THE MODERN MINT BLOG
We are currently writing a book about plants that do a great job of Helping The Honeybee. This means we are always on the lookout for flowers that are attractive to our little, honey making friends.
This week we have heard plenty of buzzing coming from:
Dead nettle
Helenium
Alliums
Veronicastrum
Plus we glanced in a magazine and saw a note about bees preferring dark flowers when they forage in the shade. We will research this a little more for you, but worth making a note of and thinking about right now if you have a dark patch of the garden that you wish to make more pollinator friendly.
Roses
But the bee friendly plant we really wanted to tell you about was this one – the rose. Last week we visited David Austin Roses and got chatting to the Senior Rosarian there, who (we were told) knows more about roses than anyone else in the world.
Quite some feat.
But he said that roses do not produce nectar, only pollen.
Walking around all of the stunning roses in bloom, it was the species roses and rosa rugosa that had the most bees on the flowers – you could HEAR THEM THERE WERE SO MANY. All of them visiting purely for the pollen.
So now you know – if you want a bee friendly garden, add the wilder roses… because the bees will appreciate the pollen.
For more about planting for bees, you don;t have to wait for us to finish writing the book. You can learn more right now as we do the research by booking our new talk for your group – Helping The Honeybee.
Or explore our website further, as we have lots of information about what you can do create an amazing garden space to enjoy, with planting for pollinators that really does help them!
10 Years Of Modern Mint
On Valentine’s day this year (2024) Modern Mint, the company I started when I moved to Essex to explore a fresh, contemporary approach to gardening, will be 10 years old. The cliche is time flies… but it does! So much has happened in a decade, from studying topiary with Charlotte Molesworth, to clipping all over the UK (and eventually in the USA and Sweden) to selling shears and secateurs at garden shows and hiding away my reticence to give talks about gardening and topiary to Horticultural Societies across the UK. Ten years feels a good time to mark a new …
Garden Masterclass Trailer – The Modern Topiarist
In 2022 I did a free video for Garden Masterclass, the Annie Guilfoyle and Noel Kingsley run website that is a treasure trove of the great and good of the horticultural world – well worth looking through all the wonderful talks they have available, like meadow-maker James Hitchmough or nurserywoman Rosy Hardy. They are certainly inspirational! Perfect for watching and dreaming up new ideas during the winter months… As a follow-up to my Topiary Provocations video (which you can see on Youtube for free) I was asked to do a video for their Masterclass series on how to make topiary. …
Charlotte Molesworth’s Garden In The FT
The lovely garden of my mentor Charlotte Molesworth is featured here in the Financial Times in the last week or so… She has been interviewed lots of times but I thought this was a particularly great piece, with some photos done at unusual angles and different parts… so well worth a read. For more on topiary by Charlotte Molesworth…