The Humble Bumble

A new start to the year and the best part is planning ahead, dreaming of a beautiful garden come summertime which absolutely has to include bumblebees. Their busy buzzing from dawn til dusk makes it all worthwhile. The garden would seem derelict without them.Their amassed tumultuous tone on certain plants can seem deafening but surely hypnotic to the human soul. I believe that we have a primeval appreciation of our thriving depending on their surviving.

“Remove the bee from the earth and at the same stroke you remove at least one hundred thousand plants that will not survive.”

This quotation has been attributed to Einstein although it appears that there is no evidence to confirm a direct link. An interesting article is available here.

From the queens that first emerge in spring, to the many workers that display an endless energy from flower to flower, to the harmless males that lazily feed themselves, chase the ladies and then bed down, at dusk on a suitable east facing flower to sleep for the night, they can hang on to the flower by their jaw, or rest within a bowl shaped bloom, ready to feed themselves on the convenient nectar at dawn.

 I cannot truly imagine gardening without them.

Anyway, ramble no more. Here's for the gardening bit. There are many varieties of plants that will attract bumblebees to your garden but here are a few low maintenance, easy to source plants that will guarantee a garden full of bumblebees...plant them...and they will come.

Sedum Autumn Joy

Allium sphaerocephalon

Helenium Moorheim Beauty

Linaria Canon Went

Cosmos Versailles

Common oregano

Veronica longifolia

Happy gardening!