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I recently added a load of "bee-friendly" high nectar plants to my garden. Until recently we thought it had been unsuccessful, and wrote it off as a failed expe
by Aromasin 7y ago
I recently added a load of "bee-friendly" high nectar plants to my garden. Until recently we thought it had been unsuccessful, and wrote it off as a failed experiment. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we suddenly couldn't walk a few meters without spotting at least 7 or 8 bees of various different species (both hive and solitary) buzzing around the place. It's been wonderful, and I've recommended all my friends who are into gardening to try it out. We've also had some new insects and bird species move in, along with a family of hedgehogs!
If anyone else would like to outfit their garden with some more bee friendly plants, we've had great luck with the following:-
-Himalayan balsam
-Yellow water iris
-Gladioli
-Common comfrey (Makes great fertilizer, and attracts some unique species)
-Blackberry
-Hedge bindweed
-Honeysuckle (Smells amazing!)
-Sweet pea
-Foxglove
-Rhododendron
-Lavender
-Bluebells (Good food source for early spring)
-Clovers (Bees really have really taken a liking to these)
-Greater knapweed (Super hardy)
-Hellebore (Late flowerer, so great to keep them running over winter!)
-Viper's bugloss
-Wood anemone
Most of these are common meadow plants that take little to no effort other than seeding them. Throw them down, cover with grass trimmings, mulch or compost and you're ready to go. This particular list is ideal for a mild, wet climate like the UK. Feel free to modify it depending on your wants and needs!
- ammon 7y agoI'll just add that Foxglove is poisonous (you'll die if you eat it level). So don't grow it if you have kids around.
- akimball 7y agoDo your children randomly forage?
- chrisdsaldivar 7y agoThey might. My sister and I would crush up plants when we were little to make “potions.” We stopped when we made a potion with Serrano peppers at my aunt’s house in Mexico, at least it wasn’t some deadly plants.
- jawilson2 7y agoYes. We live in the woods in northern Illinois, and we have taught them to identify wild raspberries and blackberries. They don't eat without running it by us first. That said, I would try to avoid intentionally planting toxic plants in the yard due to both kids and pets.
- krageon 7y agoOr even better, teach your children what isn't safe to eat so that when the fancy strikes them they don't eat poison. Regardless of whether or not it is in your yard, this can only benefit them.
- tlavoie 7y agoI think it's one of those things that can poison livestock, so maybe keep it out of areas with goats, sheep, and some children.
- jon_richards 7y agoI've heard to avoid planting it just in case a wandering cat decides to chew on it.
- ip26 7y agoNative is really ideal. Native plants will have the right water & soil needs, aren't invasive, and are known to pollinators. You can see this in action in our yard- even without supplemental water in a semi-arid climate, the penstemons go gangbusters and are covered in bees.
- inferiorhuman 7y agoPenstemons are notoriously difficult to grow in a garden. I had a couple (native to coastal California) and they were disease and pest (aphid) magnets. Absolutely stunning flowers though.
- ip26 7y agoWell, I guess that just illustrates my point- here, they grow like weeds, and if you pay attention they are everywhere. Which makes them a good choice- here. You can see something similar in our columbine patch, the native blue varieties have reseeded with great success, & the founders are huge and vivacious. But the non-native varieties are pale, small, droopy, stressed, and have not propagated. P.S. if you're saying you live in coastal CA & tried to grow the local penstemon, did you plant them in the right conditions? They are a xeric plant family, the less you water them the happier they seem... https://www.laspilitas.com/groups/penstemon/california_penstemon_wet.html https://www.laspilitas.com/groups/penstemon/california_penst... https://www.laspilitas.com/groups/penstemon/california_penstemon.html https://www.laspilitas.com/groups/penstemon/california_penst...
- inferiorhuman 7y agoYeah the penstemon (Panoche and Blue Springs[1]) were planted together with some woolly sunflower and a native lupine. I also have some epilobium and monkey flower going. None require much water. Of that one group, the sunflower was the only one that survived. The penstemon were just the biggest magnets for aphids, fungus, and spider mites. One of them bolted, but both had some amazing flowers that the bees loved. In the end I think the soil was just nutrient deficient. The sunflower has mostly taken over (but is loathe to actually flower), and I've planted a magentaish monkey flower and another lupine. This time around the lupine looks much better. The epilobium and the orange monkey flower continue to thrive. I'd love to plant another penstemon, but I think next up might be a yellow lupine. 1: https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/d0c68067fd466fa6e52b711b99fc5ddd/5DB61806/t51.2885-15/e35/31748576_1198802496916797_4364719360183369728_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/d0c68067fd466fa6...
