Advice to gardeners

[Neils]

So I'm giving a talk to a gardening club in a couple of weeks. In addition to my "standard" (can one delivery count it as standard yet) talk on honeybees, they want to know what they can do from a gardening point of view.

I must admit that at this point I was kind of intending to head off into bumble/solitary bee territory and a bit of a mention about spraying stuff but could do with a bit of help about what sort of common garden plants are attractive to bees. What little knowledge I have is more applicable to allotments.

But if you were littering around the garden centre planning your garden and wanted flowers that were attractive to bees what would look for?

(haven't forgotten the article in beecraft, just gathering more opinions)

[Calum]

Willow, snow drops, crocusus for good early pollen supplies
Sunflowers are good fun for birds and bees.
There are some garden bushes that provide great pollen sources late in the year but I dont know their names in english (and cant remember in German).

And build one of these:

[Easy beesy]

Hi Nellie
I made up a "bee menu" for a garden centre near me. Would u mind if I sent it to I? Or is it ok to put a link to it on this forum?

Easy beesy

[Easy beesy]

Sorry that should read do u mind if I send it to U?
Eb

[Neils]

Either works for me and think a link would be useful for others. Got your PM and will take a mosey in the meantime.

[jardin junkie]

how about....
acacia, acer, alfalfa
blue bell, borage,broom,buckwheat,basil, beans, black berries/currants
crocus, comfrey, clover (white),cherry, clematis
dandelion,
elm
gooseberry
hazel, heather, honeysuckle, horse chestnut, hebe, hypericum
ivy, impatiens
jasmine
lime, lupin,ling, lavender
majoram,mahonia, michaelmas daisy
poppy
raspberry
sunflower, snowrop, strawberry
thyme, thistle
willow( pussy)

theres a few :-)

[b.lambert]

How about crocus, snowdrop, Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus), Angelica (Angelica archangelica), Mint family Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) lemon balm (Mellisa officinalis), mint (Mentha piperata) lavenders, sage (salvia officinalis) Kniphofia (red hot pokers they just love these), cotoneaster (bee heaven!) all the cone flowers (rubdekia, echinacea), globe thistle (Echinops)they cant get enough of this, lungwort (pulmonaria), californian lilac (ceanothes), yarrow (Achillea filipendulina) californian poppy (Eschscholzia), marigold (calendula), red clover (trifolium pratense), ivy, apple, plum, damson, cherry, this is not an exhaustive list as you can imagine!! Latin names in brackets good luck with the talk!

[Easy beesy]

J junkie
The more I read from you, the less I worry about your bees.
Some great suggestions there.

Eb

[Easy beesy]

Nellie
Happy to share the menu with the forum if I figure out how.

Eb

[Jimbo]

Hi Nellie,

I gave a talk a number of years ago to a gardening club. As well as taking about flowers for bees I went through the beekeeping year with reference to the flowers out at that time of year , took a hive along and demonstrated all the components, got somebody as a volunteer to put on the bee suit and play with the smoker and hive tool etc. I also had a power point presentation as support. The interesting bit was watching all the men in the audience crossing there legs after discribing what happens to the drones after mating. I finished the talk with a honey tasting. Some of the questions at the end were also interesting eg where do the bees go in the winter etc etc