Bees and other pollinators are a very important part of our urban wildlife acting as pollinators for many plants including many of our favourite vegetables and fruit as well as our indigenous plants.
The European Honey Bee has a large foraging range of many kilometres but the local solitary bees have a much smaller range of about 500 metres. This means the small local plantings of their favourite plants can go a long way to keeping these small visitors to your garden alive and well.
Bees need to be able to access the nectar or pollen of a flower. This can be difficult with many of the cultivars of common garden plants that may now not even produce any nectar. Simple, open flowers are preferred by all bees with many solitary bees being expert at living with our local plants.
How to help maintain healthy bee populations:
- Plant a range of flowering plants that will be available to the bees at many times of the year.
- Avoid using insecticide sprays or dusts particularly on plants in flower when bees may be visiting.
- Put a bee or pollinator hotel in a sheltered part of your garden. You will be encouraging them to stay all year.
Here are our recommendations from plants in our nursery: