Currant family plants for bees
Flowering currant, blackcurrant and gooseberry — March and April shrubs that feed emerging queens and then produce fruit.
Why this family matters
Ribes flowers are small tubes in hanging racemes, opening in March and April when a bumblebee queen is founding a colony and needs both nectar and pollen daily. Flowering currant is planted ornamentally across northern Europe and is worked constantly for the fortnight it is open; blackcurrant and gooseberry do the same job while also producing a crop. Very few plants in a garden pay twice like that.
When it flowers
March and April for flowering currant and gooseberry, April and May for blackcurrant. A short window, and an important one because it sits in the gap between the earliest bulbs and the main fruit blossom.
Which bees it serves
Bumblebee queens are the principal visitors and the principal pollinators of the fruiting members — gooseberry and blackcurrant set noticeably better crops where bumblebees are present, because they fly in the cold, dull weather of a British April when honey bees stay in.
Currant family plants in the catalogue
What this group covers
3 of 12 months have something in flower. Nectar and pollen are counted separately and a month counts only where at least one plant offers that resource at moderate value or better — a plant in flower is not the same as a plant worth visiting.
| Month | In flower | Nectar | Pollen |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | nothing | No | No |
| February | nothing | No | No |
| March | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| April | 3 | Yes | Yes |
| May | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| June | nothing | No | No |
| July | nothing | No | No |
| August | nothing | No | No |
| September | nothing | No | No |
| October | nothing | No | No |
| November | nothing | No | No |
| December | nothing | No | No |
What this group does not cover
Nothing in flower: January, February, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Planting only from this group would leave those months empty.
Bees these plants are recorded with
Taken from the relationships on each plant record. These are the well-attested associations rather than an exhaustive list of visitors, so treat the number as a floor.
Other families
- Daisy family
- Mint family
- Rose family
- Pea family
- Honeysuckle family
- Heather family
- Buttercup family
- Myrtle family
- Cabbage family
- Borage family
- Carrot family
- Mallow family
- Onion family
- Buckthorn family
- Maple and horse chestnut family
- Sapodilla family
- Plantain family
- Citrus family
- Protea family
- Primrose family
- Asparagus family
- Elder and viburnum family
- Pine family
- Cashew and mango family
- Palm family
- Ivy family
- Oak and chestnut family
- Leatherwood family
- Spurge family
Plan with these
- 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?