Your GARDENING FORTNIGHT
Val explains the important role these delightful pollinators play and how to encourage and protect them.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve put those winter jobs, such as leaf picking and pruning, behind me.
Now I’m admiring the first flowers of the year. Snowdrops are everywhere, of course, and many of mine are tucked under my roses. Cyclamen coum is in full flow all along my front path, in one of the sunniest positions in the garden.
The rounded foliage and jaunty flowers welcome me home, along with the scent of Sarcococca confusa.
Crocus tommasinianus is taking over my main bulb lawn, along with patches of winter aconites also called Eranthis hyemalis. The combination of yellow and purple is heartwarming on a chilly February day. Both of these bulbous plants spread by setting seeds, but they only do so if they can attract a pollinator. The earliest flying bees in our gardens are in search of nectar, the sugar-rich energy drink. It’s the bee equivalent of Lucozade. After they’ve topped up their energy levels, they go on to collect protein-rich pollen and this enables them to raise their offspring.
Nectar flow is encouraged by warmth
This is why early flowers need placing in a sheltered spot. As bees and bumblebees seek out sweetness, their furry bodies get an accidental dusting of pollen. That pollen is taken to other flowers, a process called outcrossing, and it’s a necessary part of seed setting for most plants. Winter aconites are clever little things. They only open their rounded flowers once temperatures approach 10C, because they know they’re more likely to get a visiting bee when it’s warm. In other words, winter aconites need winter sun in order to open their flowers. However, they resent being baked by summer sun. This is why they thrive underneath deciduous trees. These provide summer shade.
I’ve already seen my first bumblebee, a large the buff-tailed bumblebee queen. The Latin name, Bombus terrestris, refers to terra for ground because this bee nests in old mouse holes or hollows. She’s the largest and earliest bumblebee queen and she has an orange-yellow band on her thorax, or body, and a beige-buff tail. She’s a short-tongued bumblebee so you’ll see her on crocuses, hellebores and winter aconite, drinking the nectar and spreading the pollen about. She can’t get her short tongue down tubular flowers, so she bites into the back of the tube and robs the nectar out.
Climate change is affecting our bees
Twenty years ago, I used to see buff-tailed bumblebee queens on clement January afternoons, but it’s usually February these days. I think it’s because they are staying active later into the year due to climate change. We need to look after bumblebees because they’re probably the garden
