Bumblebees and garden centres Bumblebees are struggling due to a shortage of flowers. With over a million acres of gardens in the UK there’s really no excuse for this shortage. With this in mind, garden centres and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust have a common goal - to fill more gardens with flowers. As agriculture has intensified throughout the 20 th century, the UK has lost over 97% of its wildflower meadows. This has resulted in the extinction of two bumblebee species, and great declines in most of our other species. Because of this, some bumblebee species are now much more common in urban and suburban areas than they are in the wider countryside. Bumblebees need our support - life would be much less interesting, and our gardens far less productive, without their free pollination service. Garden centres are ideally placed to encourage bee-friendly planting. Many garden centres are already helping to promote insect-friendly gardening, which is great. We hope that this pack will encourage your garden centre to start or expand the work you are doing in this area. Sadly, many of the species and varieties of plants purchased by gardeners are simply no good for bumblebees. Some species don’t produce any pollen or nectar, and others have flower shapes that are too difficult for bumblebees to feed from. Many common bedding plants fall into this category but gardeners are unaware of this. We have created this leaflet to help garden centres to better understand what bumblebees need and how simple it is to help them by promoting certain plants. There is a huge demand amongst gardeners – from absolute beginners to seasoned pros – for more information about the plants that help bees in the garden. We hope that you will find this leaflet useful, and that your customers will go away with more plants for bees. And, of course, that the bees go away with more food!
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Bumblebees and garden centres
Bumblebees are struggling due to a shortage of flowers.
With over a million acres of gardens in the UK there’s really no
excuse for this shortage. With this in mind, garden centres and
the Bumblebee Conservation Trust have a common goal - to fill
more gardens with flowers.
As agriculture has intensified throughout the 20th century, the
UK has lost over 97% of its wildflower meadows. This has
resulted in the extinction of two bumblebee species, and great
declines in most of our other species. Because of this, some
bumblebee species are now much more common in urban and
suburban areas than they are in the wider countryside.
Bumblebees need our support - life would be much less
interesting, and our gardens far less productive, without their free pollination service.
Garden centres are ideally placed to encourage bee-friendly planting.
Many garden centres are already helping to promote insect-friendly gardening, which is great. We
hope that this pack will encourage your garden centre to start or expand the work you are doing
in this area.
Sadly, many of the species and varieties of plants purchased by gardeners are simply no good
for bumblebees. Some species don’t produce any pollen or nectar, and others have flower
shapes that are too difficult for bumblebees to feed from. Many common bedding plants fall into
this category but gardeners are unaware of this.
We have created this leaflet to help
garden centres to better understand
what bumblebees need and how
simple it is to help them by promoting
certain plants.
There is a huge demand amongst
gardeners – from absolute beginners
to seasoned pros – for more
information about the plants that help
bees in the garden. We hope that you
will find this leaflet useful, and that
your customers will go away with
more plants for bees. And, of course,
that the bees go away with more food!
The bumblebee blacklist
Below is a list of common garden plants that are not good for bumblebees. It is ironic that some
of these plants were originally bred from plants which are useful for insects. For example, the
brightly coloured primroses are mostly useless for bees, but the native wild primrose (Primula
vulagris) is often used by pollinating insects.
Begonia
Busy Lizzie - Impatiens
Geranium - Pelargonium
Hydrangea
Livingstone daisy -
Mesembryanthemum
Pansy
Petunia
Primrose (except native
wild primroses)
Scarlet salvia / Salvia
splendens
Berberis
Bluebell
Broom
Bugle
Comfrey
Crocus
Dicentra
Flowering currant
Hellebore
Lungwort
Mahonia
Muscari
Pieris
Pussy willow
Rosemary
Skimmia
Viburnum
Winter heather
Fruit trees (e.g.
pear, plum, apple)
Fruit shrubs (e.g.
blackcurrant,
blackberry,
redcurrant,
raspberry,
strawberry)
Turn your customers into bumblebee champions
Spring flowering plants
As bumblebees start to emerge from hibernation, so do many gardeners. Spring is the time when
bumblebee queens establish their nests and raise their first offspring. It is an energy intensive
time so it is vital that there be a ready supply of flowers available for them to feed from. Garden
centres have a prime opportunity to ensure bumblebees survive at this time of year by
encouraging shoppers to plant early flowering blooms.
The plants listed below are all early blooms and will help support young nests and struggling
bumblebee queens:
Achillea
All peas and beans
Aster
Basil
Cardoon
Cornflower
Dahlia
Echinacea
Fuchsia
Honeysuckle
Hyssop
Lavender
Lupin
Marjoram
Nasturtium
Phacelia
Phlox
Poached egg plant
Potentilla
Rudbeckia
Russian Sage
Scabious
Snapdragon
Sneezeweed
Stonecrop/ sedum
Sunflower
Teasel
Toadflax
Allium
Aquilegia
Betony
Bistort
Campanula
Cardoon
Catmint
Ceanothus
Chive
Cistus
Comfrey
Cosmos
Dead nettle
Escallonia
Foxglove
Geranium
Globe thistle/
Echinops
Hebe
Hollyhock
Honeywort
Jacob’s ladder
Lilac
Mallow
Mock orange
Penstemon
Poppy
Rose
Rosemary
Sage*
Solomon’s seal
Thrift
Thyme
Wallflower
Weigela
Wisteria
Early and mid-summer flowering plants
In early summer the bumblebee nest will be growing larger and the queen will be laying more
eggs from which bumblebee workers will hatch. These workers will collect food from flowers, to
feed to larvae in the nest. The growing nests require yet more food, so it is essential to have bee-
friendly plants at this time of year.
Late-summer flowering plants
In late summer, the bumblebee nests produce new queens. It takes a lot of food to make a single
queen, so it is vital that there are flowers available at this stage. Late summer is also mating
season, which requires yet more energy. The following are good flowers to promote at this time:
How your garden centre can help bumblebees
Not everyone who gardens knows which plants are best
for bees. You can help rectify this by:
Ensuring that you stock a good selection of bee-
friendly plants.
Creating displays of bee-friendly plants to show off
the variety of shapes and colours available. Don’t
forget to include plants that can be grown from seeds