The best summer hedging plants 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
Plants the catalogue records as suited to a hedgerow. 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
- CatmintNepetaMay to October. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- ComfreySymphytum officinaleMay to September. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen low.Not a honey source
- RaspberryRubus idaeusMay to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Hardy geraniumGeraniumMay to October. Nectar high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Dead-nettleLamiumJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- GorseUlex europaeusJanuary to December. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- HyssopHyssopus officinalisJune to September. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- MeadowsweetFilipendula ulmariaJune to September. Nectar low, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Tufted vetchVicia craccaJune to August. Nectar very high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- HebeHebeJune to October. Nectar high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- White bryonyBryonia dioicaMay to September. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- HogweedHeracleum sphondyliumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- SnowberrySymphoricarpos albusJune to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- GojiLycium barbarumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- TamariskTamarixMay to August. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- EscalloniaEscallonia rubraJune to October. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Shrubby cinquefoilDasiphora fruticosaMay to October. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- MotherwortLeonurus cardiacaJune to August. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Five fingerPseudopanax arboreusMay to August. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
In flower for part of summer
- HawthornCrataegus monogynaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- FoxgloveDigitalis purpureaJune to July. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- LimeTilia cordataJune to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- MintMenthaJuly to September. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- TeaselDipsacus fullonumJuly to August. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- RowanSorbus aucupariaMay to June. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- 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
- Forget-me-notMyosotis sylvaticaApril to June. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- HollyIlex aquifoliumMay to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- ElderSambucus nigraMay to July. Nectar low, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Guelder roseViburnum opulusMay to July. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Japanese anemoneAnemone × hybridaAugust to October. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- BroomCytisus scopariusApril to June. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- Alder buckthornFrangula alnusMay to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- GallberryIlex glabraMay to June. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- WhitebeamSorbus ariaMay to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- DogwoodCornus sanguineaMay to July. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- SpindleEuonymus europaeusMay to June. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- BuckthornRhamnus catharticaMay to June. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Wild privetLigustrum vulgareJune to July. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Dog roseRosa caninaJune to July. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- HonestyLunaria annuaApril to June. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Sweet rocketHesperis matronalisMay to July. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- AbeliaLinnaea x grandifloraJuly to November. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- SumacRhus speciesJune to July. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
Check these against your region before planting
10 plants in this group carry an invasiveness or legal restriction note somewhere in the world: Bramble, Honeysuckle, Teasel, Cotoneaster, Gorse, Tufted vetch, Broom, Tamarisk, Buckthorn, Sweet rocket. 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.
- Linden honeyFresh and cooling — mint, balsam and lime blossom, with a clean herbal sharpness no other pale honey has.
- Bashkir linden honeyIntensely aromatic with the mentholated, faintly medicinal lift characteristic of lime, over a clean sweetness — more perfumed than most people expect from so pale a honey.
- Siberian taiga honeyComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
- Basswood honeyIntensely aromatic with a mentholated, faintly medicinal lift over a clean sweetness — one of the most distinctive American honeys and among the most divisive.
- Raspberry honeyDelicate and lightly fruity with a clean bright acidity — one of the few honeys where a taster unprompted names the right fruit.
- Retama honeyDelicate and floral with a distinct honeyed-almond sweetness and a clean finish — one of the gentler European honeys, and unusually consistent.
- Tree lucerne honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint nutty note — pleasant, undemanding and mostly eaten by bees rather than people.
- Koromiko honeyLight and clean with a faint herbal bitterness and a soft floral base — mild with just enough edge to be interesting.
- New Zealand bush honeyWarm and rounded with a light caramel base and a faint resinous lift, and considerable variation between regions — generally more approachable than any of its monofloral components.
- Gallberry honeyMild and clean with a soft floral warmth and a faint bitterness on the finish that the name hints at without quite delivering.
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?