By Miranda Shephard, Bumblebee Conservation Trust Information Officer

Summer is the best time of year to enjoy watching bumblebees as they rely on flower-filled gardens and community green spaces in order to find food, nest and raise the next generation. Summer is also a great time to help bumblebees (and of course other garden wildlife) so read on to discover how you can make your outdoor space as welcoming as possible for your local bumblebees.

We’ll start by taking a look at what bumblebees are doing at this time of year, before finding out what you can plant in summer and whether you need to provide water for bumblebees. Finally, we’ll guide you through what to do if you discover a tired bumblebee or a bumblebee nest.

Contents

Click on one of the links below to find out more:

• What are bumblebees doing in summer?
• What can you plant for bumblebees in summer?
• Do you need to provide drinking water for bumblebees?
• How to help tired bumblebees in summer
• If you find a bumblebee nest, leave it ‘bee’

What are bumblebees doing in summer?

By the time summer arrives most of the bumblebees that you see will be workers. These often petite bumblebees are the daughters of the large queens that you might have seen feeding on early spring flowers. Fueled by nectar, it is the workers’ job to forage for more nectar and pollen. Back at the nest, the collected nectar sustains the queen and other workers while the pollen is fed to the developing bumblebee larvae.

Towards the middle of summer, when some nests can have a few hundred workers, they switch to producing new queens, who require even more food, and males. Once they reach adulthood these bumblebees will disperse, feed and seek out mates. Some queens then enter hibernation while others will make the most of plentiful food and start their own nest which, after four to five weeks, will result in a new generation of workers.

Different bumblebee species have slightly different emergence times and some, like the aptly named Early bumblebee, can successfully complete a nest cycle before others, such as the rarer Broken-belted bumblebee, have even emerged from hibernation. Other species, such as the Common carder bumblebee, are commonly seen all through spring, summer and autumn. This variation is the reason why it’s so important to have flowers from early spring all the way through to late autumn.

What can you plant for bumblebees in summer?

With all that bumblebee activity taking place, it’s important to provide lots of flowers throughout the summer. Different plants can produce varying amounts and qualities of both nectar and pollen so it’s a good idea to have a variety on offer. This will not only look beautiful but also let bumblebees, and other pollinators, choose the flowers which best meet their nutritional needs.

Many of the summer flowering plants prefer to be planted as seeds or young plants earlier in the year, but you can still visit garden centres or local plant sales and buy pot grown plants that are in or just about to flower. Some excellent bumblebee-friendly plants to look out for are Catmint (Nepeta species) and Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus).

In summer you can also plan ahead to other times of year. Both autumn or winter flowering mahonia (Mahonia species) and spring flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) shrubs can be planted in summer and will support bumblebees at times when there are not many flowers around.

Plants can struggle with being moved in summer, particular if it’s very warm and dry, so leave planting out until the evening and make sure they are well watered before and after they’re established. Depending on where you live in the UK, cooler wet weather might be a problem too but adding grit to compost or soil can help with drainage and avoid waterlogging new plants.

After bumblebees have visited and pollinated the flowers, plants naturally switch to seed production. By removing dead and dying flowers, you can encourage plants to produce more flowers so try to achieve a balance between leaving some flowers to develop into seed (for both hungry birds and of course for you to harvest to grow next year) and dead heading to encourage more flowers.

Do you need to provide drinking water for bumblebees?

Do bumblebees drink water? The simple but perhaps surprising answer is not really! Bumblebees generally get all the water they need from drinking nectar, even in very hot weather.

The best way to help bumblebees get a drink is by watering your plants so that their flowers keep producing nectar. In hot sunny weather, try to water plants and containers at cooler times of day, such as early morning or late evening, and at the base of the plant. This reduces evaporation and can help plant roots make the most of the water.

Other pollinating insects, such as honeybees and flies, will make use of water if it’s easy to reach in a shallow container. If this is something you’d like to do, place your water feature in a shady spot and make it even more insect friendly by adding a handful of small pebbles as perches.

