If you want bees in your garden ...

cutecoot · #1 (**permalink**) 15-06-2009, 09:04 AM

... get yourself one of these!:

It's a ceanothus (not sure exactly which type, apart from evergreen spring-flowering!) .. and it is absolutely *buzzing* with activity! Strangely, in the photo, only one bee can be seen (along with one spider!) but I can assure you there were hundreds in that bush!

KeenTeen17 · #2 (**permalink**) 18-06-2009, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cutecoot

... get yourself one of these!:

It's a ceanothus (not sure exactly which type, apart from evergreen spring-flowering!) .. and it is absolutely *buzzing* with activity! Strangely, in the photo, only one bee can be seen (along with one spider!) but I can assure you there were hundreds in that bush!

Wow. Nice plant there. I have been passing these a lot in gardens and I always had it down as a Hebe. These aren't my familiarity so you are right with Ceanothus. I have found Cotoneasters and Berberis to be good for bees as well

ron1863 · #3 (**permalink**) 18-06-2009, 10:12 PM

My neighbour has one that is about ten foot high and overhangs our garden. The flowers remind me of the blue, sprinkle covered sweet in a Liqourice Allsort packet.

James M · #4 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 12:54 AM

Ceanothus are great my Aunt has one, great colour too. I would agree with Cotoneaster, the one in our garden (C. bullatus) hums at this time of year plus in the Autumn it's good for birds too

nightshade · #5 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 06:00 AM

Ceanothus does not like my garden or the climate here they do try but Cotoneasters do very well along with Pyracantha and Berbris.
Lots of small Bumblebees this year, Honeybees few and far between

The Woodman · #6 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 06:52 AM

You may also want to consider Photinia davidiana, a shrub I never knew the name of until it cropped recently on WAB. Ours is covered in bumble bees every day.

nightshade · #7 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 08:19 AM

Is this the shrub with red leaves when young and masses of white flowers?

The Woodman · #8 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 12:45 PM

Yes, that's the one.

I've just been out and taken these images of both shrubs, unfortunately past their best and despite being very blustery there must be around 1000 bees on both.

This has pretty pinkish white flowers and is about 2 metres high, I don't know what it is called.

What I believe is Photinia davidiana is 4 metres high and a number of the shoots die back every year after the leaves have opened.

There are currently bees of every description on it including what I think is a hoverfly masquerading as a bee in the cropped image.

Apparently this species is salt tolerant which it need to be here on the edge of Morecambe Bay.

I've never seen any shrub with more bees on than these two.

cutecoot · #9 (**permalink**) 19-06-2009, 02:11 PM

I've never seen a Photinia with flowers on, Woodman .. I think they are so often kept trimmed right back to keep in check, and to increase the amount of the bright red new leaf growth. Never seen that other shrub before, either, so no idea what it is!?!

DawnWatch · #10 (**permalink**) 20-06-2009, 05:58 AM

This is all useful info, I am starting a bee friendly garden this year. Thanks.

cutecoot · #11 (**permalink**) 20-06-2009, 05:46 PM

Good luck with that DawnWatch (and welcome to WAB, btw

)

Susie · #12 (**permalink**) 20-06-2009, 08:46 PM

You need a succession of flowering plants which will go right through the year. Bees come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and not all flowers will suit all bees.

cutecoot · #13 (**permalink**) 21-06-2009, 09:24 AM

Good tip, Susie .. that ceanothus might be great for bees, but I can see its going over already, so all that nectar is only available for about one month of the year!

Susie · #14 (**permalink**) 21-06-2009, 03:59 PM

But it is definitely still worth having, Cutecoot. As you say, it is very good for bees (and other insects). I have several in the garden and wouldn't be without them

jeremiah · #15 (**permalink**) 21-06-2009, 04:21 PM

A good one is Phacelia Tanacetifolia - sown in orchards for bees. I saw it in the garden of Down House a few weeks ago, it was buzzing.

Another good one is snowberry - tiny drooping flowers, bumblebees can't resist them. But it has to be kept in check, otherwise it spreads.

Also fuchsias, the smallish single ones. (Doubles are useless). I saw a bush buzzing with bees, but they weren't going into the flowers, they were using the holes chewed in the base of the flowers by bumblebees.

