Dogwood

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Flat heads of small open flowers, accessible to short-tongued and small-bodied species that cannot use deep flowers. It works for hoverflies and beetles just as well.

Flat clusters of small shallow flowers — one of the most accessible arrangements available.

Worth knowing

A good early summer nectar source at a point where the hedgerow sequence would otherwise thin.

Flowering

In flower

May to July (northern hemisphere)

An early summer flow, filling the gap between hawthorn and bramble.

Growing it

Conditions

Sun or part shade on almost any soil including chalk and heavy clay. Undemanding and tough.

Size

2-4 m tall, suckering into thickets.

Native range

Europe and western Asia, in hedgerow, scrub and woodland edge, particularly on chalk and limestone.

Suits

Hedgerow, Large gardens, Small gardens

Maintenance, and the bit that matters

Coppicing for winter stem colour removes that year's flowers on the cut stems, so rotate rather than cutting everything.

• Cut a proportion of stems to the base each winter for the best colour — but never all of them, or you remove the whole flowering.
• Suckers steadily; give it room in a hedge rather than a border.
• Excellent in a mixed native hedge, where it flowers after the hawthorn.

What it looks like

A suckering shrub with oval leaves that turn deep crimson in autumn and stems that colour blood-red in winter. The flowers are small and cream in flat clusters, followed by black berries.