Bumblebees love Foxgloves

Foxgloves ~ Digitalis are brilliant for Bumblebees.

This lovely fuzzy white tailed bumblebee has made itself streamlined, with its feet tucked back so that it can enter the foxglove and collect the nectar inside. Bumblebees have a long tongue, the proboscis, with which to collect the nectar that many other insects cannot reach. The bee will also pollinate the flower, so they both benefit from this process.

This is not our native wildflower foxglove, which tends to be rather better at helping our native species of insects, but these wonderful spikes of flowers still offer our bumblebees some of the food that they need. The new planting on Newington Green includes several foxgloves.

Help our Bees

Bumblebees, like our honey bees, are struggling to survive and the numbers of all types of bees are dropping alarmingly, so if we can provide suitable plants for them, we will be helping them out. The new planting on Newington Green is beginning to encourage some species back to the Green but we still need more nectar and pollen-rich flowers for them to feed on.

If you would like to help our bees and other insects to survive, you can provide nesting boxes for bees to use - which will be particularly helpful if you like to have a very tidy garden with few nooks and crannies for them to build their nests in. These nesting boxes and tubes can be bought, or you can make them yourself.  

Include some native wildflowers in your garden or windowbox, alongside varieties of garden flowers chosen for being nectar and pollen-rich with open flowers, and you will soon have these remarkable creatures visiting you.

Leave some lovely soft moss in your lawn - some bumble bees such as the common carder bee make their nests with the moss. Many birds will also use the moss to line their nests with.

For more information on how to attract bees to your garden visit:  http://www.uksafari.com/bumblebees5.htm

28 May 2009