john savage

From time to time the question is asked: "How to attract bees to the
garden?"

On a recent trip through some drought-ravaged towns I was amazed to
see the amount of bee activity on one particular type of lavender
flower. Wherever I saw this lavender, whether growing in parched street
beds or well-tended home gardens, the flower heads were always
enveloped in a cloud of bustling honey bees.

It's an Italian lavender with flower heads that have the appearance of
a smallish purple-coloured She-Oak cone (if such existed!) but topped
with an impressive three-bladed purple helicopter rotor! I have seen
this lavender labelled "Avonview" but doubt that anyone in Italy would
be likely know it by that name. :-)

Honey produced from lavender flowers would have to be delicious,
wouldn't it?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

jonno

I would have thought that any lavender plant would be attractive to
bees. I certainly dont have any problems attracting them in Melbourne.
Is it that different with that particular lavender plant?

chookie

I've heard that bees like blue flowers, so things like borage and buddleias
are good, along with rosemary and lavenders of course. But the most bees I've
seen per square cm were on some thyme flowers at Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens
-- you couldn't actually see the thyme!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

terryc

Bees love borage.

john savage

Chookie <ehrebeniuk@fowlspambegone.com.au> writes:

Buddleias?? Are you serious? I can't say I've ever seen a bee on a
buddleia. Only butterflies. Possibly the flowers are too deep for the
bee to dip its tongue in? I shall investigate more closely!

That would make an interesting-tasting honey.

My award for "best bee attractant" would go to a plant that combines
a long flowering period (up to 6 months with the lavender I mentioned,
I would estimate), with a large number of flowers per sq metre of
garden bed.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

andrew

I grew English, French and Italian lavender at my last house. All
attracted bees but I can't say I noticed any preference for a
particular type.

chookie

Sorry, I have no idea as it's been years since I had one. I was just thinking
of flower colour. Salvias would be good if I didn't keep killing them. And
there's hebe, too.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

terryc

Okay, I'm skiteing, but its exciting.
We have had blue banded for a few years. They just love the bush basil.

This year, we finally have teddy bears.

http://www.zeta.org.au/~anbrc/teddy_bear_bee.html
http://www.zeta.org.au/~anbrc/beesin...#teddybearbees

Well, one so far andit was visiting the pelegonium.


This site is well worth book marking if you are interested in native bees.
http://www.zeta.org.au/~anbrc/.

If anyone around Campbelltown, NSW wants to get rid of some clay, one of
my projects is a banded bee nesting boxen. (Sorry, could not find pdf
again.)