Friday, March 18, 2011

Early spring flowers for bees: Heather and Pieris japonica

The best way to find the kind of flowers bees like is to go shopping on a sunny day.  Wild bumble bees, honey bees and mason bees will be at the flowers that produce nectar.

There is an old variety of red heather that is very attractive to bees because it produces nectar.  I think it is called Kramer red.  If someone can confirm the attractiveness of this variety of Heather- that would be great.

Of course  the shrub Pieris japonica is a great source of nectar too.

1 comment:

  1. I've read the honey from piers japonica can be toxic. Do you have any info on honey toxicity from the mountain laurel? Beautiful plant... But don't want to poison myself with honey from it.

    ReplyDelete