Flowering window

Definition

Recorded for every plant in this catalogue with a start and end month and a hemisphere. Windows matter more than abundance for specialist bees, whose flight period may be a few weeks and whose host plant must be flowering within it. A landscape with two enormous flows and nothing between them starves colonies in the gap.

Honey records that discuss this

• Durian honeyPungent, savoury and unmistakably related to the fruit — a sulphurous undertone over dark caramel. It divides opinion as sharply as durian itself.

Plant records that discuss this

• Crab appleExcellent spring pollen and good nectar. Its particular value is the length of the flowering window relative to a cultivated apple.
• Winter viburnumModerate nectar and little pollen, delivered across the longest winter flowering window of any common garden shrub.

Guide records that discuss this

• Long-flowering plants for beesA plant in flower for five months does the work of three plants in flower for six weeks, and removes the timing problem that defeats most bee planting. These are the ones that keep going.