Whether your garden is measured in acres or square feet, there are plenty of ways to incorporate a bit of colour and some bee-friendly plants into the mix and, as it’s National Gardening Week (and a bank holiday weekend, no less!), there’s no time like the present to start. Some of you may remember the container we planted up last autumn, and we got so many enthusiastic comments that we thought we’d share another quick, easy and scalable scheme for your enjoyment.
Hebe is a brilliant architectural plant with striking foliage, but also has pretty flowers which are irresistible to bees. With so many varieties to choose from, pick one that complements your choice of other plants – we opted for this claret coloured one, but it was a difficult decision…
Like all our plant choices here, Scabiosa is a plant which will just keep on giving: it’s a great choice for cut flowers, and indeed if you continue to pick the flowers they’ll continue to produce more. It’s also possible to propagate it by seed, by dividing larger plants or by taking basal cuttings.
Sedum is wonderful plant which bees adore and which flowers very late into the season. It will die back over the winter and when the new growth appears next spring you can cut back any dead flowerheads. There are lots of varieties of this species – we rather like the flowers on this one.
Primula – we were lucky to find some already in the garden, but they’re easy to find in the garden centre and even some supermarkets.
The pot here is a 40cm plastic one, made by elho which comes in a variety of striking colours, but of course any pot of a similar size would work perfectly.
So, there you have it: an easy to plant bee-friendly scheme. If you’re not inclined to plant these up in a container, these plants are all first class choices for the garden in general and as ever we’re keen to see what you’re planting and doing in your garden to make it that little bit more delightful for our pollinating friends. Leave us a comment below, and in the meantime here’s to a beautiful Easter weekend.
