Bee-friendly flowers to attract pollinators

Create a buzz by planting flowers to attract pollinators and bees to your garden

We’ve all seen the news stories over the last few years about declining insect numbers, so now is the time to come together and do our bit to create a wildlife-friendly habitat that bees will love. After all, these pollinating machines never stop helping us, so it’s only right that we return the favour.
You may assume that having any flowers on your plot is appealing to bees, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Many plants, shrubs, and flowers, while attractive to the eye, don’t contain the nectar or pollen that bees need. So, we’ve rounded up a few of the ones that will provide a fantastic feeding ground in your garden.
Plant these flowers (and consider allowing beneficial weeds to thrive), and you’ll soon hear the hum of hungry bees looking for a tasty feast. Plus, by attracting more pollinators onto the plot, your crop yields can only increase.
It’s worth remembering that different bees prefer different types of flowers, so the bigger the variety of shapes and types, the better.

Dahlias
Avoid double flowers where possible – bees will ignore these, as the pollen is usually too tricky to reach, or they’re bred without the male and female parts. Instead, single-flower dahlias make a great, low-maintenance choice. They’re big, bold, bright, and full of beauty – and add a whole lot of colour in amongst the greenery of the vegetable plot. Plus, you can eat their starchy roots by cooking them in the same way you would a potato.

Dandelions
These yellow weeds may not be overly popular – they pop up in all the wrong places, and then are near-impossible to get rid of – but, if you’re in a hurry to remove dandelions, take a moment to mull over whether giving them a space to live might, in fact, outweigh the instinct to destroy them. Why? Dandelions are bee magnets and hold a myriad of other benefits for different wildlife. Plus, their leaves offer a nutritious addition to any salad, too.

Foxgloves
The deep, bell-shaped flowers of foxgloves are a good match for the long-tongued garden bumble bee (Bombus hortorum) and the common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum). They’re a cottage garden classic and a good bet if you’ve got a shadier garden, although they will flower best in a sunnier location. With a variety of exquisite colours to choose from, there are lots of reasons to add foxgloves to your plot.

Lavender
If bees had a favourite colour, it’d likely be purple. It is the clearest, most visible colour to them, so planting lots of shades of lilac is a sure way to catch their eye. You could try buddleja, alliums, scabious, or others, but we think you can’t go far wrong with lavender – it’s a real all-rounder. Not only does this hardy plant produce aromatic flowers that pollinators love, its cuttings can be put to use in a multitude of ways.

Borage
This blue-flowered, hairy-leaved annual is a real hit with bees and other pollinators due to its high nectar levels. But it’s not just our tiny friends that can enjoy these star-shaped flowers – they’re also edible to humans. Plus, they can be dug in as a green manure to boost nutrients in the soil over winter or used as a protective mulch around the base of other plants, meaning they can add real value to any plot.