Helping The Bees

You must have noticed in the various news media that honeybees, and in fact
other types of bee populations are in decline the world over. There are experts
in many countries working on this now, but we can also contribute-- each in our
own small way. We do not have to do complicated research in labs at
universities or produce esoteric papers; but what we can do, is grow plants in
our gardens that are known to attract and are favoured by bees for their various
purposes.

WHAT A BEE NEEDS
The essential elements for honeybees are: Nectar, pollen, water and shelter.
Bees live solely from vegetal nutrients: pollen, nectar and honey dew. Anything that interferes with these elements will affect the well-being and propagation of the bees.

BEES AT WORK
Honeybees are primarily active between the months of March and October. They
mostly are looking for pollen during the Spring to help build-up the hive colony
quickly. They also need nectar, which they primarily gather in the late summer and fall.

Now, it is important to say two things here: Firstly, that bees gather pollen and
nectar throughout the entire season, it's just that there are times when they tend
to especially focus on one or the other. Secondly, pollen is the most important thing that they gather. They cannot live without it.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
Planting For A Bee-friendly Garden
It is known that honeybees actually prefer coming to large patches of the same
sort of flowering plant. Of course they will visit singular plants, but it is not what
they would rather do.

The bees like to visit plants in sunny places sheltered from the wind. This is not
always possible in our gardens since we are stuck with the land that we have and
the way it lies. Having said that, we can think before we plant and try and adapt
our planting choices to the bee's preferences. If that simply isn't possible, then
planting preferred plants for them is still good because they will perhaps visit the
flowers anyway.

How can we know what plants bees like? Well, one thing that you can do is to
pay attention as to what flowers bloom in your and other people's gardens and when they bloom. Also note which plants the bees frequent. Just jot it down. Armed with this info, you can try and
find these seeds or plantlets in your garden centers.
You can also search the internet or your local library for this information.
This link is but one of many:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/list.html

Listed below are some of the more favoured plants; hopefully you will be able to
find some of these.

Helpful Plants:

Spring Bloomers--
Trees: Acacia (Robinia species)
Maple (Acer species)
Willow (Salix species)
Bushes: broom (Cytisus scoparius)
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas)
Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa)
Hedge (Buxus sempervirens)
Flowers: Rapeseed (Brassica napus subs. napus)
Crocus species
Snowdrops (Galathus nivalis)

June Gap Bloomers:
Tree: Small-leaf Lime/Littleleaf Linden (Tilia cordata)
Bush: Blackberry (Ribus 'Thornfree')
Spiraera (Spiraea Japonica 'Little Princess')
Flowers: Clover (Trifolium species)
Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Phacelia tanacetifolia

Summer/Fall Bloomers--
Trees: Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)
Bushes: (clandonensis 'Heavenly Blue')
Flowers: Cosmos (Cosmea)
Mountain Fleece (Persicaria amplexicaulis)
Ivy (Hedera helix)
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Marjoram (Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen')
Whirling Butterfly (Gaura lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies')
Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Provide A Water Source
You can place a shallow container full of water in a sunny and open location in
your garden. Your water source should be as big as possible. Ideally the
container ought be at least one meter (1 yard) in diameter. The reason for this is
that the more water there is, the more water molecules are released into the
air. Bees detect this humidity and are attracted to the source.

Seed catalogues are beginning to trickle in so perhaps when you are ordering or buying seeds and plants for your gardens for
the coming season, you might consider some of the plants listed above to give
the bees a hand. They can use our help.

----This posting was taken from an article that I wrote for my website. If you want to read thew full article you can go here:
http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoorn ... age34.html

 

I've got some improvements in mind for summer/fall bloomers.

Sjoerd, two questions: First, how about Butterfly Bushes and Bee Balm? I see a lot of bees on those in summer. Are the bees getting what they need from those? And second, what do the bees get from fruit (such as the figs in my yard)? The fruits are loaded with bees once they ripen.

This is interesting. I'm going to read the whole article now.

 

What a lovely article. I've got plenty of bee-friendly blooms outside, and I enjoy seeing the bees at work too.

 

Enjoyed the full article Sjoerd, as well as the link that had a much more extensive list of plants that bees like. I hadn't browsed your lottie's website for a while so I enjoyed that too. I sure like the idea of a lottie complex.

