The other day I had a customer who was after manuka (Leptospermum spp.) and was interested mainly for attracting bees to his garden. This posed the question; What are the best native plants to attract bees? Bees are very important to pollination amongst a number of our native trees, but so are butterflies, moths, other insects, and birds. There are also numerous native plants, and exotic species that are important for the bee population. A large percentage of the diversity of our daily food is directly attributed to bee pollination, and so do many plants in our gardens and surrounding environment. Honey bees all around the world are in decline because of Varroa mite infestations and other threats, including pesticide misuse which is killing bees. The degradation of habitat takes away flowers which supply nectar and pollen, their essential food, so bees are now dependent on humans to protect them. The things that we can do to help are to not use sprays when plants that are in flower or when bees are present, and also if you need to spray to do it early morning or at sunset. Even better, reduce or not use sprays at all. Grow plants that are good nectar and pollen sources in your garden to nourish bees, and supply fresh sources of water for them too, much like you would with a bird bath for birds. Planting clusters of the same plant types can help as well, but this is not always practical if it were trees that you were planting. Here is a list of a few suggested native plants that are great for attracting bees into your garden. There may be others too, but here are some to start with: Phormium species (flax), Pittosporum species and cultivars, Hoheria species (lacebarks), Parsonsia species (NZ jasmines), Leptospemum species (manuka), Cordyline species (cabbage trees), and plants with bottle brush type flowers like Hebe species and cultivars, Metrosideros species (pohutukawa and rata), Knightia excelsa (rewarewa) and Weinmannia racemosa (kamahi).
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 03:51:51 +0000
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