Nectar required

 

We all know that honey attracts more bees than vinegar. But that is only because they just don’t like vinegar and it is nowhere to be found in flowers anyway. It is however also true that there are less and less patches to be found in cities and villages with bee-friendly flowers (and bee-friendly automatically means butterfly-friendly as well).

The ‘RHS Perfect for Pollinators’ label was developed in 2011 when writer and broadcaster Sarah Raven approached the charity with the idea of flagging up to gardeners plants most suitable for pollinators. As the Royal Horticultural Society says on the website : “…Bees visit flowers to collect nectar and pollen, which they use as food for themselves and the larvae in their hives or nests. By moving from flower to flower, they are important pollinators of many garden and wild flowers. Insect pollination is essential for the cropping of most fruits and some vegetables…”

To explain things further, you could read Gail Rajgor’s blog on this subject or the article in the Daily Telegraph from July 2012.

And please do, but you could also, for the moment, stay on this blog and look at the pictures I took of bees, bumblebees and butterflies drinking nectar. What more encouragement do we need to make sure that these insects can keep on finding and drinking nectar…and pollinate our plants at the same time.

This Large Earth Bumblebee (Bombus Terrestris) was caught trying to get the last nectar out of a purple Azalea at Kew Gardens. But it shows exactly what the idea is: you get the lust but you carry the dust…

The first bumblebees to be seen in spring are the queens – the queen is the only bumblebee to hibernate through the winter. The queen is much bigger than the workers, which appear later.

As soon as the queen has found some nectar, to replenish her energy reserves, she starts looking for a suitable site to build her nest.The nest site is usually underground; an abandoned mouse burrow is often used. Inside, the queen first builds a nectar pot, which will sustain her during bad weather. She also begins to build up a pollen larder, which will feed her brood. ( source: Wikipedea)

Please look further below at my pictures of a Carder Bee (Bombus Pascuorum), a Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa Atalanta), a simple honeybee (Apis Mellifera) and a Small Skipper (Thymelicus Sylvestris) respectively. And look for the RHS logo next time you buy your flowers and plants. Thank you!