[Fleecewife]

I thought we could write this up week by week, so we can see what's best to plant in the various areas of the country to support our bees throughout the year.  I meant to start in Jan, but we'll get there again soon enough.
We mainly have carder bees (the furry orange/brown ones) and buff tailed bumble bees.

So today, with little sunshine and some spots of rain, this is what the bees are enjoying in the south of Scotland:
# favourite of all is rockrose (helianthemum)
# the white clover we've left uncut in the lawn
# centaurea (garden knapweed)
# lupin
# clematis Montana alba
# sanguisorba

The thyme has just started flowering and normally I would expect that to be their favourite, but I think the lack of sunshine means other flowers are more attractive today.
Until a couple of days ago, the two avens were top favourites - wild water avens and 'lemon drop', but they are nearly over now.

So what are the best bee flowers this week in your garden?

[clydesdaleclopper]

Aquilegia and comfrey

[Carse Goodlifers]

The bee's have been loving our:
-antirrhinums
-fox gloves
-scabiosa's
-red hot pokers
-lambs lugs.

The lavender is just about to start flowering which they WILL love along with quite afew herbaceous perennials.

[devonlad]

Hebe they go mad for -its just gone over and now the buzzing is all from our California lilac/ceanothus

[Fleecewife]

This evening, in the rain, it's the aquilegias which are buzzing the most.

[Carse Goodlifers]

Well in the heat and wind of today the bee's have been busy at:
-lambs lugs
-lavender hedge
-hebe's
-dahlia's

[Fleecewife]

Funny, Carse Goodlifers, you're north of us but your flowers are further on.  Must be the elevation and the cold wet weather here (forecast to be 5 degrees tonight  .
Our lavender isn't out yet, nor lambs' lugs, nor dahlias.

Today, it's the thyme the bees are loving.  I have all sorts from creeping to woody culinary types.  The honeysuckle is even better than last week and the bees love that.  Other flowers they're on are the last helianthemum and centaurea, the sages (favourites) and veronicas, still a few aquilegias, garden geraniums and favourite of all is a shrub thing I've completely forgotten the name of - it's woody, with smallish pink or cerise flowers.  Mine are covered in flowers and in bees.

And of course they are on the comfrey and runner beans in the veggie garden.

 

Have you all signed the 'save our bees' petition?

[Carse Goodlifers]

Funny, Carse Goodlifers, you're north of us but your flowers are further on.  Must be the elevation and the cold wet weather here (forecast to be 5 degrees tonight  .
Our lavender isn't out yet, nor lambs' lugs, nor dahlias.

Well to be fair FW, our garden is south facing, fairly well sheltered, some clay but good heavy ground and all the borders had a good top dressing of compost which I think has definitely helped.  And to rub salt into a wound ( ) this is only the second year of the garden as when we moved in it was all grass so everything is new in.
Our newest purchase (fox tail lily) is just starting to flower too    It looks super 

[Fleecewife]

Sounds like we need some pics CG 

A part of my ornamental garden is being dismantled to let the builders in.  At first I was really upset, but now I see it as an opportunity (to get rid of the weeds).  There are plenty of other flower areas though.

The shrub I mentioned last week might be Weigela, according to the giant tome which is the RHS A-Z of garden plants.  It's a great reference if you already know the name of the plant you're looking for, but it's not much use to identify something.   Anyway, that is still the bees' favourite, along with one honeysuckle still smothered in flowers..  The thymes are fully out and causing ecstasy amongst the bees, and the lavender is just open.

Most of the flowers in my garden are planted to please the flying insects, and all are visited,  but occasionally some are not.  When we first moved here 20 years ago, there were some lovely deep red double peonies.  Most have survived, but the bees can't get past all the petals without a big fight.  I've grown some single flowered peonies now, so they love them.  This year the double peony flowers rotted in all the rain we've had, before they could even open their buds.

What bee flowers are most popular further south this week?

[Louise Gaunt]

The budleia (not sure it is spelt correctly) is in full flower and the butterflies are loving it!

[Fleecewife]

Whereabouts are you LG?  Here the buddlejas (weird, I thought it was spelt with an 'i' too, but RHS has a 'j' in there.  Spell check doesn't like the 'j'), so here the buddlejas are nowhere near out.  We have some in front of the barn wall, near where the nesting swallows come in and out.  It's a great snack bar for the swallows - they can pick off all those beautiful butterflies as they swoop past 

I can't remember if I mentioned helychrysum, which this year is in the polytunnel because I didn't get round to planting it out, but the bees, butterflies, hoverflies and so on go crazy for them.  It's partly the bright colours maybe (although I know insects see colours differently to humans) and the large open, flat flowers.

[Louise Gaunt]

I am in south Devon just south of Dartmoor, so probably a few weeks ahead of you in Lanarkshire! I have just downloaded the butterfly count app via the RHS website so will be doing a bit of counting over the next few weeks. It is a bit like the RSPB bird count but for butterflies and moths.

[Fleecewife]

Excellent   
We have hardly any butterflies at all here this year, because it's so very cold and wet.  Occasionally we see one making a dash for cover, but there have not been many days when they can bask in hot sunshine.  What a waste of all those nettles we leave around for them 

I think we lag about 4 weeks behind the SW most years, and we tend to have certain flowers out together, when in the south one has finished before the next starts.

[Penninehillbilly]

Don't know how I missed this, but taken note of plant names and looking forward to next year, please keep up with your listing.
I have lots of buddlia,  taken cuttings of the yellow one for local plant sale in spring, spread the love & nectar 

[Fleecewife]

Those yellow Buddleias grow quite huge, but you can hack them right down to the ground and they come back merrily.

I see that further south there are bees and flowers around - amazing.  Here we have no bees at all, and the only flower since the heavy rain is Christmas rose.  So winter flowers are definitely something I need to look into.  I can't see us ever having bees flying in winter in Scotland though, so it will be just to have something sweet smelling or pretty.