The best summer climbers for bees
Most gardens are at their best in June and empty by late August. The plants worth adding are the ones that flower after the first flush is over.
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 June to August.
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 summer
The competition here is fierce — almost everything flowers in June — so the useful question is not what flowers in summer but what flowers in late August. Marjoram, knapweed, scabious, agastache, Russian sage, sedum and heather all carry a garden through the point at which the June planting has finished. A second flush from cutting back catmint, geranium and salvia in early July costs nothing and buys six weeks.
The summer mistake
Deadheading everything and cutting the herbs before they flower. Both remove exactly the forage the plant was going to provide, and both are done for tidiness rather than for the plant's benefit.
In flower through the whole of summer
- BrambleRubus fruticosusJune to September. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen low.Not a honey source
- WallflowerErysimumMarch to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaMay to September. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Giant catmintNepeta racemosaMay to October. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
In flower for part of summer
- BuddleiaBuddleja davidiiJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen low.Not a honey source
- CotoneasterCotoneasterMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- PyracanthaPyracantha coccineaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Dog roseRosa caninaJune to July. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- Lesser calamintClinopodium nepetaJuly to November. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Winter savorySatureja montanaJuly to September. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.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, Buddleia, Honeysuckle, Cotoneaster. 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.
- Savory honeyIntensely herbal with a distinct peppery, almost oregano-like bite over a warm sweetness — one of the more assertive Mediterranean aromatics.
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?