Susie · #16 (**permalink**) 21-06-2009, 09:01 PM

Good point, Jeremiah, single flowers are always best.

Susie · #17 (**permalink**) 21-06-2009, 09:11 PM

I hadn't seen Phacelia Tanacetifolia before but in Horsham some flower beds have been sown with wildflowers again this year and this is one of the main flowers present. It looks very pretty indeed and does seem to pull in the bees.

tameblackbirds · #18 (**permalink**) 30-07-2009, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James M

Ceanothus are great my Aunt has one, great colour too. I would agree with Cotoneaster, the one in our garden (C. bullatus) hums at this time of year plus in the Autumn it's good for birds too

Been catching up on here and found your picture. This plant has self seeded in my garden. I have been trying to discover what it was. thank you can mark it in my diary now. Your right the bees and birds love it.

earthdragon64 · #19 (**permalink**) 30-07-2009, 08:40 AM

I've got some Cotoneasters and there were loads of bees on them earlier this year.

However, what seemed to draw in most bees, was my yellow-berried Rowan tree whilst it was flowering. I counted about 150 on one day, and that was just on the side I could see easily from the window of the house. Standing next to the tree, the noise from all the bees was just incredible.

beebeautiful · #20 (**permalink**) 31-07-2009, 09:47 PM

I was just about to start a thread when I saw this one going

I'll look up the plants already mention, but any particular suggestions for a bush that would be suitable to make a small hedge line, only about 2.5 feet tall?

Moved into a new build house just under a year ago, the small hedge around the front garden has died in places and looks an absolute mess!!! Desperate to pull it all up but need to think of what to replace it with

.

Point is, the parts that are still alive are always swarming with bees and other life so I want to make sure I replace it with something equally attractive to them.

any suggestions??

Jez · #21 (**permalink**) 31-07-2009, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beebeautiful

Point is, the parts that are still alive are always swarming with bees and other life so I want to make sure I replace it with something equally attractive to them.

any suggestions??

Why not replace with more of what you already have! Do you know what you have, if not could you take a photo and upload for an ID?

Cheers~ Jez

beebeautiful · #22 (**permalink**) 31-07-2009, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jez

Why not replace with more of what you already have! Do you know what you have, if not could you take a photo and upload for an ID?

Cheers~ Jez

Not much of it is in a good state really.

The problem is with it being a new house its only got a sprinkling of soil over builders rubble (they were planted before we moved in).
So they just haven't rooted well. The dead ones just lift strait out the soil, no effort, and the others haven't rooted much better.
Think I need to dig in some more top soil for anything to have a chance.

No idea what it is, will try and upload a picture for ID.
Have one solitary tree in the back garden, no idea what that is either so I'll take a pic for ID as well

Jez · #23 (**permalink**) 01-08-2009, 08:55 AM

Top soil and some organic matter and if you can fish out any of the rubble the better!

Monkey Orchid · #24 (**permalink**) 01-08-2009, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beebeautiful

I'll look up the plants already mention, but any particular suggestions for a bush that would be suitable to make a small hedge line, only about 2.5 feet tall?

Point is, the parts that are still alive are always swarming with bees and other life so I want to make sure I replace it with something equally attractive to them.

any suggestions??

Hebe is great for bees, butterflies and other insects, and as an added plus is as tough as old boots and grows pretty much anywhere (its native country is New Zealand). There are lots of different varieties with varying growth habits (height/spread), foliage (green, variegated, bronze), flower shape and colour (white, purple, pink etc). They are easy to propagate from cuttings and from seed, and grow well in any soil type.

We planted a hebe hedge in our front garden, can't recall the variety but we bought about ten plants in 9-inch pots at around £3.50 each and they've all grown well: hedge was 2 feet high within 18 months and is now waist height. Easy plant to maintain, you just clip it if you don't want it to get too big. I don't think we did anything other than sprinkle a bit of 6X fertiliser when we planted them, watered the new plants in and then left them to it (with a woodchip mulch to suppress weed growth). They have lots of white flowers for months at a time which the insects seem to love.

We also had a dwarf hebe (about 8 inches high) which used to grow by our pond in the back garden: a few years ago we moved it to a flowerbed and it is now 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and shows no signs of returning to its former dwarf habit! They seem indestructible. Our cat used to love lying in the middle of this hebe bush, but it always springs back from being squashed.