Helping bumblebees through autumn and winter
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.
