What's flowering as forage in your area

  • Thread starter Curly green fingers
  • Start date
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
QUOTE="alancooper, post: 773583, member: 14286"]
Do you see honey bees on Yellow rattle and Pink campion. I have both in a garden grass patch but have not seen either used.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve seen bumblebees on yellow rattle, in fact I think one of the photos I posted had a pic of a white tailed bumble with v large pollen baskets from the rattle. The purpose of the yellow rattle is to act as a semi parasite to feed on grass roots, so weakening it, to allow the sword to open up and allow other wildflowers to germinate.

I’ve definitively seen bumblebees on pink campion. But the best wildflowers for honeybees are birds foot trefoil, plantain (pollen), scabious and knapweed.

What I love about wildflower meadows are that they support all pollinators, such as solitary bees and moths. Plus wonderful for ground nesting birds and they attract a full ecosystem of wildlife such as bats and swallows and hares, feeding on vegetation and other insects.

We’ve lost 96% of our wildflower meadows since the last war (& 50% of our hedgerows) so I’m on a mission to promote them to anyone who will listen!

We invested in a good leaf blower last year that can work in reverse ie suck up the seed, so plan to sell a bit on eBay this year, not to make much money as quite time consuming, but to encourage others to wild garden.

Sorry long answer and a side ramble, to a short question, but I can easily get carried away with my passion for meadows and wildlife
 
Bees are bringing in masses of white/light grey pollen, presumably from all the elderflowers. I took a 1 minute video of the hive entrance and counted 16 loads of white pollen along with a few yellow and a couple of brown/orange.
View attachment 26747
That's bramble.
 
I bought this Cordyline australis (I think) about 15 years ago at the Conwy Seed Fair. It's now about 3 metres high.
It has just produced this enormous flower head, which is covered with honey bees from 8amP1100507.JPG. The yard is filled with the aroma of the flowers.
What a wonderful surprise!
 
I bought this Cordyline australis (I think) about 15 years ago at the Conwy Seed Fair. It's now about 3 metres high.
It has just produced this enormous flower head, which is covered with honey bees from 8amView attachment 26776. The yard is filled with the aroma of the flowers.
What a wonderful surprise!
Wow peter that’s great. I keep looking at mine and it has no sign of a flower at all. I shall live in hope
What are the chances of the honey fair running this year?
 
Hawthorn and gorse hon over in the last week of hot weather in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. elderberry coming into bloom and the fields and hedgerows are still full of buttercups and cow parsley..... never seen a bee on any of them though.
 
It has been very dry here which has left the white clover looking rather tired. However the bramble has just started so that should cheer the girls. My meadow look amazing with drifts of ox-eyed daisies but currently of no interest to our bees. Still plenty of the season left!
 
Out for a stroll round the Loch this morning and found these along a sheltered spot. Sadly not really within range of my girls. Its Echium Pininana 'Blue Steeple Tower of Jewels'
View attachment 26677
and the flowers .
View attachment 26678
Got these in my garden took 3 years before they flowered & needed winter protection. Covered in bumble bees but very few honey bees
 
Wow peter that’s great. I keep looking at mine and it has no sign of a flower at all. I shall live in hope
What are the chances of the honey fair running this year?
Re the Conwy Honey Fair, we will make a decision at the end of July. That gives us six weeks before the event on Monday 13th September.
 
Got these in my garden took 3 years before they flowered & needed winter protection. Covered in bumble bees but very few honey bees
Ours got frosted in the middle and threw up about fifteen large spikes that the bumbles loved and then it rained and they all snapped off with the weight. Impressive while it lasted though! IMG_20210622_083433.jpg it was a red variety
 
Ceanothus in a neighbours garden. My closest bees are about three miles away, so are probably not mine!
 

Attachments

  • BeesCeo2.jpg
    BeesCeo2.jpg
    6.4 MB · Views: 9
  • BeeCeanothus.jpg
    BeeCeanothus.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 11
D5B182DD-59B9-43C3-90B5-6550535B5392.jpegI’m away in Crickhowell. There is masses of Cherry Laurel in bloom and the scent is overpowering. Covered in bees!
 
  • Like
Reactions: mbc

Latest posts

Back
Top