More plant questions

Ok in my ever insatiable need (as I'm a gardener) to plant things that will help the bees I am planning on hedging my apiary on one side with flowering quince and spreading snowdrops around the hives (I can get both of these for free) to help with spring pollen/nectar. I want to hedge the other edge (the other two side have hazel hedging) with something else good for spring. I could do blackthorn but i have masses of it further up the field and it's insanely nasty if you get thorns embedded in your skin.

Or perhaps some good pollen spring plants to boost colony growth? Any ideas?

I like talking about plants almost as much as bees lol

Greggorio said:

Ok in my ever insatiable need (as I'm a gardener) to plant things that will help the bees I am planning on hedging my apiary on one side with flowering quince and spreading snowdrops around the hives (I can get both of these for free) to help with spring pollen/nectar. I want to hedge the other edge (the other two side have hazel hedging) with something else good for spring. I could do blackthorn but i have masses of it further up the field and it's insanely nasty if you get thorns embedded in your skin.
Or perhaps some good pollen spring plants to boost colony growth? Any ideas?
I like talking about plants almost as much as bees lol

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Depends what you mean by 'hedge'. I seem to remember from your previous post that you have marshy ground - in which case willow would be an excellent choice e.g. male form of goat willow, Salix caprea. Grow it from cuttings.One of the joys of early spring is standing by such a bush and listening to the hum of the bees. The main product is pollen for the developing grubs and maybe a little nectar - even from the male flower!
D'you have Amazon in France? - I recommend Plants for Bees by Kirk and Howes, IBRA, 2012 for all your queries.

Marshy ground, wouldn't Himalayan balsam grow well there?

Pulmonaria, great early spring plant, loved by hairy footed flower bees. Cotoneaster, LOVED by all bees, covered in hb's and bumbles in early summer. Lambs ears, attracts wool carder bees. Any of the herbs

You will need acres to make much difference to honey bees! That's why honey bees are crop and tree creatures. They need thousands of flowers to make excess honey. But I agree that every little bit helps!

Yes, go for willow but you will have to let it grow taller than hedge height.
If you're not that bothered what season your hedge flowers then you could try Cotoneaster which the bees go crazy over or maybe an Escallonia.

Crocus are better than snowdrops for early pollen.

Cussword said:

Marshy ground, wouldn't Himalayan balsam grow well there?

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Flowers in spring (OP)??

Willow isn't an issue, the marsh is full of it as are a lot of adjacent fields. No idea if it's male or not. I also have other types of willow growing but I'll watch and see whether they utilise it much and if not I'll replace with pussy willow.

A lot of people say you'd need acres of flowers to make a difference but seeing as a normal distance for a bee is a mile and 10 hives is not abnormal in one apiary then a normal area is 3.14 sq miles. That is roughly 8 sq km which means 0.8 sq km per colony. In that 0.8 might be masses of grass, hazel etc etc that is useless or next to useless most of the year. Now I'm sure some scientists have done the actual maths but it seems reasonable to me that planting will help greatly. Anyway I have a 2.5 acre field and last year I plated 300 crocus's and intend to do the same this year. 800 snowdrops last year, same this year. Don't need acres, just need time and free plants.

I may be wrong but that's how it seems to me when i do the maths in my head and look around. Do correct me as I prefer to know how it actually is rather than making assumptions.
Either way every extra bit of pollen to kick off the brood is all for the good!

Cussword said:

Marshy ground, wouldn't Himalayan balsam grow well there?

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it will and livestock would browse any escaping plants down long before they could seed. If anything I'd have to protect the ones I may plant from being eaten in the first place

kazmcc said:

Pulmonaria, great early spring plant, loved by hairy footed flower bees. Cotoneaster, LOVED by all bees, covered in hb's and bumbles in early summer. Lambs ears, attracts wool carder bees. Any of the herbs

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I've read bees like cotoneaster but never seen a single honeybee on mine, nor my pyracantha hedge or purple budljea for that matter despite some claims.

The cotoneaster in my garden is well used by bees. I agree about the pyracantha......but lots of other pollinators like it and purple buddleia has flowers that honeybees can't use but again butterflies like them. The yellow globosa buddleia is fine

Most popular shrub with honey bees in my garden is ceanothus - only really suited to dry rocky ground, so for your site you may need different advice - don't forget ivy for autumn.

Erichalfbee said:

The cotoneaster in my garden is well used by bees. I agree about the pyracantha......but lots of other pollinators like it and purple buddleia has flowers that honeybees can't use but again butterflies like them. The yellow globosa buddleia is fine

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The globosa being good was my understanding but a while ago someone was adamant the traditional purple was good too. (not in my garden)

Gilberdyke John said:

The globosa being good was my understanding but a while ago someone was adamant the traditional purple was good too. (not in my garden)

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And they posted pictorial proof.
Despite what's been said, your bees will take advantage of nearby, easy forage, mine always did.
You could try Rose hedging and benefit from hips later in the year. Skimmea Japonica is well liked, always masses on that. The busiest plant I've seen is a particular type of Campanula, the flowers are more open and paler than most and I see more bees on the patch I have in my front garden than the Bramble when I compared them.

Gilberdyke John said:

I've read bees like cotoneaster but never seen a single honeybee on mine, nor my pyracantha hedge or purple budljea for that matter despite some claims.

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That's really odd, because every cotoneaster I have walked past has been crawling in bees! You must have something even better nearby. One bee keeper said he had had a call for a swarm from a woman and it turned out it was bees on a cotoneaster. She insisted he stop them foraging it lol

My mum bought me a california lilac this year because she had seen one covered in bees. I only planted it a couple of months ago, so it hasn't flowered properly. The couple that I walk past never seem to have bees on them though. We shall wait and see

I intended to grub up the pyracantha this year, (horrible nasty, spiky thing) as it didn't seem to be worked by anything. Left it too late and so thought "I'll let it flower and then rip it out". This year, covered in bees. It's a conspiracy...

I have one on a south facing wall and when in bloom it is abuzz with all sorts of wasps and bees.
It seems to flower every other year. Strange. The Whitebeam seems to do that too. It was covered in blossom and bees last year; this year zilch.

bontbee said:

I intended to grub up the pyracantha this year, (horrible nasty, spiky thing) as it didn't seem to be worked by anything. Left it too late and so thought "I'll let it flower and then rip it out". This year, covered in bees. It's a conspiracy...

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Excellent stuff for discouraging unwanted intruders when planted to form a barrier. Maybe it would do more to stop the seige of Eurotunnel than the feeble wire netting we see on the news?