Christmas box

Value to bees

Nectar

Moderate

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Worked by honey bees and winter-active bumblebee queens on mild days. Its particular value is positional — it is the only genuinely good winter nectar plant that thrives in dry shade under trees.

Small open flowers with exposed nectar and stamens — accessible to short-tongued bees, which is what winter forage must be.

Worth knowing

Moderate ratings that count for a great deal because they arrive in January, in dry shade, where the alternatives are nothing.

Flowering

In flower

December to March (northern hemisphere)

Six to ten weeks in the depths of winter, and it flowers reliably in shade where almost nothing else will.

When nectar flows

Modest quantities of nectar and a very strong scent, available on any day mild enough for a bee to fly.

Year-to-year variation

Dependable every year. Never a crop — the value is entirely the date and the position.

Growing it

Conditions

Part to deep shade, any soil including dry ground under trees. Fully hardy and entirely undemanding.

Size

60-150 cm.

Native range

China and the Himalaya.

Suits

Small gardens, Large gardens, Containers and window boxes, Hedgerow

• Plant it beside a path or a door where the winter scent will be noticed — the flowers are far too small to see from a distance.
• One of very few good bee plants for dry shade, which is the hardest position most gardens have to fill.
• Slow-growing and suckering. It takes several years to make an impact and then needs no attention at all.

What it looks like

A neat suckering evergreen with narrow glossy dark leaves and tiny white flowers with prominent cream stamens clustered in the leaf axils, followed by black berries.