| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| mochyn |
Flowers for (mainly) beesThis thread is for just what it says in the title. I'd like a list of flowers, month by month, that are useful for insects that need pollen and nectar as well as general hints and ideas for growing them.So I'll start off with: HINT: grow single flowers rather than double. Some doubles are sterile and have no pollen or nectar, while others have so many petals the insects can't get at them. PLANTS: September: Sedums: there are plenty, but the most common is Sedum spectabile, the ice plant. Bees love it! Eupatorium: Joe Pye weed. About 6' tall with lovely pink fluff, currently packed with beees and buttterflies. Ivy: Hedera helix, but it's the mature plant with simple leaves that flowers. Later has berries that are useful at mid-winter for decoration. October: Aster species and varieties: the Michaelmas daisies. Colours from white to deep purple, heights from ground cover to 4' tall. Some flower earlier and one lasts until November. Right, who's got some more then? |
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| colour it green |
buddleia erm... July august? | ||
| GSHP |
Most popular this year and still in flower;
Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and majoram. Earlier in the year and mostly attracts bumble bees - Globe artichoke. |
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| jocorless |
Lancaster Beekeepers have a nice little leaflet that we've just published to the site about the exact same thing
http://lancaster-beekeepers.org.uk/downloads/category/1-advisory-leaflets?download=11%3Aplants-to-attract-bees |
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| tahir |
Fennel | ||
| yummersetter |
borage - June to October, I reckon
It had decided to replace our small lawn so we had a 12 foot square patch of it and from sunrise to sunset it was full of bees. And lavender. |
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| Tavascarow |
Buddleia is good for butterflies & some bumble bees but honey bees tongues aren't long enough to reach the nectar, same applies to honeysuckle despite its name.
My bees love working the hebes. Willow is a valuable provider of early pollen necessary for brood development & some of the ornamental varieties have beautiful stem colour. Early flowers like primroses, snowdrops, helebours & narcissus. Letting the dandelions & clover to bloom in your lawn. & as in Mochyms other thread the ivy is fantastic. 
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| GSHP |
'The bee friendly garden' - book by Ted Hooper and Mike Taylor is a useful reference book. | ||
| jocorless |
Cotoneaster is one they go mad for when its in flower in June | ||
| mochyn |
It drives them mad, doesn't it? 
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| match |
Things the bees here seem to always be bringing pollen in from are (excluding trees):
Lemon Balm - Aug/Sept Lupin - July/Aug Flowering Currant - June/July Dead Nettles - July/Aug Ivy early winter Evening Primrose July/Aug Rock Rose July/Aug And the ones you probably don't want to plant 
Meadowsweet - July/Aug Rosebay Willow Herb - July/Aug Dandelions - May/June/July Himalayan Balsam - July/Aug Oilseed Rape - March/April/May/June Knapweed - June/July Thistles - July/Aug/Sept Field Scabious - July/August |
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| wellington womble |
in my garden - campanula, thyme, borage and lavender. Probably other I haven't noticed, I don't really pay enough attention to my garden. | ||
| Millymollymandy |
Lime trees for bees, also Mimosa which flowers very early.
Verbena bonariensis for butterflies and hummingbird hawkmoth. |
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| The.Grange |
lavendar - we have a lavendar hedge always covered with bees even weird odd looking fellows like the humming bee | ||
| colour it green |
bees are loving the michaelmas daisies in the garden at the mo
fleabane seems to flower for months on end, and mine is popular with bees at the mo |
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| gz |
The borage is still flowering like crazy and is full of bees.
The bumble bees went for the comfrey flowers. Broad beans, even if you don't like them to eat
Buckwheat. Sunflowers-as the nights were chilly in August, I arrived at the allotments every day to find the centre of the sunflowers half covered in bumble bees
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| Tavascarow |
I forgot to mention holly in my earlier post.
Beautiful & a valuable wildlife plant for insects & birds.
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| welshboy454 |
Escallonia - we have planted 100 metres hedge for the bees |