There’s no need to leave out containers of sugar water or honey as bumblebees and other insects will be much healthier feeding on the natural sugars in nectar from your flowers.

Other areas of water, like pond edges, boggy patches or even a container of wet soil, can provide valuable mud for other wildlife, such as Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) who will use it to construct their nest cells. Larger wildlife, like swallows and house martins, may also visit as they too use mud to make their nests.

How to help tired bumblebees in summer

Although bumblebees can be spotted from early spring all the way through to autumn, individual workers and males only live for a few weeks. So, it’s quite common to find tired bumblebees who are naturally approaching the end of their life. These bumblebees may look a little odd with faded or missing hair. It can be a tough job being a bumblebee!

You may also see new queens and male bumblebees sitting about on flowers or other surfaces. They don’t collect pollen for the nest and are just conserving energy by having a rest.

If you come across a tired or resting bumblebee on or near flowers, the best thing to do is to leave it alone to let nature take its course. If it is somewhere vulnerable, like on a pavement or indoors, you can gently move it to somewhere more suitable. If possible, choose somewhere that has flowers so the bumblebee can feed if it wants to.

We know that many people just want to help but it’s best to avoid giving sugar water which, just like sugary drinks for people, is not very healthy and doesn’t give all the nutrients a bumblebee needs. If you’re concerned about a bumblebee, and are tempted to give it sugar water, you can read more about when and how to give sugar water.

If you find a bumblebee nest, leave it ‘bee’

Sometimes, people have no idea that bumblebees are nesting close by until they notice an increase in bumblebee activity or accidentally disturb the nest in some way. In either case, provided the bumblebees are given a little space, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

Bumblebee nests are usually only active for two to three months. Towards the end of that period, there can be an increase in bumblebee activity around the nest entrance. This could be workers coming back and forth with food or it could be new queens dispersing from the nest. If it’s a Tree bumblebee nest, it could also be a gathering of males waiting for those new queens to emerge.

There’s nothing to worry about though as bumblebees are generally more interested in themselves than in the people around them. You can minimise disturbance by keeping children and pets away from the area or by using a temporary barrier to prevent them being too curious. An upturned wire hanging basket placed over a nest entrance can allow the bees through but keep curious fingers and noses out.

If you accidentally disturb a nest, just gently replace any coverings and give the bumblebees a little time and space to recover. The workers will pull together and rearrange materials to get the nest back to the way they want it. Then for the next few weeks while it’s still active just avoid the immediate area.

Remember to take time to enjoy watching them too!

By Amanda Thomas from Watford

As the weather becomes more autumnal and my wild garden begins to look a little tired and faded, the florist in me can’t help longing for more beautiful, bright blooms of flowers.

For a moment, I’m slightly tempted by the abundance of colourful bedding plants on offer at most garden centres. But after spending the last five years or so turning my garden into a pollinator-friendly wildlife haven, I know that most bedding plants, with a few exceptions such as native primrose, don’t provide the nectar that bees and other pollinators need. I’ve also discovered that I really love the wild, rustic and natural look of a wildlife garden.

So instead of filling my trolley with bedding plants, I’ve opted for a variety of beautiful, pollinator-friendly, nectar rich plants that flower at various times throughout the year (with just a few colourful pansies dotted in between)!

Here are some simple ways I’m helping bumblebees and other pollinators through autumn and winter, which you might like to try at home too.

Planting flowers for bumblebees in early autumn

I recently added a new bee-friendly bed into my garden using some old wooden pallets and compost from my compost bin. I already have a good selection of plants that provide nectar for bees during the summer months but I wanted to add some plants into my garden that would continue to provide nectar for bees during autumn time too.

