Bumble bees – a bumper year?
I think that this summer must be a bumper year for bumble bees. I’ve never seen so many of them.
I’ve been taking my camera everywhere I go and stopping to take photos whenever I see something interesting. (If you click on any of the photos you can enlarge them)
My parents grow cut flowers and their nursery is alive with all sorts of wildlife including honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies and rabbits (not so good!) I visited them on Saturday and wandered around looking (and listening) to the bees.
They mentioned they saw the bumble bees taking shelter under the blooms in a recent shower of rain. I also noticed them doing this in my garden.
Here’s the YouTube video
What plants do the bumble bees like?
The plants they are growing include:
- Verbena Bonariensis
- Cosmos
- Scabious
- Weld
- A blue thistle
- Clary
- Perennial foxgloves that flower every year (normal foxgloves only flower every other year)
There are also wild areas which are not touched. These have lots of flowers including buddleia (both purple and white) and various self sown pink umbellifers (like the white cow parsley). Honeysuckle and wild hops wend their way through the old polytunnels.
Fruit and vegetable eaters?
Plus they grow raspberries and the bumble bees absolutely love the flowers. The odd leek has gone to seed and the heads are enormous (bigger than a tennis) ball and they are like magnets for bumble bees.
Other plants they like
In my garden the bumble bees love the pink hebe which is in the sun but completely ignore the one in the shade even though it has lots of flower on it. I’m not sure which one it is but Hebe ‘Gauntletii’ looks pretty similar. Lynash Nurseries in Somerset specialise in hebes and have a great selection on their website.
They are also constantly in and out of the dark pink penstemon which I think is Penstemon ‘Pink Endurance’.
Have you noticed more bumble bees than in previous years? What plants do they love in your garden?