Bee plants for hedgerows
Mixed native hedging supports more bee species than most borders, and the cheapest improvement is to clip it less often.
77 records · garden context
- 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.
- AppleMalus domesticaValuable spring forage, but rarely a surplus crop: the window is short and the colony is still building at that point in the year, so most of what comes in is eaten immediately.
- CherryPrunus aviumImportant early forage arriving when colonies are expanding and bumblebee queens are founding nests. Almost all of it is consumed rather than stored.
- HawthornCrataegus monogynaThe backbone of the temperate hedgerow and one of the great mass-flowering events of the European year. A hawthorn hedge in full bloom in May carries an extraordinary density of insects — bees, hoverflies, beetles and flies together — and the plant supports several hundred invertebrate species beyond the ones visiting the flowers. Its nectar flow is heavy, brief and famously unreliable from year to year.
- BrambleRubus fruticosusThe combination of a very long season, high nectar value and reliability in variable weather makes bramble the workhorse of northern European summer forage.
- IvyHedera helixOne of the very few plants that is top-rated for both nectar and pollen, and it delivers them when the year's other options have finished. For overwintering insects this is decisive.
- FoxgloveDigitalis purpureaHigh value to a narrow group. This is exactly the plant a 'bee friendly' score would misrepresent: excellent for long-tongued bumblebees, largely irrelevant to honey bees.
- 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.
- MānukaLeptospermum scopariumA good nectar source during its brief flowering and of limited use outside it. A landscape of nothing but mānuka is a feast followed by a famine.
- LimeTilia cordataExtraordinary nectar productivity concentrated into a very short window. Its urban prevalence makes it disproportionately important to city beekeeping.
- 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.
- 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.
- MintMenthaGood nectar at a genuinely useful point in the season. Its value is timing and reliability rather than volume.
- CatmintNepetaVery high nectar over an exceptionally long season. Its ratings are strong and its real distinction is duration.
- ComfreySymphytum officinaleExceptional nectar, but genuinely restricted by flower shape — which is why the separate rating for accessibility matters more here than almost anywhere else.
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumHigh nectar, and largely unavailable to bees. The ratings and the accessibility note have to be read together here or the plant looks far better than it is for the insects most people are planting for.
- RaspberryRubus idaeusOne of the highest-yielding nectar plants in temperate horticulture, and good for pollen too. Very few plants combine this productivity with this reliability.
- TeaselDipsacus fullonumGood nectar at a useful moment, and its wider value is habitat rather than forage — the standing dead stems are among the best hollow-stem nesting sites a garden can offer.
- BlackthornPrunus spinosaGood for both at a moment when almost nothing else of tree scale is open. Its value is the date rather than the quantity.
- Crab appleMalus sylvestrisExcellent spring pollen and good nectar. Its particular value is the length of the flowering window relative to a cultivated apple.
- RowanSorbus aucupariaGood pollen and moderate nectar, delivered in a completely accessible form. Its wider wildlife value — berries for thrushes and winter migrants — is at least as significant.
- CotoneasterCotoneasterVery high nectar from a plant that grows anywhere, in any soil, in sun or shade, with no attention at all. Per unit of gardening effort it is close to unbeatable.
- PyracanthaPyracantha coccineaGood for both, from an evergreen structural shrub that also provides thorny nesting cover — a genuinely multi-purpose garden plant.
- SycamoreAcer pseudoplatanusVery high nectar and good pollen, delivered at tree scale in mid-spring, plus a honeydew contribution later. A single mature sycamore is a serious forage asset.
- Hardy geraniumGeraniumGood for both across a long season, from plants that grow in sun or shade and require essentially no maintenance.
- 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.
- BluebellHyacinthoides non-scriptaGood for both, delivered at scale in the spring window, and an underrated contributor to April honey.
- Flowering currantRibes sanguineumGood nectar at the most precarious moment of the bumblebee year, from a shrub that requires no attention whatsoever.
- 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.
- Forget-me-notMyosotis sylvaticaModerate on both counts, and valuable because the flowers are small and shallow enough for the smallest solitary bees that larger plants exclude.
- HollyIlex aquifoliumGood nectar in the late spring, and an evergreen structure that provides shelter and nesting cover the rest of the year.
- ElderSambucus nigraA good pollen source with almost nothing to offer in nectar, and the clearest hedgerow example of why the two are rated separately.
- Field mapleAcer campestreVery high nectar from a tree most people do not realise is flowering, plus a honeydew contribution later in the season.
- 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.
- Guelder roseViburnum opulusGood accessible nectar in early summer, and a useful lesson in reading a flower — most of what you can see is advertising rather than reward.