I planted it with nectar rich plants such as:

• Catmint (Nepeta species)
• Caryopteris (Caryopteris x Clandonensis) – this seems to be the favourite with the Common carder bees in my garden at the moment
• Japanese aster (Kalimeris species)
• Verbena ‘Bampton’ (Verbena officinalis var. grandiflora ‘Bampton’)
• Astrantia (Astrantia species)
• Winter heather (Erica carnea, Erica Darleyensis)
• Salvia / ornamental sage (Salvia species)
• Coneflower (Echinacea species)
• Tobacco plant (Nicotiana species) – grown from seed
• Borage (Borago officinalis) – grown from seed
• Oregano / wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare) – grown from cuttings

I’ve also scattered some wildflower seeds that I collected from plants in my garden which were visited frequently by bumblebees and solitary bees this summer. They include common knapweed, chives, common mallow, musk mallow, borage and nigella. These should hopefully grow and flower next year.

Collecting and sowing bee-friendly wildflower seeds

It’s the perfect time of year to sow wildflower seeds as many require a period of very cold weather to germinate. If you sow some wildflower seeds now hopefully by next summer, they will be blooming and buzzing with pollinators!

I always collect some seeds from the plants around my garden and some from my local area if there are plenty available and they are not considered to be rare. Plants such as common knapweed grow abundantly in a local field near me, so I always collect a few seeds from there. I scatter the seeds around my garden and wait to see where they pop up in the summer!

I still have pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) flowering in my garden at the moment and they should continue to flower and provide nectar until there is a hard frost. I find them to be a good, reliable plant. They have a long flowering season, are great for bees and other pollinators and self-seed very easily.

Another plant (often considered a weed) that I like to collect seeds from every year is great mullein (Verbascum Thapsus) – a biennial plant which grows as a rosette of soft, furry leaves in the first year before growing a tall spike of beautiful yellow flowers in the second year. The flowers are loved by bees but also, along with other hairy leaved plants such as lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), the fibres from these hairy plants are collected by female Wool carder bees (a type of solitary bee) to construct their nests with.

Feeding bumblebees through late winter and early spring

It’s also a great time to plant bulbs that will flower in late winter and early spring, providing vital nectar for winter-active bees and emerging queens to forage. I’ve found early flowering bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops, grape hyacinth, winter aconite and bluebells to be brilliant choices.

Other winter-flowering plants that I planted into my garden to help feed the bees include winter heather, hellebore, mahonia japonica* and lungwort.

Creating hibernation and nesting sites for bees

Other jobs that can be done in the garden in autumn and winter to help solitary bees and bumblebees include creating hibernation spots, adding nesting areas ready for next year, planting a native hedge, and leaving some over-grown ‘messy’ areas.

I’ve learnt that different bees like to overwinter in different places, so I’ve tried to create a variety of habitats around the garden. A lot of the time this involves doing nothing at all except resisting the urge to be too tidy. I try to always have some leaf piles, log piles, long grass, dead tree stumps, old plant stems, empty pots and old bird boxes. I also made a dead hedge a couple of years ago and I know this is used by mice, which is great for bees as they often hibernate or nest in old mouse holes.

I have tried to create a bee-bank in my garden next to my compost bin by piling up some soil into a shallow sloping mound and leaving it bare. I’ve added a few broken terracotta pots and piled up some logs next to it for shelter too. I’m still learning as I go but hopefully the variety of habitats I’ve created will provide some hibernation spots and possible nesting areas ready for next year.

A couple of years ago now I also added some native hedging into my garden including hawthorn, elder and blackthorn. As well as providing food and shelter for birds and small mammals, I’m hoping it will also provide bees with nectar in springtime as well as sheltered nesting and hibernation sites at the base of the hedging throughout the year.

Welcoming ‘weeds’

I’m a really big fan and cheerleader for ‘weeds’, I think they’re fantastic and so underrated. So many of them are beneficial for bees, edible and medicinal (with the correct knowledge and identification) and rather beautiful too, so I let lots of them grow around my garden and I never use any pesticides. If a particular weed is becoming too dominant, I remove some of it by hand.

Both chickweed and hairy bittercress can grow all year round so leaving some in your garden will really help to feed any pollinators still active during the winter months. White dead nettle is also another great weed providing nectar for bumblebees with a long flowering period from March to December.

And of course there’s the humble dandelion – I still can’t fathom how a flower that is so beautiful and beneficial in so many ways can be so unfairly chastised, along with so many other weeds it’s fantastic forage for bees!

