Creating a Bee-Friendly Border with UK Wildflowers

Why Late Summer Is the Hungriest Time in the Garden

A British garden can look magnificent in May and June and then fall strangely quiet. The apple blossom is over, the alliums have turned brown, the wisteria has finished and the buddleia has not yet opened. For two or three weeks there is very little on offer, and yet bumblebee colonies are at their peak, raising workers and producing the new queens that will carry the species through winter. They need pollen and nectar in quantity, and they need it close to the nest.

This is the gap that our woodland-edge wildflowers fill so beautifully. A border built around foxgloves, comfrey and field scabious will carry a garden from March to October with barely a pause. Better still, these are plants that evolved here. They cope with our rainfall, our late frosts and our heavy clay, and they feed our native bees far more generously than most bedding annuals ever will.

Foxgloves: Tall Spires for Long-Tongued Bumblebees

Digitalis purpurea is the classic woodland clearing plant, flowering from early June into August. Each spire opens from the bottom upwards, which means a single plant offers a fortnight or more of nectar rather than a brief flush. That gradual opening is a gift to the common carder bee and the garden bumblebee, both of which have tongues long enough to reach the base of the bell.

Foxgloves are biennial, so the best method is to let a few flower spikes set seed and scatter naturally. They will find their own places in dappled shade and gravelly edges. Sow seed in late summer or early autumn for plants that flower the following summer. Keep a mix of flowering spikes and seedheads going at once so the border renews itself.

A word of caution: every part of the plant is toxic, so wear gloves when handling it and keep it away from very young children and pets that chew. Leave the seedheads standing through winter for the goldfinches, and cut the stems back to the rosette in early spring.

Comfrey: The Heavyweight Nectar Producer

If you plant only one thing for bees, make it comfrey. Symphytum officinale and its relatives produce more nectar per flower than almost any other hardy plant in Britain, and bumblebees work it relentlessly. The bell-shaped flowers appear from May into July, and here is the trick that most gardeners miss: cut the whole plant back hard after that first flush and it will flower again in late summer, right when the bees are struggling.

Common comfrey spreads stubbornly by root fragments, so choose your spot with care. The sterile cultivar Bocking 14 is the practical choice for a small garden, as it clumps politely and never sets seed. Plant it at the back of the border or in a rough corner where its coarse leaves can be cut and dropped as a mulch. A bucket of comfrey leaves steeped in water for a fortnight makes a potent liquid feed, though be warned that the smell is memorable.

Field Scabious and Its Companions

Knautia arvensis, field scabious, is the prettiest of the three and flowers longest, often from June right through to October. The lilac pincushion heads are shallow and open, so they suit short-tongued bees, hoverflies, solitary wasps and butterflies alike. It is a plant of chalk downland and rough meadow, which tells you what it wants: full sun, poor soil and sharp drainage. On rich ground it will flop and sulk, so mix in plenty of horticultural grit if your soil is heavy.

If you have room, extend the border with a few easy natives:

• Wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare) for late-summer nectar and a wonderful scent.
• Betony (Stachys officinalis), a quiet favourite of the wool carder bee.
• Red campion (Silene dioica), which lights up shade from May to July.
• Wood cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum) for early summer under trees.

These are all British natives or long-established introductions, and they knit together into a border that looks deliberate rather than scrappy.

Woodland Plants to Bridge the Spring Gap

To cover the earlier months, borrow from the woodland floor. Native bluebells, wood anemones, primroses and dog violets all flower before the tree canopy closes over, and they give early bees their first proper meal of the year. Buy native bluebell bulbs from a reputable nursery and never lift them from the wild. Plant them in light shade under deciduous trees or shrubs, where they will enjoy the spring sun and then rest quietly through summer. Wood anemones spread slowly into a lovely sheet if left undisturbed, and primroses will seed into any cool, damp corner.

Putting the Border Together

Choose the sunniest spot you have, ideally with six hours or more of direct light, and resist the urge to enrich the soil. Wildflowers want lean ground; feeding them simply produces floppy stems and fewer flowers. On clay, dig in grit and a little leaf mould, and plant in autumn while the soil is still warm.

Space the plants so that each can spread without smothering its neighbour, and group them in threes or fives for impact. Leave the seedheads and hollow stems standing over winter, cutting back only in late March, as these are valuable shelter for overwintering insects. Avoid double-flowered varieties, which offer almost nothing, and never use pesticides anywhere near the border.

Do those small things and you will have a stretch of colour that works hard for our bees from the first primrose to the last scabious head.