Hi,
Unsure about choosing the right plants to get a garden that's brimming with bees? This year, if you look at the bulbs in the garden centres you'll see a cheerful bee logo on some packets. With the backing of gardening and wildlife organisations, the Bee Friendly logo - and some other similar logos - will help you choose plants with confidence. But, being new, a lot of plants that are good for bees (and hoverflies and butterflies) aren't yet labelled.
Bulbs can be great for extending the flowering season of a garden and may be more valuable than we think. At the moment, some universities are looking at farmland, nature reserves and urban areas (which includes gardens) to find out which habitats are best for pollinating insects. Lots of great pollinators like bees, butterflies and hoverflies have suffered declines over the past number of years.
One thing that we often talk about at Saltholme is that plants don't always need to be native to be good for wildlife. In Saltholme's wildlife garden, I'm planting a type of crocus called Crocus speciosus from South East Europe for autumn flowers, and Camassia leichlinii from Oregon for spring flowers. I expect that they'll spread quite a bit - they both have the Bee Friendly logo.
So, step up for nature and plant with confidence for the bees. There are lots of ideas for things you can do in your own garden on the stepping up for nature pages. The Royal Horticultural Society website also has lots of information about planting for bees.
Cheers.
Peter.