And finally… getting cosy with a bumblebee book!

Lastly, if you haven’t already got it, I would highly recommend Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s book ‘Bumblebees: an Introduction’ (available to buy here).

On those cold winter days when the garden is frozen over, the bees are sleeping and you’re snuggled up indoors, this book will not only be an interesting read and an invaluable source of information, but also a lovely reminder of the warmer months ahead and how wonderfully full and buzzing with life our gardens can be if we choose to ‘Bee the Change’ and garden with bees and other pollinators in mind!

* A note on mahonia: the Bumblebee Conservation Trust recommends pruning mahonia soon after flowering as it has the potential to spread outside gardens.

More ways to help…

Help hibernating bumblebees

Bumblebee queens hibernate in a variety of places, from leaf litter to down in the soil. Discover how to give them a home (and avoid disturbing them) over winter.

Create cosy spaces

By Vicky Harrison, founder of Embroidered Bees for West Penwith, and co-founder of Treneere Grows, from Penzance

I am stood in the wildflower garden with a robin singing loudly in the trees behind me. The sun is shining and there are new signs of life everywhere. It’s a little oasis of calm. I’ve just seen a Red mason bee, several female Hairy-footed flower bees and a huge Red-tailed bumblebee queen gorging on the spring flowers.

It’s the start of our second growing season and we’ve been waiting anxiously to see what reappears and what we lost in the drought last year. This wildflower garden has been made on a roundabout that is dry and hard, and was filled with lots of debris, making the ground stony and difficult to work. It’s right in the middle of Treneere Estate, Penzance, Cornwall. A driver honks their horn and puts a thumb up. We are winning over the neighbours.

Luckily as we stand here, myself and Jenny, the co-founder of Treneere Grows, can see things sprouting up everywhere. I get down on my knees and search for the clary plants that last year hosted tiny bees who slept all up the stems. I am growing fifty more plants at home to encourage more of these very sweet tiny bees.

Sometimes it seems like an eternity since we started this project. In 2019 I spent almost a year learning to grow wildflowers at Bosavern Farm. I had been concerned for a long time about wild bees and wanted to find ways to help them. At home I began to grow some and give them away on my front step with notes about how they could help the bees. As I learnt more, I really felt this was something that could make a small difference. If we all grew the correct plants, the insects would return.

I wanted to do something else for bees, so in 2019 I started two projects…

Bee-utiful handsewn art

The first is the Embroidered Bees for West Penwith Project. It took a break during covid but is now up and running again. It is an ongoing project making a huge art quilt. I run workshops or people make at home. It’s a way of people learning about and researching our native bees, including bumblebees, solitary bees, and honeybees. The participant then embroiders a bee on a hexagonal piece of fabric and it is sewn into the quilt. As the quilt grows, so does the community knowledge about bees. Eventually we will exhibit the quilt and ask for donations towards wildflower planting and projects.

Did you know…? There are over 270 different species of bee in the UK! 24 of these species are bumblebees, one species is the honeybee, but the biggest group are the solitary bees with over 250 species.

It’s one of those projects that ebbs and flows with new people coming on board and different ideas emerging at sessions.  One participant, Vivienne, has begun to paint the flowers in our community wildflower garden and is then embroidering them to add to the art quilt. She told me it has revived her interest in learning about wildflowers.

I am just about to sew another 57 bees into the quilt. Some are the same kinds of bees, some very general and some specific such as an embroidery of a Long-horned bee. These have a few sites in West Penwith. Others include Green-eyed flower bees, which have been spotted in our local subtropical Morrab Gardens, Pantaloon bees (AKA bees with big pants) and Ashy mining bees.

The project does have an impact. One participant Sue replanted her front garden with bee-friendly plants, which resulted in the arrival leaf cutter bees for the very first time.  Another built a big bee hotel in her garden. It’s very addictive. Many participants go home and start growing!

