Time to plant bee frienly bulb flowers and trees

This is it! :) The perfect time to plant all sorts of bee friendly bulb flowers, shrubs, trees and even flower seeds.

Bulb Flowers: Snowdrops, Eranthis, Anemones, Siberian Squill, Daffodils are a few bees adore.

Snow drops bloom very early, end of February and beginning of March

Eranthis is another early bloomer

Siberian Squill starts flowering after the Snowdrops

Daffodil is another early spring flower

Autumn is the right time to plant all sorts of flowering trees. I will be planting Cherry trees, Black Locust, European Spindle, Siberian Pea Shrub and Apple trees. It is possible i will go around local nature and get some Rowan, Maple and Linden trees and plant them at this time.
I will be stratifying Quince seeds in pots outdoor since they need to be in cold to be able to sprout in spring time.

Many self seeding flowers can also be planted now.

At this time of invasive mono-crop agriculture it is of alerting importance to plant bee friendly plants as much as we are able to. Lawns are useless unless covered in Clower. It is best to create large flower islands on a large lawn. This also means less need to mow the lawn = less petrol needed to feed the grass cutting machines.

Aster; The Autumn Star

Fantastic plants which gives so many flowers which bees adore. I call these daisy-like flowers Aster because they are in the same Asteraceae family but not all are called Aster. Not sure of their actual name though but it matters little. What matters is what my lady bees are telling me :) They are saying "propagate these fine flowers so we have nectar and pollen in Autumn". I will do so.

One interesting thing I observed yesterday; I saw a honeybee on a Solidago plant! Solidago was flowering very strong all the summer and I could not see even one honey bee on its flowers only hover flies. Now I saw one plant with a few honeybees working its flowers :) I don't think honeybees like this flower that much but now there is little to be found in the nature so they are using all they can find.

My bees have a white stripe on their back - Himalayan Balsam

I see at this time of the year on beekeeping forums new beekeepers asking a question like "My bees have a white stripe down their back. They look like ghosts. Are they sick?" :) Far from it :)

As you can see in this photo the white stripe comes from the Himalayan Balsam pollen :) thats all, 

no big deal :)

The ladies dig the blondie look at this time of the season ;)

 Most countries find this plant specie "invasive". I have no clue what they

are talking about since they a TERRIFIC source of nectar and pollen for 

both our Honeybees and Bumblebees. I find mono-crop agriculture highly 

invasive yet our governments aren't doing much about it.

 That said, I will be propagating this fabulous plant which is 

flowering so late in the season when very little is. They are 

priceless for the bees. I started collecting seeds from it :)

I'm guerilla, invading the planet with bee friendly plants ;)

These seed pods explode on the touch and for this reason

I gently close the pods into my palm where they explode, otherwise

they scatter all over the place.

Bees on Small-leaved Linden Tree and Elm-leaved Sumac blossoms

Honey Bee on a Linden blossom

Honey Bee working the Elm-leaved Sumac which is not poisonous

Im so happy to see so much forage in our locality. There is lots of White Clover, Fireweed and now even Linden tree is flowering too :) happy days.
My neighbour has two Elm-leaved Sumac trees near his pond and I was surprised to see my Honeybees working Sumac blossoms especially because there is so much else to choose from. There must be something special in Sumac blossoms that the bees are after. We know that pollen from some plants has more Amino Acids and proteins than others. I replanted a few off shots of Sumac into my garden following bees lead on this :) The same is happening with Reseda odorata in my garden. Even though there is lots of fine forage around us my bees insist on working the few pots of Reseda I planted :)
Sumac is very antimicrobial and Reseda has virtually no pests :) there must be something in them which bees use for their benefit :) I will be planting both of them in huge quantities especially because they are so easy to propagate.

Planting for bees

Even though there is much forage in our locality I'm still focused on planting extra for the bees. This year I started with Borage and Calendula. Of course I planted some Willow and am trying to collect as many wild flowering plants as I can possibly find like the Sweet Clover, Primrose, Asters etc ...
There is lots of White Clover around here and the bees love it;

 Incoming Bee

 Reseda odorata sure is of great interest for the bees since

they are spending lots of time collecting its nectar and pollen.

It is important to say that Reseda odorata virtually suffers of no pests.

Maybe bees use this to their advantage to fight pests within the hive?

I dont know, but what I do know is my gut feeling sais plant a lot of this 

lovely smelling flower.

Can you see the bee?

Flowering paradise

Summer is the lush season :) everything is in full bloom and bees are at their busiest buzzing here and there collecting pollen, nectar, water and propolis.
Even though the nature here offers a lot I decided to plant some more and help out our buzzing ladies which they obviously appreciate :)

 Borage is growing lush and strong. I have never seen such tall Borage. 

Honey and Bumble Bees are going nuts over its flowers :)

 I have planted a few big pots with Reseda odorata

which seems to be on the Honey Bees menu :)

Peach color pollen from Reseda odorata flower 

which smells lovely. I will plant this flower in huge 

quantities in the future :)

Planting for the bees

I've got some flowering plants from my neighbour :) They are perennial and I will do my best to propagate them every year. Honey Bees prefer to forage on flowers which are in abundance so growing just a few plants of same specie will be ignored (not wasted though since Bumblebees will take care of it).

Bumblebee foraging on the newly introduced European Columbine both white and blue :)

The second addition is a beautiful and hardy Italian Bugloss

Potentilla fruticosa Shrub

It is middle of October in Sweden and its clid and rainy. The bees are clustering in the hive.
I have noticed this shrub all over this area, planted arround houses and its still flowering despite the frost. A little reasearch on the net and most sources say it is a hardy plant flowering from May to October and Honeybees love it. I will be planting this one.

Borage - Borago officinalis

Borage is one of the easiest and best bee plants that I have found.  It has many advantages for both gardeners and beekeepers:
For gardeners

Borage is a herb and the seed packet will tend to tell you that the cucumber leaves taste nice in a Pimms. This is true but greatly undervalues the plant;

grows very easily from seed – just push the big seeds into the soil and off they go
plants grow to about 2ft with masses for beautiful blue 5 petal flowers from May to October – employ the ‘Chelsea chop’ to some plants in June to keep them tidy and flowering well.
because bees love them they are great for attracting pollinators to your veg or soft fruit patch
they self seed so, as long as you avoid weeding them out, you will get a good crop free next year in either flowerbed or veg patch
For Beekeepers

Borage provides high levels of both nectar and pollen and flowers for 3 months or more providing:

food supply from late spring/early summer, through the June gap, into late summer
depending on how much is available, can produce a very high yield of honey
the honey is pale, runny, delicate and slow to set – may be able to off-set some of the fast setting effects of rape if both are present in the area
if planted around the hive as a forage boost, it will out-compete weeds if planted early.
Source http://www.rosybee.com/