The First Bee of Spring

We spotted the first bee of Spring on Saturday, on a chilly day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where it was busily flitting between the fragrant catkins of the Musk Willow (Salix aegyptiaca).

Lemon Queen

Lemon Queen Perennial Sunflower

About this time last year I bought two small pots of Lemon Queen, a perennial Sunflower chosen because it was said to be particularly attractive to bees. 

The soil was still warm so, I planted them in the back of the garden straight away. 

Then came one of the coldest winter in decades. When the snow melted this was what was left...

Chelsea 2011: Our best in show

The garden we thought was best in show at Chelsea was the RBC New Wild Garden, sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada and designed by Nigel Dunnett, Director of the Green Roof Centre at the University of Sheffield.

The judges only found it worthy of a Silver Gilt medal, but we thought it had more good ideas than any other garden, although at 10x12m (33x39 feet) it was one of the smallest of the 'large show gardens'.

Chelsea 2011: The Power of Nature

The Power of Nature garden, sponsored by Worcester-Bosch, was supposed show how nature provides renewable energy for heating, with materials chosen to represent the elements: earth, air, fire and water. It even included strips of photovoltaic cells in the walls to power a waterfall.

There's a buzz about Paeonia lactiflora

The Trailfinders/Fleming Nurseries Australian Garden, designed by Ian Barker, won a Silver Gilt  at Chelsea. It was inspired by the journey made by Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks on the Endeavour as they mapped the Southern hemisphere (1768-1771), and featured plants found by Banks on the journey.

The best bar in Town

Sunflowers are sometimes seen to be a bit naff. But, it is always hard to look at one and not smile. Big, bold and loved by bees - all gardeners should find a place for them in their gardens.

At the RHS Hampton Court flower show this year, there was a large field of sunflowers as part of an exhibition on growing food. It attracted a lot of bees and a large number of people all taking photos (us included).

As seen at Hampton Court

 Umbrellas: The traditional symbol of the Hampton Court Flower Show, this year only needed for shade

The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show takes place every July, which usually means it is a sea of mud (coming, as it does, just after the rain magnets of the tennis at Wimbledon and the Glastonbury festival). This year, all three events stayed dry... isn't that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

Geranium Cantabrigiense Biokovo

If you want a pink, delicate and girlie geranium - then try G. Cantabrigiense Biokovo it's a real sweetie.

It is low growing (about 10-20cm tall) so, makes great ground cover. It gently spreads itself, but it isn't a thug, you'll find it easy to keep under control.

We bought a couple of small pots from a garden centre because we noticed that of all the plants around, the bees were choosing this one.

Incoming!

From those two small pots we've increased to two patches in our raised bed (to make it easy to dead head them to prolong its flowering period), a patch on the green roof and a few pots for our neighbour.

Last autumn I gave up on our strawberries - when I realised that the local squirrel was eating more of them than we were. So, the strawberry towers were emptied and filled with this little pink geranium. It has looked great for weeks.

Ken Muir strawberry tower

Seeds are starting to develop (top) with flower buds 

A bit raggedy - you can clearly see scratch marks on the petals from the bees claws

 

Of course the flowers fade eventually, but that isn't the end. If it is looking a bit leggy you could give it a trim, however you shouldn't be too hasty. The leaves turn from green to beautiful autumnal colours - it can happen almost as soon as it stops flowering, but even if it doesn't, it is worth the wait. 

The final gift from this great little geranium is the smell. The flowers don't have much of a scent. But the leaves have a gentle lemony smell which is released if you brush against the foliage or do the dead heading.

Green leaves will turn autumnal once flowering is done

Geranium Cantabrigiense Biokovo is named after Mount Biokovo in Croatia, where in 1990 the plant was discovered as a natural spontaneous hybrid.

COME FLY WITH ME

In amongst the geraniums (f5.6 @ 1/250s, 1000 ISO)

It can be fun to try to take pictures of bees in flight. But be prepared, bees move surprisingly quickly. You'll have to take a lot of images and delete most of them as they will probably be out of focus.

Geranium Himalayense Gravetye

Geranium Himalayense Gravetye is a beautiful bluey-purple geranium with large bowl-shaped flowers that have a white centre and dark veins. It holds a AGM (Award of Garden Merit) from the RHS.

It is low growing, no more than about 50cm, and spreads about 60-100cm. It's hardy, likes full sun or partial shade and well drained soil (but can grow in pretty much any situation). It can flower between May and September. It may not flower for very long (in our garden with so many bees about it gets about two to three weeks initially as the flowers go to seed quickly), but can flower a second time if cut back after the first flowering.

This year it has been disappointing - all leaves and not many flowers.


Geraniums are sometimes known as Cranesbill or Crane's Bill, because that is what their seed pods can look like (something that is very evident on this variety) and usually have attractive foliage that goes a nice colour in autumn - or earlier, as the colour can emerge anytime after they have stopped flowering.