 

I have a Carolina Jasmine and Mexican Petunias that blooming this time of year just as my Passion flowers and other blooms finish blooming.They have bees all over the place as all the fall wild flowers help them out.

 

Thank you for all this info Sjoerd.
I've writen before that I constantly find dead bees
on my driveway, it's like the Burmudam Triangle of
death for them. The world over needs more organic
gardens, without bees, we would be in sad shape.

 

Very interesting Sjoerd. I'm happy to say that I have a lot of plants the bees like and did notice a lot of bee activity this year . I have noticed they really like the Solidago and Sedum in the fall.

 

Hi DAISY,
I see some bees on my Buddleja bushes too as well as the Monardas. I know that they offer pollen and nectar and that bees find them attractiver, but I have not been able to confirm that the flowers of these two plants offer High, medium or small amounts of pollen and nectar. I have several of both of these plants and I see mostly bumble bees on them, but sometimes honeybees as well.

I do not know for sure what those honeybees are specifically after on your figs, but they are known to take sweet juices from various fruits sometimes. I suppose that they are going for the natural sugars contained in figs, although figs have other things they need like vitimans, protein and minerals.
Here is another link that shows how much pollen and nectar some plants offer (on a scale of 1-5). It is in Dutch but you can figure out that P=pollen and N=nectar...and the numerical score is quantative.
http://www.waseimkersbond.be/bijenvrien ... lanten.htm
I am very glad that you enjoyed the article. I am quite worried about the bees and hopefully this little posting will encourage folks to plant more. I really do think that the bee populations may be "pre-critical" now.

Great news, EILEEN--I think that you are right about many folks taking bees for granted and not keeping-up with their situation. I suspect that most gardners are aware though because as I always say, "the bees are our partners in gardening".

Thanks DROOPY, I'm glad you liked that article. I know that you have loads of helpful flowers in your garden--I have seen your pics.

Way to go, Glenda! It sounds like they like those two plants alot.

Thank you, 4-G...You are too right about the world needing more organic gardens.
I sure am curious about that "bee graveyard" on your driveway.

I am happy that you liked the posting, NETTY-- it's good to hear that you've noticed some plants that are favourites in your garden. It was also encouraging to hear that you saw lots of bees this year. That's VERY good news.

 

thanks for posting the article sjoerd. i did not know that the bees prefer flowering plants in bunches?! i have always placed them here and there throughout the gardens. will plan a little differently this year and help them out! we sure do get lots of them every year. our pear and apple and plum trees really bring them out in the spring.

 

Thanks for the very informative article Sjoerd. I plan on planting more plants to attract bees and butterflies.

I am wanting to put in an insectary next spring, but I have a lot of other irons in the fire and don't know if I will get to it are not. When I do I will also add plants the the bees like.

 

Hi BUNKIE-- I have read that the bees preferred large groups of flowers--like fields of clover or even huge patches of Cosmea in a garden, but until I changes the way that I plant a bit I had no first-hand knowledge. I can remember in the spring I let the Forget-me-nots grow throughout the flowerr garden--there are literally hundreds of plants looking like my trees and busges are growing out of pale-blue water. hahaha. Well, there were uncountable numbers of bees visiting them this past spring. It was then that I knew that the literature was not exaggerated.
Fruit trees really do attract them as they especially need help then. They get the food, and your trees get pollenated. It works out well.

Hello C'belle-- Nice seeing you. I am pleased that you liked the article. You are one busy woman...with waaaaay too many irons. chuckle.
I wish you all the luck with the placing of an insectuary next spring. That is a good idea.

 

Last year in my neighbours garden a Hebie was more like a hive. A white flowering Hebe attracts bees.

It was just a small cutting when I gave it to him from my sister's late mother-in-laws garden, I cannot belive how it grew over the years.I took a cutting and thats romping away now as well.

A great bee shrub for bees.

 

Hello KATE-- Thank you for posting a comment here.
I like it how you and some others have mentioned plants that they have personally observed that attract bees.
I hope that even more folks will do the same. It is always good to get some first-hand info...especially about this subject.

 

I like flowering plants in big bunches so I'm glad the bees do too. Thanks for the 2nd link ( the one with the ratings). I saw a couple of plants and bushes that I'll keep in mind when I redo some things in the front... For example, barberry... I like that shrub...