Bees are most attracted to blue, violet, and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths (Image: Getty )
In honour of World Bee Day, biodiversity expert Helen Nyul from David Wilson Homes has offered top tips for inviting bees into your garden. She’s provided guidance on how to make gardens more appealing to pollinators and create a haven for them.
“Pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths play a crucial role in any garden environment by transferring pollen from one flower to another, enabling plants to reproduce and produce seeds and fruits”, she explained. “Unfortunately, the UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s, equal to the size of 7.5 million acres – that’s an area roughly one and a half times the size of Wales.”
Nyul added: “To help combat this decline and the impact on pollinators, it’s highly recommended to plant pollinator-friendly plants in the garden. Even a small, untouched patch of wildflowers and long grass can create a valuable mini meadow for wildlife and pollinators, from bees to butterflies.
“For example, if all 20 million gardens in the UK had a wildflower space of two metres squared, that would add up to over five thousand football pitches. Thankfully, many pollinator-friendly plants are easy to grow and maintain, and nearly all are perennials – meaning they come back year after year.”
Bees are essential to our ecosystem, helping with the pollination of plants that are crucial for their reproduction and the security of our global food supply. They enhance biodiversity and ecosystem health, while also providing us with valuable products like honey and beeswax, reports Bristol Live.
A large share of the fruits, vegetables, and grains we eat rely on bees for pollination, highlighting their crucial role in food production. Bees help transfer pollen between plants, which is essential for the growth of seeds and fruits. Additionally, they aid wild plants and trees that provide homes and food for many animals, thus boosting the diversity of ecosystems.
Biodiversity expert shares how to attract bees into your garden (Image: Getty)
Bees provide pollination services valued in the billions for farmers around the world, highlighting their essential role in maintaining a reliable food supply.
Here are the top 10 garden plants that attract bees:
1. Lavender
Lavender is an evergreen shrub characterised by narrow, silvery-green leaves and spikes of aromatic purple flowers. It typically blossoms from late spring to early summer, and it is highly appealing to bees and butterflies.
2. Marjoram (Oregano)
Marjoram is a tender perennial herb featuring soft, oval leaves and petite white or pink flowers. It blooms from late spring to early summer and is very attractive to bees and other insects.
3. Michaelmas Daisy
This perennial flower blooms later in the summer season, showcasing daisy-like flowers in shades of purple, pink, blue, or white. They provide an excellent source of nectar for both bees and butterflies.
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4. Marigold
Marigolds are recognised for their vibrant yellow, orange, and red blooms and are available in either French or African varieties. They flower from late spring and are excellent at attracting pollinators.
5. Hyacinth
Hyacinths are flowers that bloom in the spring, featuring a dense, fragrant spike of flowers in pink, purple, white, blue, or yellow. Their strong scent makes them ideal for attracting early-season pollinators like bees.
6. Sunflower
As the name implies, Sunflowers typically flower throughout the summer season, boasting large yellow flower heads. They are superb at attracting bees and birds, due to the seeds they shed.
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7. Catmint
Catmint is a fragrant perennial with grey-green leaves and lavender-blue flower spikes. It usually blossoms in late spring and is excellent for attracting bees and butterflies. Cats are also frequently attracted to the scent.
8. Geranium
Geranium flowers, with their delicate petals in hues of pink, purple, blue, and white, provide a gentle, welcoming presence in gardens and wild meadows alike. Their shallow, open blooms make nectar easily accessible, attracting a variety of bees, particularly bumblebees and solitary species.
9. Foxglove
Foxgloves, or Digitalis, have tall flower spikes with purple, pink, and white blooms. Many are ‘biennials’, meaning they germinate in the first year, form a rosette of leaves, then flower and die in the second year. However, don’t be concerned as you can scatter the thousands of tiny seeds that remain.
10. Helenium
Helenium flowers, with their vibrant daisy-like appearance and fiery hues of yellow, orange, and red, are a dazzling addition to any late summer garden. Their dome-shaped centres, brimming with nectar and pollen, are irresistible to bees.
Bee hotels can be a valuable tool for supporting solitary bees and other beneficial insects (Image: Getty)
Gardeners looking to attract more bees should consider planting purple flowers, as these are particularly visible to bees. Creating a bee hotel is an excellent way to support solitary bees, which, unlike honeybees, do not live in colonies but rather nest alone in various natural settings.
Helen Nyul offers advice on how to make your garden even more bee-friendly. She said: “Now that bees are attracted to your garden, you can go a step further and give them a shelter and nesting site. Unlike the more widely known bumblebee and honeybee, most of our bees do not make colonies but are actually solitary.
“Bee hotels can be built using materials like untreated wood, hollow stems, or even recycled plastic bottles and are a great way to encourage solitary bees to inhabit your garden and help with pollination.”
She continues with practical tips for constructing a bee hotel: “You use bamboo canes, and the dead stems of hollow plants and reeds to provide the bees with shelter. You can also drill deep holes of varying sizes (between 2-6mm diameter) into blocks of wood and logs, again about 15cm deep – make sure to angle them up slightly so the rain doesn’t get in.”