- HyssopHyssopus officinalisVery high nectar per square metre from a small drought-proof plant, delivered across the late-summer gap.
- MeadowsweetFilipendula ulmariaGood pollen and negligible nectar — one of the clearer garden examples of why the two need separate ratings.
- Tufted vetchVicia craccaVery high for both, and specifically valuable to the long-tongued bumblebees that have declined most sharply.
- Japanese anemoneAnemone × hybridaGood pollen and moderate nectar in autumn, from a plant that will grow in part shade where most late forage will not.
- BroomCytisus scopariusZero nectar and very high pollen — one of the small group of plants including poppy, hazel and gorse that make the case for separate ratings unanswerable.
- Alder buckthornFrangula alnusVery high nectar over a long window from an inconspicuous plant, and it is disproportionately important where damp woodland edge survives.
- HebeHebeGood for both across a long late window, from an evergreen shrub that also provides structure and shelter.
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesAn excellent nectar and pollen source across the New Zealand summer.
- English oakQuercus roburNo floral nectar and little useful pollen — the catkins are wind-pollinated and their pollen is collected only incidentally. The honeydew is the entire beekeeping interest, and stating that plainly is more useful than calling the tree bee-friendly.
- GallberryIlex glabraAn excellent late-spring nectar source across the southeastern coastal plain.
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaA long-running pollen source, and the entire basis of one specialist bee's existence.
- HogweedHeracleum sphondyliumGenerous and highly accessible on both counts, and unusually long-running.
- LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumAn excellent dry-season nectar source across the Caribbean.
- SnowberrySymphoricarpos albusA good nectar source with an exceptionally long season, which is its principal virtue.
- Prickly boxBursaria spinosaAn excellent summer nectar and pollen source, and among the most heavily visited plants in southeastern Australia.
- BottlebrushMelaleuca citrinaAn excellent nectar and pollen source with pollen presented openly on exposed stamens.
- GojiLycium barbarumA useful nectar source over an unusually long season.
- TamariskTamarixA useful summer nectar source on saline and desert ground where little else flowers, plus a honeydew component.
- OsierSalix viminalisA modest nectar source and an outstanding pollen source at the point in the year when pollen matters most — colonies need it for brood, not for stores.
- Bird cherryPrunus padusA generous spring nectar and pollen source, and worked heavily for the fortnight it lasts.
- WhitebeamSorbus ariaA good spring nectar source with completely accessible flowers.
- DogwoodCornus sanguineaA good early summer nectar source at a point where the hedgerow sequence would otherwise thin.
- SpindleEuonymus europaeusA modest nectar source and a highly accessible one, which makes it disproportionately useful to small bees.
- BuckthornRhamnus catharticaA modest but highly accessible nectar source over several weeks.
- Wild privetLigustrum vulgareA good midsummer nectar source, entirely dependent on the shrub being allowed to flower.
- Dog roseRosa caninaNo nectar at all and an outstanding pollen source. This is exactly the distinction that makes rating nectar and pollen separately worthwhile — a single bee-friendliness score would either overstate or dismiss it.
- Lesser celandineFicaria vernaA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source at exactly the point in the year when colonies need pollen for brood.
- HonestyLunaria annuaA good spring nectar source in a season that is thinner than it appears, particularly in shade.
- Sweet rocketHesperis matronalisA good early summer nectar source, and one of the better plants for the day and night shift together.
- AbeliaLinnaea x grandifloraA good nectar source over one of the longest seasons of any garden shrub.
- EscalloniaEscallonia rubraA good nectar source over a long season, entirely dependent on the shrub being allowed to flower.
- Shrubby cinquefoilDasiphora fruticosaA moderate nectar source and a generous pollen source across an unusually long season.
- ElaeagnusElaeagnus x submacrophyllaA generous late-autumn nectar source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.
- Sea buckthornHippophae rhamnoidesA genuinely useful early pollen source in a season when protein is scarce, and not a nectar plant at all. Honey sold as sea buckthorn honey is normally a blossom honey from the surrounding flora, or an infusion of berry juice into honey — both legitimate products, neither a monofloral.
- MotherwortLeonurus cardiacaA heavy nectar plant with a long season, widely recommended in Russian and Ukrainian beekeeping literature and largely overlooked elsewhere.
- TagasasteChamaecytisus proliferusSources differ on its weight as a pollen plant: an older field study judged it unimportant for honey bees, while New Zealand beekeepers rely on it where little else flowers, and one pollen sample measured 35% crude protein.
- SumacRhus speciesAn underrated source, notable because it grows in exactly the marginal roadside and old-field ground that supports little else.
- Five fingerPseudopanax arboreusThe principal winter forage across much of lowland New Zealand, and important to native birds as much as to bees.
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