Planting for pollinators on Treneere roundabout

The second project I started was a Facebook group and seed and plant swap event for pollinators. A few people came along and swapped plants but the best part was the discussion about the need to create wildflower areas.

It was at this meeting I met Jenny Wren and eventually in early 2020 we formed Treneere Grows, with central aims of improving biodiversity and teaching people how to grow wildflowers in their own gardens. It’s been a long and bumpy journey, having to jump through many hoops, but today as I stand here it is all worth it!

There are 15 beds in the wildflower garden. We began growing in early 2020 . Each species we grow is researched for its usefulness to insects and wildlife or for its impact on the health of the soil. We grow mostly from seed in our own little gardens. Last summer I could not move for pots. Growing this way helps us really learn about the plants and be able to recognise them if they self-seed.  Our gardens also get visited by lots of curious bees and other insects. Yesterday a huge Hummingbird hawk-moth descended on some flowering ragged robin I am growing for a damp area.

Most of the plants are native perennials, many grown from locally collected seed, but we have included a few non-natives which are useful to insects. We have a moth bed where we plant specific plants for egg laying such as lady’s bedstraw for hawk-moths, a blue butterfly bed full of birdsfoot trefoils and a wild herb bed. Small Copper butterflies are provided with sorrel as their larvae foodplant. A variety of evening primrose (not native) attracts our moths at night.

The wild herb bed is stuffed with wild marjoram which is loved by many species of bees and I’ve been told leaf-cutter bees go wild for it. Certainly it is always covered in insects and bees.

There is a large meadow bed where we experimented with yellow rattle. It’s interesting seeing nature take care of itself. In this bed we have field scabious in the hope of attracting Scabious mining bees which are now very rare. One of the problems for insects is that some of them forage only on specific flowers so we like to plant them just in case.

In the summer we ran a workshop with our friends at Whole Again Communities CIC and taught young people how to collect seed. They were fascinated by facts such as red campion has male and female plants, and loved hunting to see if they could find different kinds of bees. In autumn we were also able to collect our own seed from corncockles, poppies and clary which we took home to begin again.

The tall weld was one of the first plants to flower last year and it attracted lots of tiny black bees with white or yellow faces, possibly masked bees, and for the whole summer one patch of red clover was patrolled by a very handsome Wool carder bee. In the sunshine the place hummed with White-tailed bumblebees and Red-tailed bumblebees, which love greater birdsfoot trefoil, and a myriad of bees we haven’t yet formally identified. There are plants here for both long and short tongued bees and from spring right through into late autumn.

It’s a difficult job as the grass encroaches on the beds all the time and people walk over them in winter, but slowly some things are taking hold. It’s important to improve the soil so we planted lots of chicory, red clover and vetches all to bring up nutrients and improve the soil quality. The thing about these plants is that the bees love them too. The chicories flower for a very long time and, because they have a deep tap root, can survive drought.

We have also planted in swathes of the same plant as we know bees use a lot of energy collecting and so it’s important to plant things close together in patches of the same plant.  There are red campions, white campions, dark mullein, comfrey, knapweed, selfheal and ox-eye daisies. We are planning to fill a bed with clary for the tiny sleepy bees.

By Autumn 2022 the whole garden was humming with life, bees going about their business, Clouded yellow butterflies, Common blue butterflies breeding in the birdsfoot trefoil, grasshoppers bouncing about, hundreds of hoverflies, ladybirds, beetles, it was all happening. Underground we found May bugs. They live there for up to four years before they emerge for a few weeks in spring and are food for some of the larger bats. This was hugely satisfying given that an initial survey before we planted found one Red-tailed bumblebee and one ant.

The future is looking bright as we have just planted an area outside out local shops with lots of herbs and two shade beds under the trees, and fruit trees and spring bulbs in another area. In the autumn we will be planting another large area next to a pathway across the road from the wildflower garden. We have also been giving away wildflowers and helping people plants them in their gardens. We want to create as much habitat as possible. We even persuaded our local council to let us dig up the grass verge next to the pavement and plant things like thyme and selfheal.

Ultimately, we want to create a wildflower corridor right through the Treneere Estate!

