Kitchen Garden Forum

On one side of the path I have the veg patch and on the other side I want to plant a flower and shrub area. Any suggestions for attracting bees as much year-round as possible?

Hyssop is fantastic for bees and very easy to raise from seed if you're that way inclined. I have a large patch in front of a seated arbour in my garden and have spent many an hour sitting there trying to count the number of different species of bees on the plants. Trying to count the NUMBER of bees would be impossible!

Hi,
Try some Foxgloves, they are fantastic for bees, also Poached egg plants and Red Hot Pokers.
I grew some Orange Cosmos last year and they were just alive with hummingness.
The good thing about Foxgloves is that it takes me back to my childhood in my Grandfathers garden putting my finger into the flowers to see if a Bee was in having a snack, then if so, giving the Bees bum a quick tickle before retreating quickly.

Ciao

Mr Chilli

Cornflowers also work very well and are tough things. You also get the advantage of great fresh cut flowers or you can dry them as well.

Jerry

Bees absolutely love monarda (bergamot) and the flowers are interesting and good to look at too.

I get a good bee population in the veg garden by letting some Comfrey flower and maintain the population with Broad Beans and Sweet Peas. Good hosts for the important early insects in the flower garden are Daphne and flowering currant.

Borage is wonderful for attracting bees, and the flowers make a nice colourful addition to salads. You just have to watch out for the numerous borage seedlings which spring up all over the place in subsequent years, but they are easily hoed in when small.
Cheers, Lyn

I find that Phacelia is brilliant for bees and hoverflies. It's a green manure too so you can dig it in or compost it at the end of the year, cut the seedheads off first and keep them for next year.

Rosemary, oregano and thyme are brilliant bee plants, as is lavender and almost all the daisy shaped flowers.

Sue

Many thanks to you all for your suggestions.

Buddlia.

Annual lavatera, makes nice cut flowers as a bonus.

Colin - in this month's BBC gardening magazine, there's a list of all the flowers, shrubs, etc that attract bees. Would you like me to send it to you?

Many thanks Tigger! You made me look on the BBC web site and I found the following link which gives all the details!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/t ... bees.shtml