THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Fine news for beekeepers today – a total ban on bee-harming pesticides has been announced!
To celebrate, here is a list of plants we recommend as being brilliant for the bees:
- Helenium
- Sedum
- Echium vulgare
- Marjoram or Oregano
- Eupatorium (common name? Joe Pye-Weed. But don’t let that put you off!)
- Borage
- Nepeta
- Veronicastrum
- Teucrium
Bonus plants for shady spots? Try hellebore, lamium and pulmonaria.
Looking for a shrub to plant near your apiary? Phillyrea ought to do it. Although it is difficult to get hold of because it is so hard to propagate…but keep looking for it and buy it up if you can!
Somebody asked me about tulips – are these good for bees?
The bees certainly work hard to get the pollen. I guess the common sense approach is to make sure the tulips are as open and easy to access as possible.
The BBKA offer this top ten list of plants for bees.
My favourite nursery for bee friendly plants is Rosybee Nursery. You should all check out her plants and her brilliant research!
Her recommendations for bee friendly plants for summer baskets are:
- Trailing lobelia
- Lavender
- Echium
- Salvia
- Campanula
- Scabious
I would probably add Cleome and Fuchsia. But any other suggestions, please send them through!
Finally, are Dahlias good for bees? Again, I imagine single flowers are the best. But would love people to let me know what they see this summer….
Thank you and lets hope for a long, warm season for the bees!
And for more about my speciality, take a look at my Topiary.
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …
Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026
With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …