Plants for bees & pollinators

Bees only eat nectar and pollen from flowering plants. As they collect food they pollinate plants, allowing them to reproduce. Towns and cities can provide a diverse source of forage in gardens, parks, and tree-lined streets if bee-friendly flowers are grown from early spring to late autumn.

Bees prefer blue, purple, violet, and white flowers, grown in large clumps in a sunny, sheltered spot. They avoid double-headed varieties whose nectar and pollen has often been bred out. Wild flowers like dandelions, clover, dead-nettles and alkanet provide welcome food for urban neighbours.

Trees are an incredibly important source of food — their thousands of flower heads give pollinators an abundant meal in one place. Yet council tree-planting criteria often fail to account for pollinator value. Native trees like hazel, alder, and pussy willow provide vital early pollen when few other plants are in flower.

Trails of insect-pollinated street trees linking parks and gardens enable flying insects to negotiate a more nutritiously rewarding path through urban areas. A proportion of non-native late-flowering trees such as the bee-bee tree and loquat also provides valuable autumn nectar.