Gardening: Plants that will bring bees to your garden | Brian Kidd

I was pulling out some weeds alongside our diminishing natural stream and had to be very careful not to disturb several wild bees who were enjoying what little water was below the bank I was working on.
A swathe of Californian poppies, beloved by bees. Picture: ShutterstockA swathe of Californian poppies, beloved by bees. Picture: Shutterstock
A swathe of Californian poppies, beloved by bees. Picture: Shutterstock

They had been attracted by the lovely wild mimulus flowers which arrived uninvited.

Their abundant yellow flowers with red specks look wonderful and their roots keep the water clean. At the moment they are thriving on mud.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I don't expect you to plant wild mimulus because it can become invasive, but it is one of the flowers so loved by bees yet this species hardly ever gets mentioned.

Anyway, do remember that single flowers contain the most pollen and one of them that bees are very fond of is hebe, an evergreen shrub we love very much.

When I was an apprentice you could almost set your watch by hebes as each plant died every seventh year.

It would seem this plant has either got hardier or the winters have got warmer. Most of the hebes we grow in this country originated in New Zealand.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

All the so-called experts tell us that buddleia attracts bees and butterflies.

But if you don’t have room for a buddleia, try some lovely lavender, there are dozens of bees on the flowers as I write and when we went to the garden centre on Friday, I counted 35 bees on a batch of plants which were in full bloom.

Single flowers in bloom right now? Have a look at cosmea. This single-flowering plant is a sheer delight and is available at all good garden centres. It blooms throughout summer and will have dozens of daisy-like flowers as long as we dead-head regularly.

After planting cosmea the wonderful bees and butterflies will arrive; it's like waving a flag, all the fliers notice it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If you would like butterflies to come back for another delectable treat of pollen and nectar, plant a clump of golden rod – a very common plant but our garden would not be the same without it.You will probably be able to find it at your garden centre. Look for the name Solidago.

I have been really impressed with campanula Anna Lodden. This gets to about six feet high, grows as a spire and comes up every year with hundreds of bell-shaped, pinky blue blooms. It’s full of bees because it produces masses of pollen and nectar.

Almost forgot! You may be afraid of bees? If this is the case, never panic or wave your hands around. Just act quietly, be very gentle and calm. The bees are too busy collecting nectar and in any case, they will only sting in an emergency because once they sting, the poor darlings die.

Meanwhile, on an allotment near mine, there are hundreds of butterflies and hoverflies on a lovely swathe of Californian poppies. What a wonderful show – full of butterflies.

Take a look at your runner beans. Are the beans forming? Yes!

You see, that was all down to the bees. Perhaps you were in bed when they came into your garden...

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.