Hi all,

If you had to pick just three bee-friendly plants (your desert island plants) what would they be?

Mine would be pussy willow, marjoram and echinops.

Ben

     

Willow, Lamium (normally flowers March til about October/November) and probably Chives are the other favourite in my garden

     

Cornflower, oriental poppy and foxglove!

     

Really hard to choose just three, it would be much easier to do a top ten.  Anyway I choose Symphytum ‘Hidcote Blue’ ; Pulmonaria officinalis (wild lungwort) ; and Centaurea nigra (Lesser Knapweed).
The first two because they are a mainstay in the spring when it can be cold and there is not much forage around.

Marc

     

Not easy but I would select Symphytum officinale, Onopordum acanthium and willow.

     

Mine would be Aquilegia, Lavender and Apple
(But almost all our apple blossom got zapped by the frost this spring, so I’ll go for Cotoneaster horizontalis as a substitute instead - not much to look at, but the happy bee-sounds are wonderful in late spring, you get autumn & winter colour -plus the birds like it in winter too!)