The best winter plants for bees
Almost nothing flowers, which is exactly why what does is worth planting. A garden's value is limited by its worst month.
What to prioritise
The highest-leverage planting on this entire site, because the competition is nil. Winter honeysuckle, winter viburnum, hellebore, winter aconite, snowdrop, winter clematis, hardy cyclamen and early crocus between them cover December to February. Any one of them changes a garden's worst month; three or four of them together change its year.
The winter mistake
Assuming there is no point, because there are no bees about. There are — bumblebee queens and honey bees fly on mild winter afternoons, and increasingly buff-tailed colonies forage right through in mild cities. The bees are the reason this planting works, not an obstacle to it.
How this list is built
Every plant in the catalogue whose flowering window overlaps December to February. The heaviest nectar section below is a filter to the top nectar band present this season and preserves catalogue order within it — there is no ranking, because nothing in the records would justify one.
Months here are northern-hemisphere temperate. Southern-hemisphere readers should shift by roughly six months — but that shift is an approximation rather than a translation, because day length, rainfall pattern and the local flora do not shift with it. Records that genuinely span both hemispheres say so.
The heaviest nectar plants of winter
- RosemarySalvia rosmarinusFebruary to May. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- EucalyptusEucalyptusJanuary to December. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- SidrZiziphus spina-christiOctober to December. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- AlmondPrunus dulcisFebruary to March. Nectar very high, pollen very high.Minor honey crop
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- RewarewaKnightia excelsaOctober to December. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- PohutukawaMetrosideros excelsaNovember to January. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- JarrahEucalyptus marginataSeptember to January. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- LeatherwoodEucryphia lucidaJanuary to March. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- LogwoodHaematoxylum campechianumJanuary to April. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- BottlebrushMelaleuca citrinaOctober to January. Nectar very high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Oil-tea camelliaCamellia oleiferaOctober to December. Nectar very high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- LycheeLitchi chinensisFebruary to April. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- XtabentúnTurbina corymbosaNovember to January. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesDecember to March. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesOctober to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
In flower through the whole of winter
- MahoniaMahonia × mediaNovember to February. Nectar high, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- EucalyptusEucalyptusJanuary to December. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Winter honeysuckleLonicera fragrantissimaDecember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- HelleboreHelleborusDecember to April. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Not a honey source
- Dead-nettleLamiumJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- GorseUlex europaeusJanuary to December. Nectar none, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- Christmas boxSarcococca confusaDecember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Winter viburnumViburnum × bodnantenseNovember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen low.Not a honey source
- Witch hazelHamamelis × intermediaDecember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- KanukaKunzea ericoidesNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Prickly boxBursaria spinosaDecember to February. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- LoquatEriobotrya japonicaNovember to February. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- ChiuriDiploknema butyraceaDecember to February. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- CashewAnacardium occidentaleNovember to February. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Winter-flowering cherryPrunus x subhirtellaNovember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Winter clematisClematis cirrhosaNovember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- Hardy cyclamenCyclamen coumDecember to March. Nectar moderate, pollen moderate.Not a honey source
- TulsiOcimum tenuiflorumSeptember to February. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- MoringaMoringa oleiferaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- Coconut palmCocos nuciferaJanuary to December. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Sweet thornVachellia karrooNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- Oil palmElaeis guineensisJanuary to December. Nectar low, pollen very high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Spanish needleBidens albaJanuary to December. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- ManzanitaArctostaphylos speciesDecember to March. Nectar high, pollen moderate.Minor honey crop
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraNovember to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- MandacaruCereus jamacaruNovember to February. Nectar moderate, pollen high.Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- StringybarkEucalyptus macrorhyncha and related speciesDecember to March. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- PaperbarkMelaleuca speciesOctober to February. Nectar very high, pollen high.Major honey crop
What this group covers
12 of 12 months have something in flower. Nectar and pollen are counted separately and a month counts only where at least one plant offers that resource at moderate value or better — a plant in flower is not the same as a plant worth visiting.
| Month | In flower | Nectar | Pollen |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47 | Yes | Yes |
| February | 55 | Yes | Yes |
| March | 44 | Yes | Yes |
| April | 27 | Yes | Yes |
| May | 14 | Yes | Yes |
| June | 8 | Yes | Yes |
| July | 8 | Yes | Yes |
| August | 8 | Yes | Yes |
| September | 12 | Yes | Yes |
| October | 21 | Yes | Yes |
| November | 35 | Yes | Yes |
| December | 44 | Yes | Yes |
By what you are planting
Check these against your region before planting
7 plants in this group carry an invasiveness or legal restriction note somewhere in the world: Mānuka, Eucalyptus, Gorse, Lesser celandine, Mangium, Sweet thorn, Spanish needle. HoneyHQ does not know where you are and will not guess, so it flags rather than filters.
Bees these plants are recorded with
Taken from the relationships on each plant record. These are the well-attested associations rather than an exhaustive list of visitors, so treat the number as a floor.
Honeys from these plants
- Rosemary honeyDelicate and softly aromatic — floral first, with a thin thread of resin behind it that tells you where it came from.
- Hymettus honeyIntensely aromatic and herbal, with a warm thyme character, a resinous maquis edge and a long finish that carries a distinct savoury note.
- Alcarria honeyDelicate and aromatic, with a clean herbal sweetness — the rosemary type is softer and more floral, the lavender type more perfumed and slightly camphoraceous.
- Narbonne rosemary honeyDelicate and clean with a soft herbal floral note and a texture that does much of the work — one of the classic pale European honeys.
- Manuka honeyEarthy, mineral and damp — heather-like without the smoke, with a faintly medicinal edge. Distinctive rather than delicious, and not what most people expect for the price.
- New Zealand bush honeyWarm and rounded with a light caramel base and a faint resinous lift, and considerable variation between regions — generally more approachable than any of its monofloral components.
- Eucalyptus honeyWoody and faintly medicinal, with caramel and a cool eucalypt lift. More savoury than its colour suggests.
- Jarrah honeyDark, malty and caramelised, with a coffee-and-treacle depth and much less of the medicinal edge a comparably dark honey usually carries.
- Ethiopian red honeyStrong and warm with a malty depth, a resinous eucalyptus lift and a faint smokiness from traditional harvesting — an assertive honey that stands up to fermentation.
- Messmate honeyStrong and resinous with a malty depth and a faintly medicinal eucalypt lift — assertive and unmistakably Australian.
- Blackbutt honeyWarm and caramelised with a light resinous edge — one of the milder eucalypt honeys and a good introduction to the group.
- Grey box honeyClean and lightly caramelised with a faint buttery quality — mild for a eucalypt honey and highly regarded for its density and smoothness.
The rest of the year
Plan the season
- Seasonal bee planner
It is this season and I want to do this — what should I plant?
- 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?