Bee friendly bed

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I'm looking at a bed that is presently overgrown with ivy and thinking I'd like to make it a bee friendly bed.

It is shady after about 11 am, full sun before then. Not v good quality soil, I suspect.

I'd like some early colours so I'm thinking a few bulbs (snowdrops, daffs, narcissi, tulips) and then I have a few bee bombs for wildflowers. But probably need a few shrubs to bulk it out - lavender, a buddleia....

What else?

How big is the bed?

There's a big difference in size between lavender and buddleia! Lavender can attract the occasional humming bird hawk moth.

Bee bombs aren't necessarily wild flowers, or at least flowers that are wild to the UK. But that's not a problem if you're growing them in your garden.

I guess it is about 3m x 1m. Yes, as I was typing it I thought 'wait, lavender and buddleia NOT really the same.' I think a buddleia in one corner and maybe two lavender in the midst.

There’s a great book called brilliant and wild that is all about low maintenance bee and pollinator friendly borders.

Unless you can get hold of a miniature buddleia, I think that might dominate the space. I prune mine back almost to the ground each spring and it still throws out 6-8ft long branches every year. You can get small ones designed for pots; even so their spread is the best part of a metre, so you'd be using up a third of your space on something that's in flower only for a few weeks.

I'd suggest perhaps a rosemary if you want something shrublike. Sedum spectabile is almost as good as buddleia for attracting butterflies, if you go for the original dull pink colour rather than the newer red varieties. Creeping thistle is great for butterflies, so you could research whether any other thistle relatives are as good, eg cotton thistle or cardoon.

For bumblebees, scabious (Knautia) are very good, with a long flowering period.

They love borage - it has self-seeded in our garden and there have been happily stoned bees in it all summer .

The earliest "bulb" I've found is Cyclamen coum, in flower from late Dec to March.

These aren't shrubs and I'm not sure about the little or no sun after 11am, but bees love

Cosmos
Echinacea (coneflowers)
Alliums (plant bulbs in autumn)
Phlox

I have an Abelia in a similar spot and it's my favourite shrub. It flowers through from August to November and the bees adore it. It's covered in bees from dawn to dusk.

Oooh, these are all brilliant! Thanks so so much! Getting excited about planting up this autumn now and look forward to a trip to the garden centre!

Cranesbill geraniums grow well in semi shade and have open flowers that bees love. Different varieties flower at different times from spring to Autumn.
My Persicaria, again different varieties, are full of bees and hover flies. It’s a plant that also spreads, but dies down in winter so bulbs and primulas grow through.

Pulmonaria is a great ground cover plant (beautiful silver blotched leaves) and very early flowers in pink and blues. Essential for emerging bumble bee queens, it's a woodland plant so loves shade.

Bee bombs are unlikely to give you a manageable border, btw! Wildflowers are bloody hard to garden!

Bulbs wise, daffs are pretty useless to bees as they are so highly engineered they are generally sterile. Tulips I think are similar. Aliums (later flowers) are bee magnets, and tough as old boots.

Poppies are great, I have some lovely yellow Welsh poppies that they love, they do spread a lot though!

If the soil is poor you can improve it by spreading compost (your local tip may give it away, my dad's does,)

Poppies are great, I have some lovely yellow Welsh poppies that they love, they do spread a lot though! There's three groups of poppy - 1) big perennial ones like "Patty's Plum" 2) smaller annuals -opium, shirley etc - which need sun and clear soil - they're triggered into growth by light so don't cover the seed 3) Meconopsis - they all like shade and a moister soil - the yellow Welsh ones are easy (and come in orange too), the blue ones are tricky to grow.