Winter aconite

Value to bees

Nectar

Moderate

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Worked by honey bees on any sunny January day and by the very earliest bumblebee queens. Its low stature means it warms fast in weak winter sun, which is part of why it is usable so early.

A flat open cup with fully exposed nectar and pollen — accessible to short-tongued bees, which is the only kind flying in January.

Worth knowing

Good pollen and useful nectar in the first weeks of the year. Nothing about the quantity is impressive and the date is what counts.

Flowering

In flower

January to March (northern hemisphere)

Frequently the earliest flower in a temperate garden, sometimes opening in the last days of December in a mild year.

When nectar flows

Nectaries at the base of the stamens secrete freely, and the flower opens above roughly 10 °C and closes below it — the same thermonastic behaviour as a crocus, and the same practical effect.

Year-to-year variation

Reliable once established, and it naturalises into large colonies over years.

Growing it

Conditions

Part shade under deciduous trees, moist humus-rich soil that does not bake dry in summer. Happiest where it can naturalise undisturbed.

Size

5-15 cm.

Native range

Southern Europe — France, Italy and the Balkans; long naturalised further north.

Suits

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

• Buy it in the green, as growing plants after flowering, rather than as dry tubers — dry tubers establish very poorly.
• Plant in generous drifts under deciduous shrubs and trees, where it flowers and dies back before the canopy closes.
• Leave it entirely alone once planted. Colonies build slowly over years into carpets, and disturbance sets them back.

What it looks like

A small tuber producing a single flat buttercup-yellow flower sitting on a collar of finely divided green bracts, with the leaves appearing afterwards.