Who still has bees?
Well we're rapidly heading into Autumn and I've started to remove or cut back any flowers that are past it. There's one plant proving to be a hero when it comes to being a late nectar souce and that is Devil's Bit Scabious. I planted these in spring 2014 and the 7 that got going spent the year forming a strong rosette of lush green leaves. From about early August this year they started shooting up slender stems with attractive blue flowers, now in late september I'd estimate about 100 flowerheads (I'm deadheading in case this encourages new growth) and the 7 plants take up roughly a cubic metre and there's usually about 4-8 bees of different varieties on them.
Plants that did OK later in the year but now have either died down or don't seem to have much interest are: Liatris, Sunflower, Echinacea, Coneflower, Verbena Bonariensis, Marjoram, Globe Thistle, Alliums (garlic onion?), Borage (Bees love but it's such a giant floppy mess of a plant).
Anyone else still seeing bees and if so what flowers are they on? I'm North West based so things take a while to get going up here.
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Hi still got plenty of bees and flowers in the north east Hollyhocks fushias begonias pinks astrantias phlox Gaura hostas coreopsis Hebe pelegoniums salvia amistad ,rudbeckia,scabious,phylgelius,budleja,eupatorium,Eurybia,and echinacea.even the hanging baskets still looking good
plenty on the verbena here too . I've had to rescue a few from the tunnels too.
I'm in West Essex and had lots of bees on my sedums and salvias at the weekend but haven't seen so many the last couple of days because it has rained more or less non-stop.
There are not many bees flying today here in Liverpool, despite the sun. What few there are are mainly on Aster frikartii "Monch", which has been flowering its socks off for months, Sedum "Rose Carpet" and Buddleia weyeriana..
As well as the above, most honey bees are on the ivy flowers now, stocking up their stores before winter comes. They are still flying despite the heavy rain showers.
Cerinthe seems to be buzzing with bees but I'm in Scotland so it's later flowering for me. They have probably finished elsewhere.
Plenty of bees here in West Devon too.
Yes we have lots of bees here on the south downs on the lavendar, the sedum and the scabious. There is some wild scabious up the road and I have seen bees on those too.