Geranium - Mrs Kendall Clarke

We have several geraniums in the garden, including: Geranium Cantabrigiense Biokovo,  G. Gravetye and G. Mrs Kendall Clarke. Geraniums are an ideal choice for a bee-friendly garden, because honey bees, solitary bees and bumblebees all love them, they are easy to grow, and produce lots of flowers.

Geranium Mrs Kendall Clarke

Mrs Kendall Clarke has an AGM (award of garden merit) from the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society). This means it should be a reliable plant to grow, no bad habits or nasty diseases.

It will give you masses of pale blue flowers with white veins. It is happy in full sun or partial shade and should flower throughout the summer (starting in early to mid June).

13th June 2010

We love it because our bees love it too. They are happily visiting every flower and stocking up on nectar.

It will self seed - so, you could save a few if you want to propagate it around the garden. Alternatively deadhead on a regular basis (to encourage repeated flowering) and increase stock by dividing the plant in spring or autumn.

Once it has finished flowering it can be cut back and will produce more foliage. It will take a couple of years to fill out, with a spread of about 50cm (and 40-50cm height).

BANK HOLIDAY BEES

The bank holiday weekend finally brought out the bees. Up until then the garden has been a bit quiet even though there are loads of alliums for the bees to enjoy. But, the sun is out and the chives are in full bloom and maybe it is just the right time of year - whatever the reason the garden is full of bees.

Honey bees and bumblebees on Allium Globemaster

If you are curious and keen to find out which bees are in your garden you should start with the Natural History Museum's (NHM) quick guide to the six most common bumblebees. It prints out to a handy wallet size guide. If you have the seventh most common bee then if is worth getting a copy of Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland - by Mike Edwards and Martin Jenner. 

Bees bodies are made up of three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. You need to check each segment - where the stripes are, how many stripes and what colour. This guy has one yellow stripe where the thorax meets the head and a broken yellow stripes where the abdomen meets the thorax and finally an orange tail at the end of the thorax. According to the NHM guide this makes it a female Bombus Pratorum.

This little guy has very similar markings but the abdomen stripe is not broken and the tail is white. I'm pretty sure this is a female Bombus Lucorum although B. Terrestris is very similar....and that is the problem, some bumblebees look very similar. The only way to be absolutely certain is to check, with a hand lens or microscope, things like their sting sheath and spines on their legs. 

But some Bumblebees are very easy to identify.

This one is totally black except for that bright orange tail, which makes it a female B. Lapidarius.

head longer than it is wide

head as long as it is wide

Head size and shape, plus the colour of their facial hair is also used by the experts to help identify one bumble from another. In the picture above you can also clearly see the bee's three ocelli in a straight line (between the eyes) - which detect light intensity.

The length of a bees tongue is also important to which plants it can feed on. Long tongued bees can reach in to tubular flowers to suck up the nectar. However, some short tongued bees steal the nectar by punching a hole in the base of the flower. While that is good for the bee the flower gets short changed. It gives away its nectar without getting pollinated.

SEE MY BABY CHIVE

A few years ago I visited the RHS garden at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire. One part that caught my eye was the small herb garden. Instead of the usual box hedge there was edging of chives in full flower and covered in bumblebees.

A Bumblebee enjoying the chives at Harlow Carr

You do have to be patient with chives. Sow the seeds early, in modules . These (below) were sown on 27th March from seeds collected from last years flowers. Protect them from the cold and within a few weeks they will germinate. Chives are monocots with one single seedling leaf.

Chive seedlings grown in modules

Once the roots have filled the modules , plant out the seedlings in a clump – no need to thin them out too much. They like a sunny place – mine line the path and take over from the snowdrops.

They are as tough as old boots and live quite happily in a few inches of soil on my green roof.

Growing happily next to the sedums on our green roof

They probably won’t flower in the first year – but you can still chop bits off to add to scrambled eggs or sprinkle on to new potatoes. In the second year they will flower and start to attract bees, butterflies and a variety of other beneficial insects. They don't seam to suffer from anything nasty. Although they can be attacked by onion fly if grown too close to onions.

There's no need to deadhead them immediately – wait until they have set seed and collect the seed heads and store in an envelope in a cool dry place. Once they have all finished flowering I tidy them up by trimming them down to about 10cm high, usually they will give a second flush of flowers. Come January/February the snowdrops will flower along the path instead.

To make sure you have herbs for the kitchen - wash and dry the trimmings, then chop them into small pieces. spread out a thin layer on a tray and freeze. Once frozen scoop them up into a freezer bag.

Chives are perennials and will give you herbs for the kitchen and flowers for the garden for years. Once they have become established you may want to divide them. Dig them up in March or October and divide the clumps. Put some bonemeal and compost in the soil to give them a feed and replant your chives.

If you saved seeds, sow them in March and start bulking up the clumps of chives you have.

On garden visits you'll often see Box hedging - it is so boring and does nothing for the bees. Why not grow a chive hedge instead? Yes it may take a while but, it will definitely be worth the wait.