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Bees love Lavender

Bees love Lavender

If you need a flowering plant in your garden to attract bees then the English lavender plant is the one for you. The plant will grow to about 3+ feet high and the same in width with silvery-grey foliage with pinkish-purple flowers . It grows well here in our dry, well-drained soil and in full sun. When in flower in mid summer you will find it swarming with bees. Just brush against the bush and the air is filled with the scent of lavender.

When the flowering season is over the plant requires hard pruning but leave about 1-2inches of this years growth. It can be a bit of an unruly plant we sometimes have to cut back unwanted stems from overtaking nearby plants. There are quite a few hybrid varieties of lavender, and some that are suited to be grown in pots, on patios and small borders.

Bee on Lavender

Bees really do love the Lavender plant. Throughout the flowering season you will hear the buzz of bees around this plant flitting from flower head to flower head. Honey Bees, bumble-bees and hoverflies (marmalade fly) we’ve seen a plenty everyday even when it’s quite windy.  I have never tasted lavender honey as yet but I know it’s on sale in certain farm shops not far from here. Way up in Norfolk there is a farm that specialises in growing just  Lavenders, will have to find a day to pay them a visit.

Lavender uses

The smell  of lavender always remind me of times gone by and old ladies; when lavender flower bags were used in wardrobes and chest of drawers to keep clothes fresh smelling and to deter moths. Today, dried lavender stalks are used in flower arrangements as well as in potpourri.

The flowers and leaves are also used in herbal medicine. It is grown commercially in enormous lavender fields  for the extraction of essential oils which are often used in massage therapy, and also added to many household and beauty products.