Gooseberry
A thorny fruit bush whose small drooping flowers open very early, sometimes in March, and are worked almost entirely by bumblebees. It is among the first fruiting plants to flower in a northern garden and one of the more useful things a bumblebee queen can find in a cold spring.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- High
- Pollen
- Moderate
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Almost entirely bumblebee-pollinated, because it flowers when little else will fly. A gooseberry bush in March is one of the most reliably productive things a queen can find.
Small drooping bell flowers, sheltered from rain by their orientation and requiring a bee to work upwards into them.
- Worth knowing
- A good early nectar source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.
Flowering
- In flower
- March to April (northern hemisphere)
Very early, and frequently the first fruit bush in a northern garden to flower.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Sun or part shade on almost any reasonable soil. Fully hardy and undemanding.
- Size
- 1-1.5 m tall and as wide.
- Native range
- Europe, North Africa and western Asia, in woodland, hedgerow and rocky ground.
- Suits
- Small gardens, Large gardens, Containers and window boxes
- Prune to an open goblet shape — it makes picking possible and reduces mildew.
- Fruits on both old and new wood, so pruning is forgiving.
- Very early flowering means occasional frost damage to the blossom in exposed sites.
What it looks like
A low spiny shrub with small lobed leaves and inconspicuous drooping greenish flowers tinged pink, borne singly or in pairs along the stems, followed by the familiar bristly fruits.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production — Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2016) · Systematic review Link
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- Winter forage: plants that flower for bees from November to MarchBees fly on mild winter days and most gardens offer them nothing. Filling the November-to-March gap is the single highest-value planting decision a temperate garden can make, and it takes about six plants.
- Spring plants for beesSpring forage decides how many colonies exist by summer. A bumblebee queen who cannot find pollen in March does not found a colony, and a honey bee colony without early pollen cannot build.
Tools for planning planting
- 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?