Bee Flowers

While looking for my solitary bee info, I found this and thought I'd post it, as the poor bees are in decline it's really only gardners who can help them.

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Flowers for bees
Double flowers are of no use to insects, since they do not provide nectar. Even plants with single flowers may be of limited use if they are not native to Britain. The most valuable plants are those in the pea family, dead-nettles, mints and scented herbs, the figwort family, and the daisy family. In spring and early summer fruit trees provide an important resource ââ?¬â?? indeed the crop will depend on solitary bees and bumblebees visiting and pollinating the flowers.

If you can bear to leave a few ââ?¬Ë?weedsââ?¬â?¢ to grow and flower in the garden, then you can do even better. Red deadnettle, black horehound and yellow composites such as dandelions and hawkweeds can bring in some real rarities. If you live within the range of some East Thames Corridor specialities (as in Havering, Thurrock or Southend) you may tempt a few rarities into your garden The Brown-banded carder bee Bombus humilis will forage, for example, on runner bean flowers, and the nationally scarce mining bees Andrena fulvago and the black Andrena spectabilis may be regular visitors foraging on Crepis and Hebe flowers respectively.

As well as providing a range of nectar and pollen resources, try to leave some dead wood, leaf litter and dead stems in undisturbed corners of your garden. Try not to be too tidy! Earth banks, fences and walls with old mortar in the sun are also important nesting habitat for bees. Various insects and spiders will also use them to warm up early in the year and in the early morning.

Help bees and other insects by growing good nectar plants like these in your garden �
Flowers for the border
sea hollies Eryngium
bugle Ajuga reptans
bellflowers Campanula
lamb�s tongue Stachys byzantina
scabious Knautia arvensis
sweet peas Lathyrus
sages Salvia
globe thistle Echinops
snapdragon Antirrhinum Trees & shrubs
apples Malus
cherries, plums Prunus
Buddleia globosa
currant bushes (inc. flowering currant Ribes sanguineum)
rock roses Cistus
heathers Erica
germanders Teucrium
veronicas Hebe
In the wild garden
deadnettles Lamium
black horehound Ballota nigra
purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria
woundworts & betony Stachys
dandelions, hawkweeds & hawksbeards
figworts and toadflaxes

 

Lol, imagine Mrs Shiney petting her bees before she goes out in the morning :D

My bee visitors seem to like all my flowers, getting all fat-legged on them

 

Awww, I like Mrs Shiney alot already! :D