If you live in or around Penzance and want to get involved, find us on Facebook by searching ‘Treneere Grows’ or ‘Embroidered Bees for West Penwith’.

More ways to help

Looking to create a bumblebee-friendly space in your local area? Check our our Bee the change resources here.

27 September 2021

By Margaret Alston, Bumblebee Conservation Trust volunteer

It’s that time of year again! The autumn equinox has passed, so it must be time to start planting bulbs again. Here’s my step-by-step guide, plus which flower varieties I’m trying this year to help feed bumblebees.

Amazing Alliums

I’ve always been rather a traditional bulb planter, but last autumn I was given three ‘new’ kinds of bulbs to add to my rather unimaginative selection of daffodils and crocus. I dutifully planted my ‘gifts’ of ‘Honey Lily’, ‘Drumstick’ and ‘Graceful Beauty’ Alliums in containers, as I was unsure where to plant them in the garden. I was rewarded with the most amazingly wonderful and long lasting bee-friendly plants in late spring earlier this year!

These beautiful plants which bloomed in May and June were a huge success! Bumblebees loved them and planting them in containers enabled me to move them around as required.

My plan for this autumn, then, was to plant these bulbs again and to join in the ‘Bee the Change’ idea of trying out more and new ways to help bumblebees and other bees by planting different things. I chose a selection of old favourites and added a few new ones including Allium moly and Allium azureum (also known as Allium caeruleum), which have gorgeous colour combinations and are supposedly bumblebee-friendly… We shall see!

How I plant my bulbs

So, now to the bulb planting, which to me is always a traditional and joyful occasion, coming at the end of summer and beginning of autumn when sadly, summer plants are passing over, but the anticipation of next year’s blooms is there within the new bulbs.

First of all, I set my bulbs out in order of height to which they will grow. I then gather up, dust down and set out all my available pots and containers which have often been lurking in various places around the garden.

Next comes the planting mixture. I mix half and half of ‘bulb planting’ and ‘multipurpose’ peat-free compost. Garden centres fortunately are now well stocked with all kinds of peat-free compost. I also add some horticultural grit and perlite for good drainage.

Now for the exciting bit – I’m ready to plant! Each pack of bulbs usually has information about depth and spacing of bulbs. I try to go with the depth, but would say that when planting in containers, bulbs can be set closer together than advised.

Starting with my ‘Honey Lily’ Alliums which do grow quite tall, I select my biggest pots. To help with drainage, in the bottom I sometimes put an upturned pot, some grit or some old crocks (broken bits of terracotta pot) and then I fill my pot to the required depth.

I space out my bulbs, add more mixture up to about an inch from the top, then put a layer of horticultural grit on top. This I think looks good, and protects the planted bulbs throughout the winter.

Treats for bumblebees

Next, I plant my Allium Azureum (a new variety for me), then my last year’s favourite ‘Drumstick Allium’ which grows very tall and slim just like a drumstick. The pots I used last year were rather shallow so I went for deeper pots this year. They take a while to bloom, going through many stages, but from the beginning of July until mid-September they attract bumblebees (especially males in late summer who linger drunkenly on the blooms through the night sometimes… so comical to watch!)

Next up is the ‘Graceful Beauty’ allium, which really lives up to her name, and then, some grape hyacinth varieties (trying some beautiful white ones too this year). Last but not least is ever reliable crocus. There are so many varieties of this cheerful little flower, always the first to appear in our garden in February and a welcome sight for the emerging queen bumblebees.

Now to find a place to put all these containers. I generally just group them round the garden, amongst borders, on paths, patios or wherever looks good – another good reason to plant in pots. As the bulbs start to come up, you can always regroup and alter their position. Planted bulbs also make a great gift!

And there you have it… my autumn bulb planting in containers!

Happy planting to everyone! Do share photos and ideas with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and why not try some different bulbs, become more bumblebee-friendly in your planting, and Bee the Change!

