Flowers for Bumble Bees

[StorminaBcup]

We have a bumble bee nest and I've noticed two dead bumble bees on the floor near to where the nest is. There's a small strip opposite that I can plant some flowers on so that the bees can feed.

I'm a complete novice at gardening and the area is quite shaded. Any suggestions for bee friendly plants that are easy to maintain?

Foxgloves

Lots of garden centres/supermarkets plants now have a little bee label on them, so you know they are good pollinators.
But you could also leave some sugar water out for them in a very shallow dish to help rejuvenate them.

Thanks for the suggestions! We've got a bee station set up in our garden (it's got a little pot for sugar water and it's covered), but I'll move it so it's nearer the nest. I'll have a look at the garden centre this afternoon. I really like fox gloves so I'll see what else I can find.

Scabious is good. Flowers for ages too,

Chives (they like any aliums, but you'll struggle to get any big ones to plant out now. Put some alium bulbs in in the autumn for next spring). Plus you get fresh chives for your kitchen.

Also marjoram and oregano.

Lavender (get the English kind, the French winged ones aren't very hardy.

I buy packets of seeds from wilko, they have a picture of a bee on the front. The bees seem to love forage which is really easy to grow and lasts for ages.

Meant to say borage

Lovely, thanks for these suggestions. We've got lavender in the front garden, is it possible to split it if they're quite big plants or will I kill them off?

I'll try Wilco's too. We don't seem to have much luck with seeds as there's a lot of birds around here but I'll give them a go too. Can always buy more if they get eaten!

They will find their way to the lavender, but you can get little herb-size pots of lavender dead cheap. Stick them in a bigger pot, or indeed the ground, and watch them grow!

Ditto the chives, marjoram and oregano. Oh and thyme, they love that.

Not sure the lavender will divide particularly well. Best to get a few pots cheaply from the likes of Morrisons/ Aldi/ Wilko/ Homebase etc. Just seen it's quite a shaded area, lavender will struggle tbh.

Snapdragons can tolerate shade and the bees love them. Ditto fuchsias. Morrisons have fuchsias for £1 each in 9cm pots and plastic sleeves. If you choose the ones marked hardy (other variants are trailing, bush etc) they should reappear next year

Bees absolutely love buddleia and as it's tough as old boots mine thrives in the shade (probably prefers sun but hey ho). It grows like crazy and you'll end up with a massive shrub unless you prune it vigorously after flowering

Foxgloves are a great shout for shade. They're biennials and flower in their second yera so don't be alarmed if you don't see many flowers next year. They set seed very easily so you should end up with lots of plants in time.

Cranesbill geraniums will do okay in shade and are ridiculously easy to divide. They grow nice and bushy to a height of 30-60cm and good for filling a gap. You can chop them back after flowering for a second lot of flowers. They're perennial so very low maintenance. Mine seem to be evergreen tbh!

Do you have sunnier patches to plant up? The articles I've read say bees prefer to forage in the sun so you don't need to worry about pollinating plants being adjacent to their nest. All the suggestions above will make it into an attractive wildlife spot though! Maybe add some stacked up logs and ferns for extra habitat.

Shade plants for bees

Thanks everyone for your replies, so many great ideas! Shamefully we dug up the previous owners beautiful garden as we've got two young dc and we needed lawn space rather than huge borders so I think the bees are struggling
We do have a couple of sunny spots so I've planted some containers and I'll plant some in another sunny patch round the other side of the house. I bought some seeds today that had bees on and are ok to plant in May/June so I'll see what grows. I've manage to keep fuschias alive in the past so I'll get some of those and I'll buy some smaller lavender pots to plant too ! It's great to get names of plants and flowers though so thanks, I've no idea where to start when I go in garden centres!

