What's flowering as forage in your area

  • Thread starter Curly green fingers
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a month early.
Not a good sign: knock-on effect is nothing in late July-August, unless HBalsam or ragwort is plentiful. Maybe ivy will do the same and open a month early?

Snowberry is very good for bees, but usually planted minimally as a shrub. If allowed, it spreads well and is regarded as an invasive, non-native species.
 
The nearby avenue of ancient limes is loaded with buds so maybe another week to start. The meadowsweet is just starting to open. A bit of rbwillowherb is open on the sea level roadsides.

We drove out west yesterday (Ullapool way) and saw heather in bloom along the road - a month early.
Ling…Bell….or Cross Leaved?….normal for the latter two to be in flower at this time! Ling won’t flower till later.
 
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I think you are right. The winter is going to be long this year
Not good is it? I thought the rosebay is flowering early to , the rain has helped the clover I just want 24c + now .
I’m trying to extract , get the colony’s ready for heather hive up , make frames boxes roofs looks like it’s going to be a busy July 😅
 
Spotted hb in flower walking the dog this morning. Looking at the hedgerows and meadows, they have the late summer look about them already. As Enrico said earlier, it could be a long winter especially if El Niño is as strong as forecast.
 
No sign of it doing anything at all here
For about four years there's been a few plants in a shady corner of a drainage ditch alongside one of our fields. I've consistently expected these to spread but each year the group remains stubbornly small. ☹️ This year is much the same and about 6 flower heads are forming. Another year of crossed fingers. 🤞
 
Himalayan balsalm just about to start here, but will be a while until there's much. There was masses last year. I need to extract to make some room for it!
Rosebay willowherb only started recently too, and bramble still going.
Quite a lot of ivy locally for later on.
 
I think you are right. The winter is going to be long this year

I was having similar thoughts last year when the brambles were flowering very early, but everything seemed to work out ok in the end. Perhaps in years like this the drop-off in forage is a more gradual decline than in "normal" years, whatever that means. I'm not disappointed that there's lots of ivy around here to help fill the stores towards the tail end of the season though.

James
 
I'm not disappointed that there's lots of ivy around here to help fill the stores towards the tail end of the season though.
You'll have some trumpet coming along and telling you it will kill your bees though.
 
There’s always some early HB I saw some odd flowers a couple of weeks ago, often some still going with the ivy flowering as well.
 
All the big hitters are in full flower here,clover,rosebay and creeping thistle. Currently 12c with strong wind and heavy rain bees not able to get out for the last 3 days nooooooooooooooo
 

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