By Cate Taylor from Yorkshire

In February 2021, we moved into a new house with quite a big garden and lots of lawn space. We’d worked hard to make sure there were lots of bee-friendly plants in the garden of our old house and were keen to do the same here, so I signed up to the Bee the Change campaign.

We were really happy to see so many existing pollinator-friendly plants coming up in the new garden over the spring and summer but decided we wanted to do a bit more.

The first thing we did was to extend one of the flower beds and planted lots of dahlias which the bumblebees have loved.

(Bee the Change top tip: choose single-flowered dahlias like Cate rather than double dahlias, as bumblebees can’t reach the pollen and nectar if there are lots of dense petals.)

We then decided we didn’t need as much lawn space as we had. Seeing the photos of what other people have done to create wildflower areas in their gardens inspired us to do the same!

In June we dug out a large section of the lawn (which took a while but was a good workout!) We scattered lots of wildflower seeds, using a seed mix but adding in extra cornflower seeds as they’re my favourites. We also planted some verbena in there separately.

We then added a layer of topsoil (mostly taken from the grass we’d dug up) and covered it with netting* to discourage the pigeons from eating the seeds and walking over the shoots when they started growing!

We watered the seeds a couple of times when it was really dry and hot, but otherwise they took care of themselves, and by August we had a beautiful wildflower patch in the middle of the lawn, with lots of cornflowers and poppies, which the bees and butterflies have been enjoying ever since.

We’ve even noticed the birds enjoying hopping through the flowers as well!

Now we’ve been in our new house nearly a year and know what perennials to expect from the garden over the next year, we’re using the Bee the Change resources to work out what to plant this autumn and start planning for next spring.

* A note on netting: we would always recommend that people planting wildflower seeds follow best possible practice which fits their situation. This could include following checklists from organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society as well as our own bee-friendly gardening guidance. In some situations, as the RHS state, it might be necessary to temporarily protect the seed with netting (for example, if birds prove to be a problem and alternative methods are not feasible). If netting has to be used we would always advise that it is regularly checked to ensure it doesn’t trap animals.

By Annie Ives, Bumblebee Conservation Trust Information Officer

Bumblebees do not make honey, so unlike honeybees (which live inside their hive all winter feeding on the honey that they produce throughout the summer), bumblebee nests have a short, annual lifecycle, completely relying on flowers for all their food.

At the end of the summer (and sometimes half-way through, depending on the species!) – when their favourite flowers have gone to seed and died off – big, bright bumblebee queens emerge from their nests and begin to look for somewhere safe and cosy to hibernate.

Queen bumblebees can live up to 12 months but spend up to half of their lives in a dormant state. When the new queens emerge from the nest, the rest of the bumblebees, which only live for a few weeks, start to die off naturally.

Queen bumblebees mate before going into hibernation, so by the time they emerge in spring or summer the following year, they are already carrying everything they need to start a brand new nest and create the next generation of bumblebees.

How to provide potential hibernation spots

Queen bumblebees will hibernate in a variety of places, from well-drained, soft soil, to leaf litter, hollow trees or inside tree bark. They often choose spaces that are north-facing, so they get less winter sun and the ground doesn’t heat up and wake them up early.

The best hibernation spots will also be on a slope or raised area, making them less likely to flood. Queen bumblebees use their legs to dig bumblebee-sized holes into the soil or other substrate, and can excavate to a depth of more than 10cm!

In your outdoor space, you can create safe hibernation spots for bumblebee queens by:

• making log piles (and leaving them alone)
• leaving dedicated areas of leaf litter
• building an open compost heap or raised bed
• creating a ‘bee bank’ – this is a shallow sloping bank of bare, sandy soil. (If you are lucky you could have hibernating bumblebees on the north side over winter, and solitary bees nesting on the south side in the summer!)
• leaving ‘untidy’ or wild areas with longer grass, moss, and cover.

How to avoid disturbing hibernating bumblebees

You might come across a hibernating queen when carrying out winter or spring jobs in your garden, such as repotting plants, turning compost or planting bulbs. If you accidentally disturb a hibernating bumblebee, don’t panic! Gently cover her back over with the same material that she had dug into and leave her be.