Best for bumblebees would be to grow from seed not treated by pesticides. Failing that, growing from any seed, as if you buy a pot of lavender/foxgloves from the garden center, they will have been sprayed with pesticides during seeedling stage and beyond, and yet are still sold as ‘perfect for pollinators’. However, the bumbles will
accumulate the chemical traces and it reduces their life span.
I don’t mean to put you off (I scatter foxglove seeds everywhere - poisonous if ingested btw) but the whole ‘perfect for pollinators’ marketing ploy is such trickery.

Borage will grow very fast and is edible and safe for children, so if you can get your hands on seeds that would be the best and kindest food 🐝

Also, if you can plan ahead you could try and plant crocus and snowdrops for spring, and hellebores. It takes a season or two for the bulbs to reduce pesticide traces (unless untreated) but worth it long term, especially as these bulbs come up in early spring when nothing else grows, and hungry bumblebees wander out in the sunshine and die of starvation, too weak to make it back to their hibernation place. Peter Nyssen has a good range.

Currently, ours love all the single poppies we have around. Earlier in the year, it was lungwort from Feb-May. If you have young DC, better avoid foxgloves as they are toxic. Go with herbs, especially marjoram and oregano.

YEsYes to lungwort - a pure feast for bees and bumbles and very pretty flowers.

Oh I keep meaning to get some lungwort/pulmonaria, thanks for the reminder!

OP maybe you could look at getting some climbers on the fence/ boundary if you haven't already (passionflower, ceonothus, star jasmine, honeysuckle, clematis etc all attractive to bees). This would preserve your lawn space I have lots of lawn so I understand the struggle!

It's not too late to plant nasturtiums from seed. They come up really quickly and grow like crazy. You can stake them to climb or let them ramble depending on the variety. Not sure how old your kids are but they're quite fun for children as the results are rapid! They will grow in shade but you wont get many flowers - better to have them in the sun. The leaves and flowers are edible too! Courgettes and sunflowers are also bee-friendly, fun for kids if you have time this year or next. I'd probably go with courgette plants at this stage as you're looking at another month from seed. I'm not a sunflower expert so not sure if it's a bit late or not!

Good points from Harebell I've been reading about the pesticide/pollinator thing in the news this week. Disappointing as the bee-friendly badge now stands for nothing

Oh no I haven't read about pesticides. I've only planted from seed at the moment so I'll be mindful of that. Thanks for the advice about the foxgloves too. I did read the bees prefer native plants and flowers, and these are better for them.

Good idea about the climbers and herbs, I'll look into these too. I haven't heard of lungwort or nasturtiums so I'll see what I can find out about these too. We do have snowdrops and crocuses that come up in the front garden (we left that intact!) and bluebells (although I think they're the Spanish ones). I think we could still plant sunflowers with the dc, we did a few years ago at our other house and I think it was the same time of year.

Thanks again for all of the advice, so many great suggestions!

Wilko do a couple of varieties of nasturtium for 50p a pack

here

friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/garden-centres-say-no-pesticides-after-pressure-you

Thanks Gingercat I bought some seeds from Wilko yesterday but I'll pick some of these up to next time.

Thanks for the link MrsBertBibby, we have a Wyevale near us so it's good to know about their pesticide policy.

Thanks everyone else too. The dc have had a busy morning planting and watering our seeds.

I find the bees make an actual beeline for my aquilegias, also shade tolerant. They seem to prefer the pink/purple ones to the white ones?

Thanks McFugget just had a read up on these. I think they'd be great for next spring / early summer and seem relatively easy to grow.

Of all the many bee-friendly plants in our garden, by far and away the most popular is our rather ugly cotoneaster.

It is currently literally swarming with bees who are flying around the tiny flower buds. We sit near it at night as we live the noise / it’s like being in the hive 🐝

If you plant the aquilegia seeds now (if not too dry) or better in early autumn, they will be strong plants and bloom early in spring, with or just after the lungwort. Really beautiful, even the common/wild ones. They survive the winter and are super non- fussy.

I think we might have one of those or something similar Taffeta I was going to dig it up as it's sprawling everywhere but the bees seem to like it.

Thanks Harebellmeadow that's about the level I'm at! I shall give them a go and see how I get on