Holly

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Worked steadily by honey bees and solitary bees in May. Its more interesting relationship is with the holly blue butterfly, which alternates generations between holly in spring and ivy in autumn — a two-plant life cycle that makes both plants necessary.

Small open four-petalled flowers with exposed nectar, accessible to everything.

Worth knowing

Good nectar in the late spring, and an evergreen structure that provides shelter and nesting cover the rest of the year.

Flowering

In flower

May to June (northern hemisphere)

Three to four weeks in late spring, overlapping with hawthorn.

When nectar flows

Good nectar from small scented flowers, and both male and female trees produce it — the males more heavily.

Year-to-year variation

Dependable and modest. Not a crop, but a useful component of a May multifloral.

What it does to the honey

Contributes to spring multiflorals rather than producing a monofloral. Where holly is abundant it adds a pale colour and a light clean floral note.

Growing it

Conditions

Sun or deep shade, any drained soil. One of very few good bee plants that will grow in dry shade.

Size

5-15 m.

Native range

Western and southern Europe, North Africa and southwest Asia.

Suits

Hedgerow, Large gardens, Small gardens

• Plant a male and a female if berries are wanted. Cultivar names are a trap — 'Golden King' is female and 'Golden Queen' is male.
• Clip in late summer rather than spring; clipping before flowering removes both the nectar and the berries.
• Leave the berries for the birds. Blackbirds, thrushes and winter migrants strip a holly in hard weather.

What it looks like

A dense evergreen tree with glossy spine-edged leaves and clusters of small white four-petalled scented flowers in the leaf axils, followed on female trees by red berries.