Bee On A Flower Drawing

Rüdiger Katterwe / EyeEm Getty Images

What are the best flowers for bees to plant in the garden? Good news, there are tons of bee-friendly plants that will add colour and interest to your outdoor space whilst attracting bees.

Importantly, however, it's essential to maintain a food source to sustain the active lifespan of bumblebee colonies – meaning you'll need to produce plenty of plants from March through to October.

Most bumblebee species do not appear until spring but occasionally some might emerge in winter, so it's advisable to have some early flowering plants such as snowdrops in your garden. Flowercard have revealed the best flowers to plant in your garden for bees from spring through to autumn – take a look at the list and shop the plants below.

Spring flowers

Snowdrops
California Lilac
Crocus
Dicentra
Pieris

Summer flowers

Geraniums
Lavender
Wild Strawberries
Foxgloves
Monkshood

Autumn flowers

Sunflowers
Cosmos
Honeysuckle
Verbena
Ground Ivy

Spring flowers for bees - Snowdrops

Snowdrops

Spring flowers for bees - California Lilac

California Lilac

Spring flowers for bees - Crocus

Crocus

Spring flowers for bees - Dicentra

Dicentra

Spring flowers for bees - Pieris

Pieris

Summer flowers for bees - Geraniums

Geraniums

thompson & morgan thompson-morgan.com

£7.99

Summer flowers for bees - Lavender

Lavender

thompson & morgan thompson-morgan.com

£8.99

Summer flowers for bees - Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries

thompson & morgan thompson-morgan.com

£1.99

Summer flowers for bees - Foxgloves

Foxgloves

thompson & morgan thompson-morgan.com

£2.49

Summer flowers for bees - Monkshood

Monkshood

Important:Always wear gloves when working with monkshood; all parts of the plant are poisonous and a potential skin irritant.

Autumn flowers for bees - Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Autumn flowers for bees - Cosmos

Cosmos

Autumn flowers for bees - Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Autumn flowers for bees - Verbena

Verbena

Autumn flowers for bees - Ground ivy

Ground Ivy

5 ways you can help to save the bees

There are many other tips you can easily implement to help bumblebees flourish.

1. Grow your own herbs: Instead of buying packs of fresh herbs from the supermarket try growing your own. The flowers of many herbs such as mint, rosemary and thyme are well-liked by bees.

2. Natural Gardens: Wild hedges and trees are the way forward. In addition to flowers, these environments are very friendly for bumblebees and will help them thrive. Also, don't cut the grass more than a couple of times during the growing season to enable wildflowers to flourish.

3. Avoid using chemicals: A big killer of bumblebees is the destruction of habitat and the spraying of chemical pesticides and other substances which poison them; a problem mainly caused by agriculture. Garden weed killers and artificial fertilisers can also kill the bees, so stop using them.

4. Educate yourself: Having an awareness of bumblebees and its decline (since the 1940s the UK has lost two of its bumblebee species and a further eight are in danger of going the same way), and what you can do to help them, is key to saving the species. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a good charity to support.

5. Revive a 'dying' bumblebee: To revive a bee, mix two tablespoons of white sugar with one tablespoon of water, place the bee on the spoon and hopefully it'll gather enough energy to return to the hive and recover more strongly.

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Olivia Heath Executive Digital Editor, House Beautiful UK Olivia Heath is the Executive Digital Editor at House Beautiful UK where she's busy uncovering tomorrow's biggest home trends, all whilst delivering stylish room inspiration, small space solutions, easy garden ideas and house tours of the hottest properties on the market.

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