THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Harlow Beekeepers
Last Thursday night I was invited to give a talk ‘Planting for Pollinators’ at Harlow Bees, a beekeeping group who help promote the craft of keeping bees in Harlow.
It was an interesting evening exploring how two complementary crafts – beekeeping and gardening – co-exist in there similar aims of helping bees (and other pollinators.)
Below are some notes answering questions the group asked me from the talk:
1. The Best Plants For Bees
- helenium
- sedum
- oregano
- borage
- veronicastrum
- teucrium
- calamint
- eupatorium
- centaurea
- lavender
This research comes from the work done by Rosi Rollings at Rosybee. She has been asking the question ‘which bee-friendly plants attract the most bees?’
You can read why and how she set-up this work in this interview we made with her a few years ago.
2. This is what Helenium, the most valuable plant for bees, looks like…
It is easy to grow, makes a great cut flower and is beautiful too. Get it into your gardens!
3. Remember the following when choosing flowers for the garden…
Right plant, right place – a happy, healthy plant growing in conditions it enjoys will provide preferred forage for the bees.
Plant in blocks of flowers, so that bees don’t waste energy trying to find another nectar/pollen source.
Get some blossoming trees into your gardener early in the year.
Topiary is easier to look after – a plant like Escallonia is great for clipping but also a bee magnet, so can be left uncut (and so full of flowers) until it grows too large for your garden… then you can easily reduce it down to size and let it start growing again, year on year.
4. Using Pesticides, Herbicides or Insecticides will harm your bees
If your garden flowers are suffering from pest damage, plant trees. These will provide somewhere for birds to visit, who in turn will deal with the bug problem.
No flower is too important or special it needs to be sprayed with a poison to make it look better. Plus, the best flowers for bees normally don’t show the art of the plant breeder – note the Helenium above!
5. Plant organic bulbs
You can read all about that in this blog Organic Bulbs.
Or via John Walker, the Earth Friendly Gardener, in the Telegraph.
We will make an order for Bee Friendly Bulbs in the summer, so will let you know then if you want to buy some!
If you live in and around Harlow and want to know more about bees and beekeeping – why not get in touch with the group?
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …
Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue
With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …