What flowers do honey bees visit? What can I plant for honey bees in my garden? What plants should I leave for honey bees?
The world is covered in the most wonderful diversity of flowers, and in South Africa we are particularly abundant. We have different soil types and climate extremes, with our honey bees living in all these different environments and experiencing the same weather extremes as plants do. And with periods of food scarcity for our honey bees being of major concern, planting with these periods in mind in your region is crucial to their survival.
So if you are wondering how you can feed your local honey bees and grow a buzzy garden, use our Good Bee Food section to understand your local Beekeepers Choice for feeding honey bees on in your province (this also gives you a good idea of what plants not to remove on your farms and open land or gardens) or as a good starting point on a buzzy garden check out the Growing Your Garden Buzzy section.
Our Growing Your Garden Buzzy section is for garden lovers who would like to plant with honey bees in mind. It can not be underestimated the enormous role that our backyard gardens play in supporting honey bees needs of nectar and pollen, so every flower counts! Enjoy this wonderful list of trees, herbs and crops, succulents and shrubs, creepers and ground covers to name a few. Find out too about how honey bees work with the electric field of flowers. This is a great list to get anyone started in gardening or to start a honey bee part of your garden. You can also follow the link to download a PDF of the lists for easy reference while gardening.
And don’t forget to have a little watering stop, making honey is thirsty work!