If she is buzzing around and won’t go back into hibernation, place her somewhere sheltered (for example, under some leaf litter). Bumblebees need to be outside to complete their lifecycles, so never take them indoors.

Helping winter-active bumblebees

In the UK, ‘winter active bumblebees’ are becoming more and more common especially in the south of England – possibly as a result of our changing climate. Instead of going into hibernation, these queens set up their nests in autumn and you could find their daughters visiting your flowers all through the winter!

Growing flowers such as winter heathers and winter honeysuckle will help keep them well-fed throughout the colder months. Winter-flowering mahonias are also great for bumblebees, but do have the potential to spread outside gardens so should be pruned soon after flowering.

Discover more from our Bee the change resources.

By Benjamin Fallow, age 7

Bees, butterflies and all the pollinators are really incredible, they help to pollinate lots of plants around the world, so they’re really important! Without pollinators we can’t grow lots of things, so we have to protect them.

Here’s what I’ve planted in my pollinator garden at home.

Benjamin’s mum Michelle said:

Benji’s taught me so much about plants and which ones are good for insects! Our garden is relatively small, semi-detached size, and my partner and I aren’t really gardeners. But this year we tried to make our garden as wildlife-friendly as possible, and all the ideas for planting were Benji’s – he genuinely knows much more about it than us, mostly from watching Gardeners’ World!

Benjamin said:

I made a wildflower meadow in the corner of our garden, I collected seeds from different plants and tried to get lots of species that the insects love. I’ve put oxalis (wood-sorrel), cat’s-ear, dandelions, alliums, storks-bill geranium, cowslips, and in the spring crocuses, wild daffodils, and English bluebells.

We planted a flower bed especially for pollinators. I grew this foxglove from a seed when I was five and this is the first year it’s flowered! We’ve planted echinacea (coneflower) and helenium, which have daisy-shaped flowers which makes their nectar really accessible to bees!

Hellebore is a good source of early season nectar for bumblebees, and they love our lavender and oregano.

Bumblebees love to rob the nectar from foxgloves and salvias, and we’ve planted lots of them! My favourite is Salvia ‘Amistad’. We have lots of clematis, and wild and rambling roses, these have open centres so the bees can get in.

One of my favourite flowers is storks-bill geranium, this has three large nectar capsules around the stigma so it’s really good for pollinators and we planted lots of it in our garden.

Last year I made a wildlife pond out of a washing up bowl, and this year we dug a bigger pond. It’s really important for pollinators to have a source of water and we’ve got rocks and stones so the bees can access the water. I’ve planted lots of water irises around the pond, one iris flower can have six nectar areas above each lip petal. That is extra good for bees!

By Sarah Womersley, coordinator at Rowledge Primary School

Here at Rowledge Primary School’s communal school garden, the “Busy Bees Gardening and Wildlife Club” are trying to extend the flowering season for our bumblebee visitors.

We are letting our self seeded wildflowers grow where they think best – including our borage plant which lives in the top of the compost container, and will stay where it is for the rest of the season to provide some autumn nectar!

Did you know? Borage is a bumblebee superfood! After a bumblebee has fed on its flowers, borage can refill the nectar in just a few minutes – ready for the next guest.

We are also planting with spring and early queen bumblebees in mind. All of our winter bedding containers are being under-planted with crocuses which should pop up early in the spring, and they also contain lungwort (Pulmonaria) and forget-me-nots, which should provide some winter and spring nectar.

The classes are potting up self-seeded hellebore saplings to plant in the garden next spring and are planting 120 lavender plug plants for over-wintering and passing on to parents next spring to spread the bumblebee love to their gardens at home.

Why hellebores? These easy-to-grow plants flower early in the year (typically December – April), and so provide a rich source of pollen and nectar for winter-active bumblebees and hungry bumblebee queens emerging from hibernation in spring! There are lots of varieties you can try including stinking hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) and Christmas rose (Helleborus niger).

We will be undertaking some nature detective sessions to try to identify which bees we have visiting us next spring!