Plants for Bees Winter

In winter, plants for bees and other pollinators to get nectar and pollen from, are hugely important. Bees usually have honey stored to last them over winter, and a small amount of pollen. However, fresh pollen is essential for the production of new bees, and this is why winter flowering plants are so important.

The importance of winter pollen

A honeybee egg will hatch into a larva after three days. The nurse bees then feed them for several days. Nurse bees need to eat copious amounts of pollen to produce the food that they feed the larvae. After feeding for several days the larvae have increased in size multiple-fold, and the cells containing the larvae are then sealed with wax. They then enter the pupa stage of their development. They emerge as young bees 21 days after the egg was laid. However, without fresh pollen, the bees cannot produce more bees. So, when there is no pollen available, the queen reduces her egg laying, and the colony is at a standstill.

When there is pollen available again, and the honeybee queen increases her egg laying, she can lay up to 2000 eggs a day! Imagine That’s 2000 new mouths to feed every day, 14000 in one week! And that takes an awful lot of pollen! So, if you want to do one thing for bees and other pollinators, plant some winter flowering shrubs and flowers. Learn more about pollen and its importance to the honeybee colonies here.

Here are three of the best plants for bees in the winter. (Images are available to share unaltered, so please share and help our winter bees!)

1. Hellebore

The Hellebore, or Christmas rose, is a fantastic plant for bees. It flowers from the end of December to March. Although the flowers look so delicate, they are a really tough plant. They can be a little expensive to buy, but they are well worth it. Hellebores grow in sun to shade. They are in fact a great plant for shady spots. However, the bees prefer to work them in the sun. Perhaps because it is too cold in the shade in the winter. So, for the bees to benefit the most from this plant, plant it in sun, or half shade.

Hellebores produce an abundance of seeds. If you leave the seed heads on, they will germinate and produce new plants. It is often said not to propagate Hellebore from seed as you don’t know what the flowers on the new plant will look like. I think that is a bit of a ploy to get people to buy plants instead of propagating them themselves. And besides, the bees don’t seem to have a preference for the fancy types. Anything will do as long as it is in the sun, has pollen and isn’t a double flower! (Bees can have difficulty accessing double flowers as they are too crammed with petals, so as a guide, stick with the plain single flowering flowers for the bees and other pollinators.)

2. Snowdrop

The Snowdrop prefers damp soil and flowers from January to April. Sometimes it can be seen in flower as early as December. It prefers Broadleaved woodland and riverbanks in the wild but is often seen growing in gardens and parks. It is not native to Ireland but has become naturalised here over several hundred years. One of the great features of this plant is that the flowers are facing down. This means that in a winter with a lot of rain, the pollen and nectar does not get washed away but remain available to the bees despite the wet conditions. Snowdrops are available in lots of varieties, but if you are planting for bees, select a single flowering variety to ensure that bees can access the pollen within.

3. Mahonia

Mahona is another one of those fabulous winter flowers. Not just for bees. On dreary winter days, their bright yellow flowers are a wonderful sight for human eyes also. On a sunny day, try to stand next to a shrub of Mahonia and enjoy all the bees working it! The evergreen Mahonia is a lovely garden shrub throughout the year and looks very well planted at the back of a border. It has prickly serrated and very attractive leaves, and springs into its own in winter, usually flowering from November to March. It bears hundreds of bright yellow flowers each cluster. The flowers are rich in nectar. After pollination, the shrub produces very ornamental berries that are attractive to birds.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please share it to others who might enjoy it and plant some flowers for the bees!

/Hanna

Hanna Bäckmo

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