Hardy, bee attracting shrubs for semi shade

[ReadytoTalk]

I've got quite a specific set of requirements and not much a clue when it comes to gardening, any suggestions most welcome! Im looking for 3 or 4 different flowering shrubs, ideally evergreen, that can withstand a battering when the kids start kicking their footballs around. The area is a long thin part shade flowerbed alongside a fence and im hoping that i can fill the space up with shrubs to make it easier to stay on top of the bindweed. I don't know what my soil is like but I've got a fuschia that does well there. I don't mind doing some cutting back once a year but i don't have time to do much more than that. I prefer small to medium flowers rather than big bulky ones. Please could anyone suggest something?

Try Californian lilac. We have one and it has about 100 bees on it at any given time! We call it the humming bush

Skimming x confusa, Hebe caledonia, Hebe rakaiensis, Choisya ternata, Choisya × dewitteana, Osmanthus x burkwoodii, small rhododendron or camellia

There are lots of other hebe varieties, you can take a look in your local garden centre.

Skimmia x confusa, I mean

And rhododendron and camellia have large flowers, so may not be what you're looking for

Sarcocca confusa is a lovely evergreen winter flowering bush with delicious scent in January. Very helpful to winter bees. Likes shade. Black berries for the birds in summer. If your border comes near the house it will give a beautiful scent.

Japanese quince is deciduous, but has stunning early spring flowers, so really worth having. Huge variety of colours etc to pick from

www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/3463/Chaenomeles-speciosa/Details

Ceanothus.

Thank you for the tips ill have a look for these in my garden centre

Climbing hydrangeas or most definitely honeysuckle.

Honeysuckle also benefits moths and therefore bats. Get the native sort though as it is more suited to feeding more types of moths

minor warning - ceanothus are thorny
major warning - chaenomeles are very thorny

source: we've had both outside the back door at around eye-height!

My ceonothus isn't thorny! Googling tells me some varieties are, who knew?

Pyracantha is resilient and evergreen if you're looking for fence cover. Bees love the flowers and you'll get pretty berries over winter. I have red and orange berry varieties, I believe there is yellow too. You get more berries/flowers in the sun but my semi-shaded one still gets a decent amount.

Some cranesbill geraniums are semi-hardy, shade tolerant and would withstand the odd football!

Now pyracantha is the thorniest bastard in Christendom.

Also, the berries are lovely, and so were the droves of blackbirds scoffing them, and hurling themselves against our patio doors to get st them!

Mine is very very deeply shaded, but it still goes like a rocket. Fabulous plant.

fuschia

Ah yes ive got a couple of fuschia bushes i forgot to say. Thorns are out as I've got toddlers but I'll have a look for non thorny varieties

Rhododendrons are toxic to bees so avoid those! Plants that produce pollen and nectar in early spring, late autumn and the june gap can make most difference because there may be fewer alternative sources of nectar and pollen around. Lonicera purpusii is nice for spring, perhaps cotoneaster for June. For autumn I'd put in hardy geraniums like Roxanne - not a shrub but really robust and bees love them!

If you're after some ground cover, you could put in some pulmonaria. Beautiful silver blotched leaves all year, and a mass of pink/blue/ purple flowers in very early spring, just as the bumbles emerge.

Here's mine, it's hard to get a photo that really does them justice.

My snowberry bush is covered with bees and it grows like fury. It's not evergreen but it's not thorny either and it has lovely leaves in spring and berries in autumn. Hardy as anything, you can basically do anything with it and it's fine.

Have aquilegias been mentioned yet? Bloody brilliant beauties.

I've got hundreds of aquilegia but they've just all finished flowering sadly.

I'd love snowberries - there are several on our street and they are always covered with bees, but I think the berries are poisonous so not suitable for a garden where a toddler rampages roams!

Never argue with a bee !