Hello,  we’re trying to grow our own veg and compliment our choice with bee friendly flowers, what vegetables are good for bees please?  We’ve seen a fabulous bee loving our broad beans and hope to get a pic soon as its one we don’t recognise.

thanks Jelly

I was most impressed yesterday afternoon by a small hedge of Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus or one of its cultivars) at my local tram stop which was being visited by many bees of two or three species. This plant is listed on the RHS’s “Perfect for Pollinators” plant list, but I understand that while it is easy to grow in a wide range of conditions it can get out of hand as it spreads through underground rhizomes.

I have found bees working on Honeywort in my front garden, which is very pretty and self seeds every year on to cobbles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/4247.shtml

Also Verbena Bonariensis is a good one for bees and butterflies and the hummingbird hawkmoth. That self seeds too.

Though it can be “undesirable” to some gardeners…Himilayan Honsysuckle : Leycesteria formosa. Pieris, our one is “Forest Flame”. Queens love this!

Was looking at our garden at the weekend, doing a BeeKind score for how it was when we moved in vs. now and I noticed that there’s a couple of possible plants missing:

1) Salvia sp. (I know Sage is there, but that’s the officinalis)
2) Agastache (similarly, Hyssop is there but not this)

And while I’m at it, aren’t your hellebore pictures of doubled plants? Or is it just the angle of the picture?

I have a couple of Caryopteris, I think they’re the Heavenly Blue ones, I got them for the butterflies but they’re a big hit with the Carder Bees

Mexican Sunflowers tithonia rotundifolia easy to grow from seed, which is readily available from most seed companies. A bee magnet. Sown in mid spring and planted out after last frosts in early June. The foliage is a bit straggly but the flowers, particularly of the variety called ‘Torch’ are stunning. All the pollinating insects love it.

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Bagsbee - 07 June 2012 05:47 PM

I have found bees working on Honeywort in my front garden, which is very pretty and self seeds every year on to cobbles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/4247.shtml

Yes…I would ‘second’ this plant…we call it ‘cerinthe’ and our bumbles love it. Once you’ve bought your first seed packet you don’t really have to buy any more. I collect the large black seeds in the autumn ready to sow in the spring indoors. Plant out after the last frost in early summer. It self seeds here as well and I sometimes pot up these seedlings and overwinter them in the coldframe or greenhouse as the self seeded plants don’t always survive a harsh winter here in the east midlands