Flowers are of great importance to bumblebees, providing a place to shelter from inclement weather and meeting their nutritional requirements in the form of pollen and nectar, the latter also providing an important source of water. Although bumblebees have been recorded feeding on a wide range of flowers, some are clearly more bee-friendly than others.
General advice
As with butterflies and many other insects, flower form is all-important and the heavily-modified blooms created by plant breeders, are often unsuitable. Double-flowered varieties and most annual bedding plants fall into the unsuitable category. Research studies have revealed complex relationships between bumblebees and flowers and we have a good understanding of which species are most heavily used at different times of the year. Many of the flowers visited by bumblebees are suited to their relatively long tongues but there is quite a bit of variation in tongue length, both between different species and within a species.
This means that it is important to grow a range of different plant species, selected to get a balance of flower forms (for example, brush-type flowers like those of various mints and sallows, gullet-type flowers like Foxglove and dead-nettles and bell-shaped flowers like bindweed and the bellflowers) and flowering seasons.
Some plant species attract visits from a number of bumblebee species (for example Red Clover Trifolium pratense and Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus), while others are used by just one or two species. Similarly, some bumblebee species visit a range of plants, others restrict their attentions to plants from just a small number of families. Both native plants and related introductions or cultivated forms may be used though it is often preferable to use the native form. For example, some cultivated varieties of Foxglove are thought to produce little nectar so sticking to the native purple form is recommended.
Plants for bumblebees
Although not an exhaustive list, the following suggestions should give you quite a bit of choice when it comes to suitable plants for bumblebees (as well as Honey Bees and other solitary bees).
Additional advice may be sought from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, who have produced a very useful booklet on the subject of gardening for bumblebees. This also includes advice on providing nesting opportunities.
Plants which flower in March and April
Shrubs and trees
- Apples - Malus domestica
- Berberis
- Cherries - Prunus species
- Currants - Ribes species
- Goat Willow - Salix caprea
- Mahonia
- Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis
- Winter Heath - Erica carnea
Small plants
- Bleeding-heart - Dicentra formosa
- Bluebell - Hyacinthoides non-scripta
- Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale agg.
- Ground-ivy - Glechoma hedeacea
- Lungwort - Pulmonaria officinalis
- Red Dead-nettle - Lamium purpureum
- White Dead-nettle - Lamium album
Plants which flower in May and June
Shrubs and trees
- Buddleja globosa
- Ceanothus
- Hebe
Smaller plants
- Aquilegia vulgaris
- Borage - Borago officinalis
- Bugle - Ajuga reptans
- Campanula species
- Chives - Allium schoenoprasum
- Common Bistort - Persicaria bistorta
- Common Comfrey - Sympytum officinale
- Geranium species
- Foxglove - Digitalis purpurea
- Honeywort - Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’
- Kidney Vetch - Anthyllis vulneraria
- Lupin - Lupinus x regalis
- Red Campion - Silene dioica
- Red Clover - Trifolium pratense
- Selfheal - Prunella vulgaris
- Wallflower - Erysimum cheiri
- White Clover - Trifolium repens
- Field Woundwort - Stachys arvensis
- Yellow Rattle - Rhinanthus minor
Plants which flower July and August
Shrubs, trees and larger plants
- Bramble - Rubus fruticosus agg.
- Buddleja davidii
- Lavender - Lavandula angustifolia
Smaller plants
- Burdocks - Arctium spp.
- Black Horehound - Ballota nigra
- Cat-mint - Nepeta cataria
- Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil - Lotus corniculatus
- Common Hemp-nettle - Galeopsis tetrahit
- Common Knapweed - Centaurea nigra
- Cornflower - Centaurea cyanus
- Delphinium elatum
- Globe-thistles - Echinops exaltatus, Echinops ritro, Echinops bannaticus
- Great Mullein - Verbascum thapsus
- Hollyhock - Alcea rosea
- Iceplant - Sedum spectabile
- Meadow Clary - Salvia pratensis
- Nasturtiums
- Rosebay Willowherb - Chamerion angustifolium
- Sainfoin - Onobrychis viciifolia
- Devil’s-bit Scabious - Succisa pratensis
- Thistles - Cirsium/Carduus
- Tufted Vetch - Vicia cracca
- Viper’s-bugloss - Echium vulgare
- Water Mint - Mentha aquatic
- Wild Marjoram - Origanum vulgare