- duncan-donuts 7y agoMy wife and I have been working on growing a lot of native plants (we're in MN) and one of the most amazing things is in the fall we'll have anywhere from 50-100 bees in our plants surrounding our patio. OUR PATIO! The best part about it is that we can sit out there, have a beer, and the bees don't care about us at all. I love to watch the bees, and show the bees to my kids.
- Pfhreak 7y agoI'll add some edible things that have been a hugely popular with our bees. - Borage - Raspberries - Sunflowers - Calendula - Peas And we also planted: - Dark Star Ceanothus Which is basically a bee colony when it is flowering.
- xsmasher 7y agoI had some Borage in my garden for the bees - turns out I have an allergic reaction to borage. Itches like crazy.
- jelliclesfarm 7y agoyou are not allergic. borage belongs to the cucumber family and the stems and leaves have these tiny prickles. just wear long gloves. they reseed like crazy..they are edible flowers and bees love them. further, the leaves can be cooked as pasta filling. mild taste of cucumber. once you have one borage plant, you will never get rid of them. i have both the blue and white variety.
- newvoiceoldphne 7y agoOregano is a big hit with bees in my area, plus it's great for cooking!
- bencollier49 7y agoIs it worth pointing out that Himalayan Balsam is a major invasive species? Characterised as a 'nuisance plant'. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=480 https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=480
- bduerst 7y agoI was going to say, this list would be better if the non-native species were labelled with a * or something. Even in Minnesota, there's a push to restore native prairie grasses, which also benefits bees: https://www.beeculture.com/prairie-restoration/ https://www.beeculture.com/prairie-restoration/
- noob_slayer 7y agoBuild the wall!
- Iwan-Zotow 7y ago> restore native prairie grasses And what would be "native" to Minnesota given that (at least) 2C temperature raise is pretty much in the books?
- mulmen 7y agoNative plants are plants that occur... natively. If a plant was brought in from elsewhere it is invasive. It has nothing to do with temperature.
- karthikb 7y agoPlant seeds tend to travel far and wide with birds and animal migratory patterns. What takes root is dependent on soil, climate, etc. Meaning, what’s native is less dependent on location and more on conditions. As climate changes, conditions change, and so the set of plants best suited to any particular location changes as well.
- Retric 7y ago
- jvreeland 7y agoNot all plants work everywhere or should, some on that list are invasive to areas. Your local university or city probably has resources for what native plants would work best for your environment and bees.
- Aromasin 7y agoAgreed. I would edit my comment but it's a little late now. Most of this list is for the UK, bar a few non-native that I added for looks/nectar production. If you're in the US or elsewhere, make sure to find what is native for you.
- vondur 7y agoI planted a lavender bush here in my yard and when it's flowering, I'll count at least 10-20 bees at a time on it.
- rvense 7y agoI have a lavender bush next to my front door. There are always a bunch of bees on it... makes leaving the house in the morning a little more enjoyable.
- Aromasin 7y agoLavender seems to be a really popular flower for me too. It's also very hardy, and smells wonderful obviously so is a great choice all round.
- hinkley 7y agoYou need some small flat flowers to get more predator species in there (including lady bugs, lacewings, and some parasitic wasps). Yarrow is the easiest for most of us to get.
- Aromasin 7y agoWe had plenty of these species in our garden before. The lady bugs are an absolute menace and get everywhere! This list was just for particularly bee friendly species.
- ibrault 7y agoLove the idea! Does anyone have a similar list for a more chaparral-type climate like in Southern California?
- joe2 7y agohttps://www.pollinator.org/guides https://www.pollinator.org/guides Punch in your zip and get suggestions for your region/ecosystem.
- inferiorhuman 7y agocalscape.org
- dkraft 7y agoBuckwheat adds dark color to honey and grows fast.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoWe did something similar at the end of the garden with emphasis on native wild species and minimal maintenance - aiming for more wild than garden. The low maintenance didn't quite work as planned. Nature helped and now we've gained brambles (probably the highest maintenance part, as if left alone we'd have no garden, and once in they're damned hard to get rid of), thistle, inevitable dandelions and a few unidentified things have moved in too. The blackberry, nettles and dandelions need regular encouragement not to do too well. Less effort than a boring lawn though. First year was fairly underwhelming, since then have had all sorts of insects and birds as constant backdrop. Last few years two pairs of birds, not sure if same pairs, have used it for their nesting spot - there's always one nest in the blackberries. I guess brambles are staying! The back of the garage seems to have a couple of masonry bees every summer, and there's a lovely extra sound background from it all. There's constant birdsong at the back. A local cat keeps trying for those nests, but hasn't got to them yet, and has failed noisily a few times... :) We've twice spotted a frog, but we have no pond and there's no open water near us, so that's been a bit surprising.
