Siberian squill
A small early bulb that carpets the ground in intense blue in March, and one of the more productive spring bulbs for bees. Its nectar is unusually generous for a small bulb, and colonies of it in short grass make a genuine difference to bees in a cold early spring.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- High
- Pollen
- High
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Worked heavily by emerging bumblebee queens and early mining bees. The blue pollen is distinctive enough that bees returning loaded with it are easy to spot.
Small open or nodding bells with easily reached nectaries, workable by short-tongued bees.
- Worth knowing
- Generous for its size on both counts, and valuable specifically for its timing.
Flowering
- In flower
- February to April (northern hemisphere)
Early spring, overlapping crocus and preceding most other bulbs.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Sun or light shade on almost any well-drained soil. Fully hardy and entirely undemanding.
- Size
- 10-15 cm tall, naturalising into carpets.
- Native range
- Southwestern Russia, the Caucasus and Turkey. Naturalised widely in European and North American gardens.
- Suits
- Small gardens, Containers and window boxes, Large gardens, Meadow or wildflower area
- Plant in autumn and leave alone; it naturalises freely into short grass and under deciduous shrubs.
- Do not mow until the foliage has died back, which is usually early June.
- Naturalises so readily in North America that it is considered mildly invasive in some regions — worth checking locally.
What it looks like
Low nodding bell-shaped flowers in intense gentian blue, two or three to a stem, above narrow strappy leaves. Related glory-of-the-snow carries upward-facing starry flowers in the same blue.
Sources
- Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
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?