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10 easy-to-grow herbs that bees will love – and it's great for your cooking too
Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats that bees face, but growing these flowering herbs in your garden will really help.
Provide a valuable source of food for bees and other pollinating insects whilst adding some variety to your cooking with this comprehensive list of the best bee-friendly herbs.
'Bees play a crucial role pollinating our food and plants – but we must do more to look after them,' says Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, who is also encouraging nature lovers to take part in the Great British Bee Count until 30th June 2018 (download the app for free here).
In the meantime, Friends of the Earth has shared with us the 10 best bee-friendly herbs to plant in your garden to help these insects thrive, and it turns out these fragrant plants will also take your dishes to the next level too.
1. Marjoram
This aromatic herb produces pinkish-white drifts of nectar-rich flowers, and comes alive with bumblebees, honeybees, leafcutter bees and furrow bees in the summer. It will still be flowering in September. Marjoram is also a brilliant herb for the kitchen because it’s so versatile and tastes great in lots of different dishes.
Flowering season: Summer and early autumn.
Varieties: Look for Origanum vulgare, the marjoram that grows wild in the UK. Pot marjoram is usually a neater growing version, and sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) is also widely available.
Tips for cooks: Sprinkle freshly chopped marjoram on a homemade pizza or add to tomato sauces for pasta. Combine with other herbs in a stuffing or use to add flavour to beans, chickpeas and lentils in stews and salads.
Origanum Vulgare seeds, £1.49 by Premier Seeds Direct via Amazon BUY NOW
2. Mint
Mint is very easy to grow. It’s a good idea to put it in a pot on its own because it can invade the space of other plants if left unchecked. The flowers attract bees from mid-summer onwards. If you have a pond try growing water mint (Mentha aquatica), as bees and hoverflies seem to particularly love this, and it can be used in cooking just the same as other mints.
Flowering season: Summer and early autumn.
Varieties: Try spearmint (Mentha spicata) for the traditional minty taste, peppermint (Mentha x piperita), which has a slightly stronger flavour, and apple mint (Mentha suaveolens).
Tips for cooks: There are strawberry, chocolate, ginger and many other flavours of mint available, so choose carefully if you want to use it in the kitchen. Mint water ice is very easy to make and delicious on hot summer days.
Spearmint seeds, 75p by Just Seed via Amazon BUY NOW
3. Fennel
The bright yellow flowerheads of fennel are rich in nectar and pollen, and will attract a variety of pollinating insects including mining bees, yellow-faced bees, bumblebees and honeybees. The fennel herb is related but slightly different to bulb or Florence fennel, the white vegetable, but has the same aniseed flavour and produces aromatic seeds after the flowers have finished. Fennel can grow quite tall so if you have space for it to get big, it’s well suited to a sunny spot at the back of a border.
Flowering season: Mid to late summer.
Varieties: Foeniculum vulgare. Bronze-leaved varieties are edible too.
Tips for cooks: Parcel up and bake a whole fish on a bed of feathery fennel fronds and slices of lemon. Or make your own coleslaw with chopped bulb fennel, red cabbage, onions and carrots: sprinkle the shredded veg with homegrown fennel seeds and combine with garlic mayonnaise.
Herb Fennel Florence Foeniculum Vulgare seeds, 99p, Premier Seeds Direct via Amazon BUY NOW
4. Borage
This is n easy-to-grow annual, also known as 'starflower', that keeps on flowering for many months. The bumblebees and honeybees absolutely love borage because the flowers are very rich in nectar. The bright blue blooms are relatively shallow so they attract bees with short tongues, like the buff-tailed bumblebee. Both the flowers and the leaves are edible. Leave some flowers for the bees though!
Flowering season: Spring, summer and early autumn.
Variety: Look for the annual Borago officinalis, which self-seeds, so you shouldn't need to buy more plants each year.
Tips for cooks: The beautiful blue flowers add some 'wow' to summer dishes and cocktails. They have a sweet, honey-like taste. Borage leaves taste a bit like cucumber. Try them in salads or use as a garnish.
Borago Officinalis seeds, £1.49 by Heirloom & Perennial Ltd via Amazon BUY NOW
5. Chives
Chives are easy to grow in pots or a window box. Let your chives flower and they will provide welcome nectar for bumblebees, honeybees, mason bees and leafcutter bees. The pretty purple flowers can also be eaten and used to add a splash of colour to salads – but leave some for the bees to visit too.
