Shrubs growing in shade perform a variety of functions – from serving as a leafy foil to other plants, to lighting up dark areas with bright flowers or impressing with dramatic foliage. Small or low-growing shrubs can even be used for ground cover.
The Best Flowers for Bumblebees
07.08.2023 - 16:37 / gardenersworld.com
Like honeybees, bumblebees visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar to take back to their colonies to feed the developing brood.
In the UK there are around 24 species of bumblebee, some more common than others. They can be distinguished from honeybees by their relatively fat, furry bodies compared to the smaller, slimmer appearance of honeybees.
Help more pollinators:
The best flowers for honeybees How to make your garden butterfly-friendly The best flowers for hoverfliesBumblebees don’t make honey, which is used by honeybees to sustain the colony over winter. Instead, bumblebee colonies, which are smaller than those of honeybees, die each year, with new nests created by queens that have overwintered, in spring. Newly emerged queens feed on nectar to boost their energy levels, then locate a suitable nest site, for example under a shed or in an old hole or burrow. Once sited, she’ll start collecting pollen as well as nectar to feed her first brood, once they hatch.
When it comes to flower preference, you’ll find that different flowers attract different species. Buff-tailed bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, are larger and less agile than smaller species and have relatively short tongues, so they tend to opt for larger flowers, with nectaries that are easily accessible. The garden or small bumblebee, Bombus hortorum, is smaller with a relatively long tongue, and prefers to visit flowers with deep corollae.
In this short video guide, the experts at Bumblebee Conservation Trust share the best plants that gardeners can grow to help bumblebees.
Check out some of our favourite flowers to grow for bumblebees, below.
RosemaryRosemary is great for those hot, dry spots in the garden, and on top of the flowers being a magnet for
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