Planting for bees
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Almost but not quite its: Buddleia Globosa – Yes also very good at attracting butterflies.
I was thinking about this and how gardeners can plant for bees etc and I thought that the focus seems to be on flowers, and so I thought about trees.
Upon doing a bit of reading it seems that planting 5-6 trees could be the equivilant of planting a whole wild flower meadow!! Its also a load easier to plant a few trees than to mess around with loads of flowers.
So what trees can we plant to benefit our precious bees?:
A mimosa provides mainly pollen and a little nectar. Alder, has masses of pollen, which is fantastic early in the year when the bees are feeding their brood. Also try Amelanchier, which is pretty and produces lots of nectar, or sorbus, white beam, lime, sweet chestnut, koelreuteria and of course the aptly named Chinese bee tree, tetrodium, which flowers in September.
Blimey, had to look some of those up!!
Beware of Cherry Trees – I have a few hives in a Cherry Orchard, and they propolis everything!! Apparently, if you have bee's near cherries, then its what they do! Only found this out after speaking with a beekeeper of about 40 years. Mine of information, really good chap to speak with.
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