Flowering season: Spring and summer.
Varieties: Allium schoenoprasum or try Allium tuberosum, which has a delicate garlic flavour.
Tips for cooks: Sprinkle freshly snipped chives on an omelette or add to a potato salad for a delicious, mild oniony flavour. Great with soft white cheeses – try with goat’s cheese, tomatoes, salad leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.
Chives Allium Schoenoprasum seeds, 85p by Just Seed via Amazon BUY NOW
6. Rosemary
This hardy and drought-tolerant herb can be harvested all year round for the fresh needles. It also has a long flowering season, with the flared blue-purple flowers attracting mason bees, flower bees, bumblebees and honeybees. Rosemary can grow into a large bush, so if you are short of space try growing creeping rosemary in a pot, in a sunny position.
Flowering season: Starts flowering in spring and can continue to flower throughout the year, sometimes even in winter.
Varieties: Look for Rosmarinus officinalis or creeping rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis prostratus).
Tips for cooks: Rosemary keeps its flavour well when cooked so it's a perfect companion to slow-roasted dishes. It will easily liven up a tomato sauce for pasta too, along with anchovies.
Rosmarinus Officinalis seeds, 99p by SeeKay via Amazon BUY NOW
7. Sage
The purple spikes of tubular flowers on both edible and ornamental sage are popular with leafcutter bees and long-tongued species such as the garden bumblebee. Fresh, edible sage is a world apart from the dried herb you might have come across in stuffing, and the leaves are available to pick pretty much all year round if the plants are kept in a sheltered spot.
Flowering season: Late spring, summer.
Varieties: There are many different varieties of Salvia to choose from which are great at attracting bees. Try common sage (Salvia officinalis) for cooking.
Tips for cooks: Sage is delicious in butternut squash risotto and makes a lovely garnish for this dish. Quickly fry whole sage leaves for a few seconds in a little olive oil until they turn crisp, and add as a finishing touch.
Common Sage seeds, 99p by NutsnCones via Amazon BUY NOW
8. Hyssop
A magnet for bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinators, hyssop is a lesser-known aromatic herb which displays beautiful blue flowers from July onwards. It thrives in sunshine and tolerates drought. The flavour of the leaves is strong, and rather like a cross between mint and sage. The deep flowers suit longer-tongued bees, including garden bumblebees and wool carder bees.
Flowering season: Summer and early autumn.
Variety: Hyssopus officinalis.
Tips for cooks: Hyssop is a strongly flavoured herb, so you don’t need too much. The young leaves are a nice accompaniment to oily fish such as mackerel or sardines, with new potatoes and a salad of watercress and rocket.
Hyssopus Officinalis seeds, £1.79 by Heirloom & Perennial Ltd via Amazon BUY NOW
9. Lemon balm
If you love lemons, you’ll love lemon balm – the smell of the leaves crushed between your fingers is delicious. This plant is incredibly easy to grow, and like mint, benefits from being in its own pot because it will spring up everywhere. The plant was actually named in honour of honey bees: Melissa means bee in Greek, which in turn comes from Meli (honey). Honeybees and bumblebees, particularly common carder bees, flock to the tiny creamy-white flowers.
Flowering season: Summer.
Variety: Melissa officinalis.
Tips for cooks: Lemon balm complements fish. The leaves can be used to make lemon balm pesto – whizz them together with pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of fresh chives.
Lemon Balm seeds by Just Seeds, 99p via Amazon BUY NOW
10. Thyme
Grow a herb ‘carpet’ – plant thyme amongst cracks in paving or along the sides of a path and enjoy the aroma when you walk on it. It also works just as well growing in a pot. It's fantastic for honeybees, bumblebees, mason bees and leafcutter bees. There are many different varieties of thyme to choose from – some taste better than others.
Flowering season: Summer.
Varieties: Thymus vulgaris (common thyme). Thymus polytrichus subs. britannicus attracts lots of bumblebees.
Tips for cooks: Delicious in a risotto with courgettes, lemon, garlic and parmesan. Or try something a little different – add fresh thyme leaves to Bramley apples, stew with a little sugar and use in a crumble.
Thymus Vulgaris seeds, £1.49 by Heirloom & Perennial Ltd via Amazon BUY NOW
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