Hello I’m trying to help a friend choose a shrub for her garden, she would like a wildlife friendly plant and one that will help the early Queens and have some interest over the winter months

Any ideas please?.......................Many Thanks

     

How about Christmas Rose (helleborus niger )?
Flowers from December to March !

     

Winter flowering Heathers are good food for queens and are colourful too

     

Thanks marym and alibumble, great suggestions there

     

You could try Mahonia. It comes in many varieties and they flower at different times from autumn through the winter to spring I believe.
vicbee

     

Thankyou Vicbee…..I’m passing all these suggestions on

     

I have been pondering your interesting question and have come up with a few more suggestions:
spring crocus, spring anemone, daphne (has many species), Witch Hazel, viburnum (also with many species).

Listing these is the easy bit!
Making sure that any purchase you make is of a plant that is not a hybrid will need some research.
Some plants from growers/garden centres are hybrids and do not contain pollen/nectar for bees to forage on.

Good luck!

vicbee

     

Paula,
I have scattered pots containing small Salix shrubs (trad Pussy Willow) around the garden. The BBs really love all the yellow pollen that is available to them early inthe year. As it is quite a boring shrub for the rest of the year, the pots are placed out of the way till next January and Feb.Pots are also a good idea to prevent salix spreading its roots too far;....they are very hungry for water and wont sniff at a nice underground water pipe :o)
They are all over the garden centres.
Hope this helps.

     

I have a bush of winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, it stays as a bush not like the summer honeysuckle and the early queens flock to it.  The flowers are perfumed and it is very easy to grow.

     

labourie - 11 December 2012 09:54 PM

I have a bush of winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, it stays as a bush not like the summer honeysuckle and the early queens flock to it.  The flowers are perfumed and it is very easy to grow.

I hadn’t heard of that plant before, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for it at the garden centres. I love the scent of Viburnum x bodnantense, but there are no bees to feed from it where I am at this time of year.