The best winter flowering plants for bees
Almost nothing flowers, which is exactly why what does is worth planting. A garden's value is limited by its worst month.
The rule behind this list
Every plant in the catalogue recorded as a herbaceous perennial or subshrub. Filtered to plants whose flowering window overlaps December to February.
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 winter
The highest-leverage planting on this entire site, because the competition is nil. Winter honeysuckle, winter viburnum, hellebore, winter aconite, snowdrop, winter clematis, hardy cyclamen and early crocus between them cover December to February. Any one of them changes a garden's worst month; three or four of them together change its year.
The winter mistake
Assuming there is no point, because there are no bees about. There are — bumblebee queens and honey bees fly on mild winter afternoons, and increasingly buff-tailed colonies forage right through in mild cities. The bees are the reason this planting works, not an obstacle to it.
In flower through the whole of winter
In flower for part of winter
- LungwortPulmonaria officinalisFebruary to May. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- PrimrosePrimula vulgarisFebruary to May. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- ColtsfootTussilago farfaraFebruary to April. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Lesser celandineFicaria vernaFebruary to May. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Greek heathErica manipulifloraSeptember to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
Check these against your region before planting
1 plant in this group carry an invasiveness or legal restriction note somewhere in the world: Lesser celandine. 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
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?