Following on from Friends of the Earth’s recent Bee Action Day, Alice Quayle, an organic gardener, describes how anyone can use beautiful but tough plants and flowers which can (usually) thrive in Manx conditions, to create a buzzing haven for bees, birds and butterflies.
One of the things I love best about spring and summer is seeing the bees out and about, bumbling and bimbling about their business, or mobbing some patch of flowers that are particularly bee-friendly: like a gang of tiny teddy bears on some urgent (honey-related) mission.
I particularly enjoy seeing some small creature in the garden working hard whilst obviously happy (whether I‘m relaxing or doing a spot of outdoor work myself). I exclude longtails from that sentiment, of course.
Manx bees have a headstart over their British neighbours. I heard a visiting judge at a honey show once saying that Manx honey tastes much better than honey from his native Yorkshire, because we have so many more wildflowers than where he comes from. He said - ‘your honey actually tastes of flowers!’ Also, we have healthier bees, thanks to the sea around us preventing the spread of disease, plus an import ban on honeybees.
However our Manx honeybees, bumblebees and similar micro-creatures have had to face the atrocious (and ridiculous) weather of the last few years. Snow, rain and cold means less chance to get out and forage, so they need all the help they can get to find food. That’s where we can do them a favour by choosing their favourite bee-friendly flowers for our gardens (with the bonus of seeing the garden buzzing with life on fine days).
It seems a bit surprising, but many summer flowers in gardens are absolutely useless for bees. Many modern varieties have no nectar, or have frilly complicated ‘double’ flowers that bees cannot wade through. Old-fashioned ‘cottage garden’ varieties, and garden herbs, tend to have simple flowers and plenty of nectar, often with ultraviolet markings (invisible to us) pointing the way to the nectar.
So, as a rule of thumb, garden herbs and old-fashioned perennials are the best bet. Planting in blocks of 3 or more makes them easier to find. Bees need a continual supply of food from early spring until autumn - so the best bee-friendly gardens have a variety of early and late-flowering plants. If you can’t be bothered with flower borders, then shrubs or a mixed hedge flowering from spring to autumn are brilliant too. There’s a list below of some of the best.
A bonus of many ‘tried and tested’ older plant varieties is that they are as tough as boots, can stand up to bad weather and Manx slugs, and so don’t need cosseting with chemicals (the fewer chemicals in the garden, the better for bees, birds and butterflies). One other thing small wildlife really appreciates in a garden is water (eg a water feature trickling over mossy rocks). Also hugely useful is the odd bit of untidyness and variety rather than a zero-tolerance policy.
You’ll find more plants, pictures and leads at: http://bumblebeeconservation.org/ and via links on the Isle of Man Friends of the Earth Facebook page. Here are some super-tough & brilliantly bee-friendly flowers, all of which are best to plant out when 8-10 inches high and hardened off to help foil the slugs.
~ Spring and early summer
Heather, Daffodils, Bluebells, Primroses, Forget-me-nots, Wallflowers, Dandelions (!!), Honesty, Aquilegia, Thrift, Campanula trailing, Aubretia (Aubretia/ Primroses a bit prone to slugs).
~ Spring-flowering bee-friendly shrubs and trees
Cherry, Cherry Plum & Plum (these do spread/send out suckers), Willow, Crab apple and Apple, Ornamental fruit trees (cherries, plums etc) (only the single-flowered ones are useful)
Forsythia, Currants, Gooseberries, Flowering currants, Broom (Cytisus), Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Berberis.
~ Summer
Herbs ~ Lavender, Thyme, Mint, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Fennel (on sandy soil), Goldenrod, Knapweed. Less slugproof & better in sun/dry/sand - Borage, Chives, Lemon balm, Hyssop, Anise Hyssop, Catmint, Vipers Bugloss (the bumblebees’ favourite).
Tall/climbing ~ Oriental poppy, Teasle, Comfrey (sprawls), Perennial Wallflower ‘Bowles’ Mauve’, Foxgloves (poisonous). If dry/sandy: Mallow, Verbascum, Lupins, Agastache.
Lower / Ground cover ~ Hardy geranium (Cranesbill - not ‘pelargonium’), Allium, Creeping Thyme, Trailing Bellflower, Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla Mollis), Nasturtium, Clover, Periwinkle. A bit less tough - Aubretia, Alyssum, Antirrhinums (snapdragons), Calendula, Phacelia (dry/sand).
~ Summer Shrubs & trees
Lilac, Ceonothus (stunning blue flowers), Perennial wallflower (purple flowers), Buddliea (‘butterfly bush’), Elder, Escallonia, Hebe (aka Veronica), Honeysuckle (climber).
~ Late Summer & Autumn plants
French Lavender, Nasturtium, Goldenrod, Marjoram, Ivy, Rudbeckia, Ice plant (Sedum Spectabile), Michaelmas Daisies (Aster) (last 3 prone to slugs), Crocosmia (but beware, these can be hard to get rid of!).
~ Late Summer and Autumn shrubs and trees
Fuschia Magellicana (‘Manx’ fuschia).
~ Late Autumn/Winter
Flowering Ivy (a crucial bee food), some Viburnums, Gorse.