February
Plants in flower in February. A garden's value to bees is limited by its worst month rather than its best, so the list worth reading is the one for a month your own garden has nothing in.
55 records · flowering month
- RosemarySalvia rosmarinusThe timing is what makes it exceptional rather than the volume. A high-value plant in March is worth far more to bees than a better plant in July, when everything is flowering.
- MahoniaMahonia × mediaRated high rather than very high on volume, and it is arguably the most valuable plant in this catalogue anyway. A high-value plant in July competes with everything; a moderate one in January competes with nothing.
- EucalyptusEucalyptusProlific in both nectar and pollen when flowering, though the pollen of some species is nutritionally poor for honey bees, and colonies confined to a single eucalypt species can suffer over time despite abundant forage.
- Goat willowSalix capreaThe single most important early-season pollen source across much of Europe. Its value is not in yielding honey but in what it makes possible six weeks later.
- SnowdropGalanthus nivalisRated low for nectar and it matters anyway, which is the clearest case on the site for why timing belongs alongside quantity. A moderate pollen source in February is worth more to a colony than a high one in July.
- Winter honeysuckleLonicera fragrantissimaModerate ratings that punch far above their weight because of when they arrive. Nothing else that is easy to grow flowers so reliably in December and January.
- CrocusCrocusVery high pollen at a point in the year when pollen is the binding constraint on a colony starting to raise brood. Bees return from crocus carrying enormous bright orange loads, which is one of the most cheerful sights in a February apiary.
- HelleboreHelleborusModerate nectar and good pollen at the point in the year when both are hardest to find. Rated by timing rather than by quantity.
- Winter aconiteEranthis hyemalisGood pollen and useful nectar in the first weeks of the year. Nothing about the quantity is impressive and the date is what counts.
- AlmondPrunus dulcisTop-rated for both, at the single most valuable moment of the year for a colony coming out of winter. That is precisely why the pollination market exists.
- LungwortPulmonaria officinalisGood nectar at the point in the year when bumblebee queens are founding nests and the earliest solitary bees are emerging.
- PrimrosePrimula vulgarisModerate on both counts, and it matters because of when it arrives rather than how much it offers.
- HazelCorylus avellanaThe clearest illustration in the catalogue of why nectar and pollen are rated separately: hazel scores zero for one and top marks for the other, and it matters enormously.
- Dead-nettleLamiumGood nectar over an exceptionally long season, including the winter months when almost nothing else is available to a foraging bumblebee.
- GorseUlex europaeusZero nectar and top-rated pollen, available in midwinter. Alongside hazel and poppy it is the clearest argument for rating the two separately.
- Christmas boxSarcococca confusaModerate ratings that count for a great deal because they arrive in January, in dry shade, where the alternatives are nothing.
- Winter viburnumViburnum × bodnantenseModerate nectar and little pollen, delivered across the longest winter flowering window of any common garden shrub.
- Witch hazelHamamelis × intermediaModerate on both counts and valuable entirely because of when it arrives. In its native range it is pollinated partly by winter-active moths.
- AvocadoPersea americanaA heavy nectar and pollen source, and one the bees are notably unenthusiastic about relative to what else is on offer.
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesAn excellent nectar and pollen source across the New Zealand summer.
- LeatherwoodEucryphia lucidaThe principal summer nectar source of the Tasmanian rainforest, and the basis of most of the island's honey production.
- ColtsfootTussilago farfaraA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source, at a moment in the year when both are close to unavailable.
- LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumAn excellent dry-season nectar source across the Caribbean.
- Prickly boxBursaria spinosaAn excellent summer nectar and pollen source, and among the most heavily visited plants in southeastern Australia.
- Southern beechFuscosporaNo floral nectar and negligible pollen. The honeydew is the whole of its value, and it is enormous — which is exactly why nectar and pollen are rated separately in this catalogue.
- LoquatEriobotrya japonicaAn outstanding winter nectar and pollen source in subtropical climates, and correspondingly valuable.
- ChiuriDiploknema butyraceaA valuable winter nectar source in the Himalayan mid-hills, where alternatives are scarce.
- SheaVitellaria paradoxaA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the West African savannah.
- CashewAnacardium occidentaleA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the tropics.
- MangoMangifera indicaA good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the tropics.
- ApricotPrunus armeniacaA good early nectar and pollen source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.
- Winter-flowering cherryPrunus x subhirtellaModest in volume and disproportionately valuable in timing — this is a plant whose worth is entirely about when it flowers.
- Winter clematisClematis cirrhosaModest in volume and valuable specifically for its timing.
- DaphneDaphneA good early nectar source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.
- Hardy cyclamenCyclamen coumModest in volume and valuable in timing, covering the two thinnest points in the garden year.
- Siberian squillScilla sibericaGenerous for its size on both counts, and valuable specifically for its timing.
- Lesser celandineFicaria vernaA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source at exactly the point in the year when colonies need pollen for brood.
- TulsiOcimum tenuiflorumA dependable post-monsoon source in Indian apiaries, and one of the few whose cultivated area is driven by religious and medicinal use rather than by agriculture.
- AjwainTrachyspermum ammiOne of the more useful spice-crop flows in northwestern India, and valuable for its timing as much as its volume.
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaA dependable year-round trickle rather than a flow, which in a dryland landscape is worth more than its volume suggests.
- Talh acaciaVachellia seyalA major dry-season source across the Sahel and Arabia, and the backbone of migratory beekeeping in Sudan.
- DurianDurio zibethinusA short, intense and unreliable flow, worked in the narrow overlap between when the flowers are open and when bees are flying.
- LycheeLitchi chinensisOne of the most valuable subtropical orchard flows there is, and a crop whose yield rises measurably where colonies are present.
- RambutanNephelium lappaceumA reliable orchard flow, and one where bee pollination measurably lifts fruit set — most rambutan trees carry functionally male and hermaphrodite flowers and need the transfer.
- Coconut palmCocos nuciferaThe most reliable background forage across much of the coastal tropics, precisely because it never stops. Coastal apiaries frequently rest on it between the seasonal flows.
- MangiumAcacia mangiumA substantial plantation flow across Southeast Asia, produced by a mechanism most beekeeping literature does not cover — extrafloral nectar, secreted by the leaf rather than the flower.
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooA major southern African honey crop and, in many districts, the single most important source there is.
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisA heavy year-round pollen source and a poor nectar one, which makes plantation apiaries protein-rich and carbohydrate-poor — a genuine management problem rather than a technicality.
- Spanish needleBidens albaAmong the most important sources in Florida beekeeping, and the one that carries colonies between the citrus, palmetto and gallberry flows.
- ManzanitaArctostaphylos speciesThe critical winter and early-spring source across Californian chaparral, feeding colonies through the build-up towards almond pollination.
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraA major dry-season source in Chiapas and in the Brazilian caatinga, and one that increases rather than decreases with land clearance — which is an uncomfortable thing to be able to say about a honey plant.
- MandacaruCereus jamacaruA minor nectar source and a substantial early-morning pollen one, valuable in a landscape where the dry season leaves very little.
- TiacaCaldcluvia paniculataThe second half of the Chilean native-forest season, extending the crop by several weeks after ulmo finishes.
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesOne of the mainstays of Australian commercial honey production, valued for both a heavy nectar flow and good pollen.
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesA reliable coastal and wetland flow across eastern Australia, and valuable partly because it occupies ground the drier eucalypts do not.
Other flowering month groups
Tools that use these records
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?