Which plant in your garden attracted the most bees today?

[willowjay]

Like Susie, the white clover is very popular. Because of the lack of rain recently we have let most of the lawn grow longer, and as it was never a "good" lawn, it is now full of buttercups, clover and a plant with purple flowers - very low-growing (not sure what) that also seems to attract bees.

[howy]

Red tails just going crazy for the clover in the grass, in particular white clover, and the buff Tails hogging the brambles. Lavender I feel is a must if you want to attract plenty of bees, this time of year when flowering it is a bee magnet!

[shenk1]

Lavender wins hands down at the minute
Canary Creeper always attract plenty too but only plant it if you want it back every year as it self seeds very well(easy enough to pull up though)-good for covering the fence

[Susie]

Originally Posted by willowjay

Like Susie, the white clover is very popular. Because of the lack of rain recently we have let most of the lawn grow longer, and as it was never a "good" lawn, it is now full of buttercups, clover and a plant with purple flowers - very low-growing (not sure what) that also seems to attract bees.

Your purple flower may be self heal. I think that is what the purple flower in my lawn is (which is mainly weeds and very little grass!).

[Kayleigh]

Today mine is the lavender..as always.

[willowjay]

Thank you Susie - yes I decided my ignorance should not-be-put-up-with and looked it up - it's self-heal. I think I will have to do a flower count in my lawn, it's certainly prettier than just green grass, and is alive with everything that buzzes ...

[AshL]

Sorry to hijack this, but for some reason I can't make a new thread (on the subject of this thread, its the knapweed and the remains of the foxglove that they're interested in today).

Its the first time I've had a garden, and I've had to create this one from scratch. After browsing through books for bee/butterfly friendly plants, amongst other things I put in a Hebe Caledonia, a Potentilla Red Ace, and some sweet rocket. I'm now wondering though if those varieties are sterile or something as nothing will touch them even though they're fully in flower? The bees even zoom around in the general area of them, then either head over to the knapweed or disappear completely. Can anyone help? If the hebe and potentilla are the wrong variety, can anyone recommend anything better or another small flowering shrub? I hate to have plants in the garden that aren't useful to wildlife, cos its such a small garden and I don't have room for the usual big flowering shrubs etc.

Many thanks,
AshL

[Cordaline]

Lavender, Lavender, Lavender!

[Back]

Originally Posted by AshL

Sorry to hijack this, but for some reason I can't make a new thread (on the subject of this thread, its the knapweed and the remains of the foxglove that they're interested in today).

Its the first time I've had a garden, and I've had to create this one from scratch. After browsing through books for bee/butterfly friendly plants, amongst other things I put in a Hebe Caledonia, a Potentilla Red Ace, and some sweet rocket. I'm now wondering though if those varieties are sterile or something as nothing will touch them even though they're fully in flower? The bees even zoom around in the general area of them, then either head over to the knapweed or disappear completely. Can anyone help? If the hebe and potentilla are the wrong variety, can anyone recommend anything better or another small flowering shrub? I hate to have plants in the garden that aren't useful to wildlife, cos its such a small garden and I don't have room for the usual big flowering shrubs etc.

Many thanks,
AshL

Hi AshL,

I had a very similar experience (infact I think that's what gave me the idea to start this thread ) and there are some interesting thoughts here:

Information resource for bees

Otherwise I'm stumped to.

Bev

PS 'This week they 'ave mostly been eating Borage'.

[shenk1]

Still lavender but closely followed by the Wild Poppies that have sprung up everywhere since I dug everything over in the winter

Hoverflies are all over the curry plant by the way.