Expert tips... Helping bees

Mick Lavelle, gardening expert and senior lecturer in horticulture at Writtle University College*

Bees are the single most important insect pollinator in gardens. A high percentage of the food we eat comes from crops that have been pollinated by bees, and without their efforts, many species of plants would become rare and eventually die out.

Most bee species are solitary and have short lifespans, living as adults for only six to eight weeks, and emerging at different times of the year. The females live alone in a hole or burrow and are mostly sting-less, as they don’t store or need to defend any honey.

Honeybees and bumblebees, on the other hand, live in colonies and store honey – or a honey-like substance – and pollen to tide them over food shortages or bad weather. While honeybee colonies last for years, winter spells the end for bumblebee swarms: the worker bees die, leaving only the young queens in hibernation to start new colonies next spring.

In all cases, however, late-flying bees are collecting food to help them, or their offspring, survive the coming winter. It is important, therefore, that gardeners give them help to do so. Although it is too late to plant flowers to help bees this autumn, it is a good time to note just which plants are literally buzzing with late foragers, and pen a reminder in your garden journal to plant some of these next spring.

September foraging bees especially like asters, ivy – if it is allowed to flower – Hylotelephium spectabile known as ice plant, and goldenrod. In October, penstemons, bee bush, Caryopteris × clandonensis, black-eyed Susan or Rudbeckia hirta, Abelia × grandiflora and Mexican orange blossom also help feed bees prior to hibernation.

While the risk of a sting can induce mild panic in some people when they see a bee, considering their numbers, the incidence of bees stinging people is, in fact, very rare. Most types are actually very gentle creatures if left undisturbed. So look after them, and they can keep looking after us.