The best autumn climbers for bees
September and October forage is worth disproportionately more than anything else you can plant, because it determines what survives the winter.
The rule behind this list
Every plant in the catalogue recorded as a climber, plus plants suited to walls and fences. Filtered to plants whose flowering window overlaps September to November.
Months here are northern-hemisphere temperate. Southern-hemisphere readers should shift by roughly six months — but that shift is an approximation rather than a translation, because day length, rainfall pattern and the local flora do not shift with it. Records that genuinely span both hemispheres say so.
What to prioritise in autumn
This is the highest-value gap in most gardens. Ivy first — allowed to reach adult growth and flower, which means not clipping it. Then the late daisies: Michaelmas asters, sedum, rudbeckia, helenium, Japanese anemone. Then autumn-flowering shrubs like abelia and seven-son flower. A garden that flowers into November is doing something almost no garden does.
The autumn mistake
Clipping ivy, which prevents it ever reaching the flowering growth phase, and pulling out annuals that are still in flower because the border looks untidy. Both remove forage at the moment it is most valuable and least replaceable.
In flower through the whole of autumn
- IvyHedera helixSeptember to November. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Minor honey crop
- WallflowerErysimumMarch to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Lesser calamintClinopodium nepetaJuly to November. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
In flower for part of autumn
- BrambleRubus fruticosusJune to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- BuddleiaBuddleja davidiiJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen low.Not a honey source
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen low.Not a honey source
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaMay to September. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Winter clematisClematis cirrhosaNovember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Winter savorySatureja montanaJuly to September. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Giant catmintNepeta racemosaMay to October. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- XtabentúnTurbina corymbosaNovember to January. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesOctober to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
Check these against your region before planting
4 plants in this group carry an invasiveness or legal restriction note somewhere in the world: Bramble, Ivy, Buddleia, Honeysuckle. HoneyHQ does not know where you are and will not guess, so it flags rather than filters.
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.
Honeys from these plants
- Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
- Urban honeyVaries enormously and is frequently more complex than a rural multifloral, because the flowering succession is longer and the species mix wider.
- Ivy honeyStrong, faintly bitter and distinctly herbal — closer to a dark honey in character than its pale colour suggests.
- Savory honeyIntensely herbal with a distinct peppery, almost oregano-like bite over a warm sweetness — one of the more assertive Mediterranean aromatics.
- Xtabentún honeyPale, aromatic and faintly aniseed, with a clean floral lift. The liqueur made from it leans directly on that anise note.
- Paperbark honeyMedicinal and camphorous over an amber sweetness — a strong, distinctly antiseptic character that some people find difficult.
Keep going
Plan the season
- Seasonal bee planner
It is this season and I want to do this — what should I plant?
- 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?