Bee Friendly Flowers

The best bee friendly flowers for year-round blooms and beautiful gardens

Articles

Choosing Bee Friendly Flowers for Your Garden

There’s a huge variety of plants and flowers to choose from when it comes to finding bee friendly plants, but did you know some bee species are more selective than others? And some plant varieties can attract more bees than others, so it’s important to know which plants will have the most benefit for your garden. As different bee species are active at different times of the year, it’s also important to find flowers that will bloom throughout the year, so there’s always some nectar available for visiting bees. That’s why the plants listed below flower at different times of the year, so the bees will have food year round and your garden will be in bloom even in the winter months.

The nectar in flowers is essential to the bee’s survival, and as they spread pollen around when feeding, it pollinates the flowers and helps them to spread and grow – so it’s good for the bees and your garden too.

Bee Vision

To attract bees to our gardens, it’s important to understand how bees see. Bees see colours on a different spectrum than humans do. Humans can see more of the orange and red end of the colour spectrum that bees can’t perceive – this is why bees are less drawn to red and orange plants than to some others. Bees on the other hand can see more of the violet and ultraviolet side of the colour spectrum, so they can see more vivid purple and blue hues than we can! This is why bees often favour blue and purple coloured flowers and they look much more vivid to the bee’s eyes.

This is why many of our top bee friendly flower recommendations are blue or purple, but you don’t need to stick to only these colours, a variety of colours and shades can work very well together.

Lavender

Late summer blooms

Lavender is a bee favourite plant, the purple shade and wonderful smell make this plant particularly appealing to pollinators. Lavender is a great place to start for attracting bees to your garden, as they are a good food source for a range of different bee species. Lavender will bloom from June to September, so it’s a great late summer plant. They are also quite tough and can survive the winter well. Read our lavender care guide for more tips about when and where to plant.

Alliums

Late spring, early summer blooms

Allium ‘Globemaster’ have pretty violet pom-pom like flowers that bees really enjoy. They flower in the late spring to early summer, so will come into bloom before lavender. Alliums do best in sunny spots, and will grow to about 20cm tall, so are good for mid boarders. They’re perennials so they will come back every year when planted in the right conditions. Do note that alliums can be toxic to dogs, so best avoided if you have dogs at home!

Read our allium care guide for tips on how to grow them in your garden.

Buddleia (Butterfly bush)

Late summer blooms

Buddleia are sometimes called ‘Butterfly bush’ as they’re particularly attractive to butterflies, as well as bees. They are full of nectar and will flower in the late summer months. The flowers come in a range of colours, including blue, pink, purple, white and yellow and have a wonderful honey like smell. They are easy to grow and will grow very quickly, but they can become very large so are best planted in areas where they will have room to grow tall – or find a smaller growing variety if you have a smaller space to work with.

Check out out buddleia care guide for more information.

Foxgloves

late spring, early summer blooms

Foxgloves have tubular-shaped flowers that bumblebees particularly enjoy, as their longer tongues help them reach the nectar inside. Foxgloves and grow up to 2m tall, so do well at the back of boarders or along your garden fence. The flowers are either pink, purple, or white, and are biennial – so they will flower in their second year. Like some other plants, foxgloves are toxic if ingested, so you will want to keep little ones away from them.

View our foxglove planting guide for information on growing foxgloves.

Winter Honeysuckle

Winter blooms

Winter Honeysuckle is a great way to help out pollinators over the winter months, as they will flower from mid-December through to March. The cream white flowers have a lovely smell that both you and the bees will enjoy in winter. They grow very large so are best planted at the back of boarders or along fence lines, and are therefore best suited to larger spaces where they will have room around them to grow.

Winter clematis

Winter blooms

The winter clematis is another winter flowering plant that is hardy and easy to grow. They are evergreen climbers, so will keep some colour in the garden over the winter months, and can be trained to climb trellises or fences or archways for a pretty effect. They will bloom between November and January, so will provide essential nectar during difficult months for bees.

Snapdragons

June through to October

Snapdragons come in a variety of bright colours that will flower between June and October. They’re annuals, as they won’t survive the coldest winter months, but add a wonderful spray of colour during the late summer. They’re typically easy to grow and are great for creating a cottage style look to your garden, while the volume of flowers is ideal for many pollinators.

Forget-me-not

Spring blooms

Forget-me-nots are beautiful spring plants that grow delicate violet coloured flowers. They are low height flowers, so do best at the front of borders or along paths. The delicate flowers create a cloud like effect that’s perfect for a softened or cottage style garden. They grow quite easily from seeds, so make a cost effective choice for adding colourful bee friendly plants to your garden.

Campanulas

Early summer blooms

Campanula portenschlagiana are delicate violet coloured flowers that grow in early summer. They are low lying and will cascade well, making them perfect for tumbling over flower pots, garden walls, or hanging baskets. They are perennials, and don’t require much maintenance, so once planted they will take care of themselves, provided they get some sun – though they will be fine in partial shade too.