- ChuckMcM 7y ago> We've twice spotted a frog, but we have no pond and there's no open water near us, so that's a been bit surprising. We had a similar experience with salamanders showing up. I could not imagine what path they took to get to our garden in a pretty urban place where the nearest creek is a couple of miles away and generally concrete lined. The gardener however suggested that they come from the street drains (which in our area drain to the SF bay, they aren't sewers which take water to the water treatment plant). The nearest street drain is about 3 houses down, still quite a hike for a small beast that likes the wet but I suppose manageable.
- mauvehaus 7y agoAfter cutting our ivy back from taking over our patio every year for 3 years, I ripped it out and planted raspberries last spring. They're taking over, which is exactly what I hoped would happen, and seem to have successfully outcompeted any ivy I may have missed. If I'm going to have that spreads relentlessly, I may as well get berries out of it. We'll get the first fruit this year. They're biennial. Super excited.
- nraynaud 7y agowith so many experts around, it's time to ask the question: it appear that there were no honey bees before the European colonization. 1) were there other types of bees, of was all the polinisation done by other insects? 2) what's the point is saving a non-native specie, when so many others need saving?
- moonlet 7y agoThere are a ton of Native American bees, though most of them do not hive together and are solitary. Mason bees are an example.
- kaikai 7y agoThere are hundreds of native bee species in California alone. None of them produce honey stores like the Apis mellifera, the european honeybee. We do, however, depend on the honeybee for food crop pollination, which is a huge industry in the US. Beekeepers haul their hives all over the country following the seasons for different crops. Because they're profitable, we have a lot of honeybee research and attention, and that makes them valuable for pointing out problems that are likely affecting other insects (like native bees).
- jelliclesfarm 7y agoeven wasps are pollinators. honeybees extract and store nectar and save pollen. we need both pollinators and apis mellifera. bumble bees are ground nesters and solitary, for example..they dont create bee hives. better pollinators than honeybees. ditto with carpenter bees/mason bees. honey bees proliferation can displace local pollinators. a balance is needed.
- akimball 7y agoMilkweed is essential for monarch butterflies, also a pollinator.
- vram22 7y ago>a mild, wet climate like the UK Never been there. By "mild" do you mean 'not that cold', relative to other places at the same latitude? Because I thought the UK was pretty cold, although a UK friend told me Germany is colder (generally).
- petepete 7y agoThe climate in the UK is 'cool' but never extreme in either direction. Germany is hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than the UK, mainly due to the UK being an island nation and being in they path of the jet stream.
- lovemenot 7y agoGulf stream, I believe you meant.
- petepete 7y agoYes I did, thanks!
- vram22 7y agoGot it, thanks. >path of the jet stream. As lovemenot said, you probably mean Gulf Stream. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream#Localized_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream#Localized_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream
- Aromasin 7y agoI'd describe mild as a lack of drastic change in temperature year around. We normally get temperatures between 0C and 20C, with a few outlier days (more so recently - lots of heat waves for obvious reasons...) This changes from North to South, but we rarely get temperatures and crazy weather like you guys in Europe have at the moment.
- vram22 7y ago
- inferiorhuman 7y agoWhen I redid my garden I focused on native plants that were unlikely to attract mammals (so no fruiting plants) and would have relatively light water requirements. California is a huge place, so California native doesn't necessarily mean much if you're trying to keep coastal succulents alive in the desert. In theory I've planted things that attract a variety of birds and insects. So far I've attracted mostly hover flies (which I had never seen before) and (very docile) wasps, and a variety of caterpillars. The birds tend to like to bury stuff (whole roasted peanuts…) in the garden and the bees seem more interested in some of the other flowering plants. That said I would recommend going with native stuff as it will often be more attractive to the indigenous bees and whatnot (European honey bees are, well, European). Sure, Monarchs like milkweed, but the type of milkweed they like will vary by location. Sure, clovers attract a ton of fauna, but the type of clover will vary. In California, the California Native Plant Society has an invaluable site where you can look up California native plants and where they're typically found[0]. The sticky monkeyflower and tomcat clover have been especially easy to keep alive. 0: https://calscape.org/ https://calscape.org/
- Aromasin 7y agoIt's a bit late to edit my comment now but yes, most of this list is native to the UK so if you're looking to do something in the US or elsewhere, check online or with your local gardening society to see what works for you.