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From snowdrops to sunflowers...
What are the best flowers for bees? Crocus, geraniums and verbena are just a few bee-friendly plants that will add colour and interest to your garden.
Generally speaking, bees are attracted to flowers with bright colours and sweet fragrances, but it's essential to maintain a food source to sustain the active lifespan of bumblebee colonies – meaning you'll need to produce plenty of plants from March through to October. Most bumblebee species do not appear until spring but occasionally some might emerge in winter, so it's advisable to have some early flowering plants such as snowdrops in your outdoor space.
Flowercard have revealed the best flowers to plant in your garden for bees during spring, summer and autumn – take a look at the list and shop the plants below.
Important: Always wear gloves when working with monkshood; all parts of the plant are poisonous and a potential skin irritant.
Here's some more advice on how you can help bumblebees flourish.
1. Grow your own herbs: Instead of buying packs of fresh herbs from the supermarket try growing your own. The flowers of many herbs such as mint, rosemary and thyme are well-liked by bees.
2. Natural Gardens: Wild hedges and trees are the way forward. In addition to flowers, these environments are very friendly for bumblebees and will help them thrive. Also, don't cut the grass more than a couple of times during the growing season to enable wildflowers to flourish.
3. Avoid using chemicals: A big killer of bumblebees is the destruction of habitat and the spraying of chemical pesticides and other substances which poison them; a problem mainly caused by agriculture. Garden weed killers and artificial fertilisers can also kill bees, so stop using them.
4. Educate yourself: Having an awareness of bumblebees and its decline (since the 1940s the UK has lost two of its bumblebee species and a further eight are in danger of going the same way), and what you can do to help them, is key to saving the species. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a good charity to support.
5. Revive a 'dying' bumblebee: To revive a bee, mix two tablespoons of white sugar with one tablespoon of water, place the bee on the spoon and hopefully it'll gather enough energy to return to the hive and recover more strongly.
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