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

Escallonia

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!