In many gardens, bees and other insects find little food. To support the busy honey collectors, we present 25 attractive shrubs for the garden that are bee-friendly and hardy.
In a nutshell
- native flowering shrubs are particularly recommended
- robust, adaptable, easy to care for and hardy
- for sunny to shady locations
- prefer yellow, pink or purple flower colors
- many wild bushes with edible fruits
Native wild trees
Dyer's broom (Genista tinctoria)
Genista tinctoria, dyer's broom, dyer's broom
- Flowering period: June to August
- Flower: golden yellow
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 100 centimeters
- Location: sunny to slightly shady
- Soil: rather lean, permeable
- Special features: reblooming in autumn
Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula)
Source: Stefan.lefnaer, Frangula alnus sl7, Edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flower: yellowish white, inconspicuous
- Fruits: red or black berries, poisonous
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 400 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: undemanding, grows almost everywhere
- Special features: extremely adaptable, grows in full sun as well as in the shade
Notice: The native buckthorn not only adapts to any location, it is also ecologically very valuable. Not only is it bee-friendly, its berries, which are poisonous to us, are popular with birds.
Bird cherry (Prunus padus)
Bird cherry, Prunus padus
- Flowering time: April to May
- Flower: simple, white
- Fruits: black, bitter fruits, inedible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to ten meters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: undemanding
- Special features: valuable wood for feeding birds
Notice: If you are looking for shrubs that are both hardy and bee-friendly, you should take a look at the native wild trees. These are often robust, undemanding in terms of location and care and, on top of that, extremely valuable from an ecological point of view.
Dog rose (Rosa canina)
- Flowering period: June to July
- Flowers: white-pink cup flowers
- Fruits: rose hips, edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 300 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: rich in nutrients
- Special features: also for flowering hedges
Tip: Other wild roses, such as the vinegar rose (Rosa gallica) or the cinnamon rose (Rosa majalis), are real bee magnets - in contrast to the beautiful hybrid tea roses, which are usually neither bee-friendly nor really hardy.
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas)
- Flowering time: March to April
- Flower: golden yellow
- Fruits: red drupes, edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to five meters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: undemanding, grows almost everywhere
- Special features: valuable wood for feeding birds
Copper Rock Pear (Amelanchier lamarckii)
Source: Wouter Hagens, Amelanchier lamarckii A, Edited from Plantopedia, CC0 1.0
- Flowering time: April
- Flower: white
- Fruits: apple-shaped, edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 600 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: Valuable wood for feeding birds, beautiful autumn colours
Tip: In addition to these shrubs, there are closely related service pear trees that are just as hardy and bee-friendly, but remain smaller (Amelanchier rotundifolia, Amelanchier alnifolia or Amelanchier laevis) or grow as a tree (Amelanchier arborea).
Sal willow (Salix caprea)
Sal willow, Salix caprea
- Flowering time: March to April
- Flowers: yellow to silver catkins
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 500 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: undemanding
- Special features: also good for hedges
Notice: In principle, all types of willow are valuable nutritive shrubs for bees and other insects. So you can also use any other willow such. B. Plant rosemary willow (Salix rosmarinifolia), curly willow (Salix erythroflexuosa), osier (Salix viminalis) or corkscrew willow (Salix matsudana).
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa
- Flowering time: April to May
- Flower: white
- Fruits: black-blue berries
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 400 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: undemanding, but rich in nutrients
- Special features: Fruits are edible after the first frost
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flowers: white, strongly scented
- Fruits: red fruits, inedible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 500 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: nutrient-rich, calcareous
- Special features: extremely adaptable to both heat and cold, hardy to minus 24 °C
hedge shrubs
Barberry (Berberis vulgaris)
- Flowering period: early May to June
- Flower: bright yellow
- Fruits scarlet, sour
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 250 centimeters
- Location: partially shaded
- Soil: undemanding
- Special features: beautiful autumn colours
Tip: There are other species of this beautiful shrub, also known as sour thorn, as well as numerous interesting cultivars that are just as bee-friendly, but not always really hardy.
Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea)
Pyrantha coccinea 'Red Column'
- Flowering period: late May to June
- Flower: white
- Fruits: many bright orange or red fruits, not edible
- Foliage: evergreen
- Growth height: up to 350 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: well-drained, normal garden soil
- Special features: valuable wood for feeding birds
Tip: Firethorn, a shrub that is bee-friendly and very hardy, has many beautiful cultivars for the garden. Recommended are 'Orange Glow' with orange fruits or 'Red Column' with red fruits.
Fingerbush (Potentilla fruticosa)
Source: Wildfire, 2007-08-30Potentilla fruticosa08, Edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Flowering period: June to early October
- Flower: bright yellow
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Height of growth: depending on the variety, usually up to approx. 100 centimetres
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: comes into its own in group plantings
Tip: There are also numerous beautiful, bee-friendly varieties of this popular shrub that also flower in pink ('Pink Lady'), orange ('Red Ace') or white ('Manchu').
Honeysuckle (Lonicera xylosteum)
Honeysuckle, Lonicera xylosteum
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flower: yellowish-white
- Fruits: red berries, not edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 300 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: undemanding
- Special features: valuable wood for feeding birds, heat-tolerant and winter-hardy
ornamental shrubs
Blue rue / silver bush (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
- Flowering period: July to October
- Flowers: violet-blue spike flowers
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 120 centimeters
- Location: sunny, sheltered
- Soil: normal garden soil, dry, calcareous
- Special features: many lavender-like flowers, very insect and bee friendly
Bloodcurrant (Ribes sanguineum)
Source: MartinThoma, Ribes sanguineum Atrorubens-1, Adapted from Plantopedia, CC0 1.0
- Flowering time: April to May
- Flowers: dark red, grape-shaped
- Fruits: blackcurrants
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 200 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: fresh, humic
- Special features: attractive flower clusters, edible fruits
Tip: Many other ornamental fruit trees (e.g. ornamental apples, ornamental plums, ornamental cherries, etc.) tend to grow as shrubs and are very popular with bees and other insects. Birds like to eat their fruit.
Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum)
- Flowering time: April to May
- Flower: purple-pink
- Fruits: brownish legumes, not edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 600 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: very drought tolerant
Kolkwitzia / mother-of-pearl shrub (Kolkwitzia amabilis)
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flower: pink umbel flowers
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 350 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: is very popular with bumblebees and bees
Mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium)
- Flowering time: April to May
- Flower: golden yellow, grape-shaped
- Fruits: purple-black berries, not edible
- Foliage: evergreen
- Growth height: up to 120 centimeters
- Location: sunny to shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: particularly suitable for shady garden areas
Tip: The shrub is not only hardy and bee-friendly, it is also very adaptable in terms of its location and also tolerates the root pressure of trees, for example, very well. It is therefore suitable as an underplant for higher-growing trees.
Snowball (Viburnum)
Viburnum opulus
- Flowering time: depending on the variety, usually April to May
- Flower: Large, white flower balls
- Fruits: inedible berries
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 200 centimeters
- Location: sunny
- Soil: rich in nutrients, permeable
- Special features: large selection of different types and varieties
Tip: The shrub large-flowered scented viburnum (Viburnum carlcephalum) is particularly bee-friendly, which is also very hardy, easy to care for and undemanding in terms of its location.
Summer lilac (Buddleja davidii)
- Flowering period: July to October
- Flowers: Large paniculate flowers in pink, violet or white
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 250 centimeters
- Location: sunny
- Soil: humic, permeable
- Special features: cut back close to the ground in early spring
Notice: The summer lilac, also known as the butterfly lilac, attracts not only butterflies but also bees and bumblebees like a magnet. The fast-growing shrub freezes back above ground in winter, but sprout again in spring.
Weigela (Weigela)
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flowers: pink to red bell-shaped flowers
- Fruits: none
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: Depending on the variety, often up to 200 centimetres
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: particularly rich in flowers, also good for flowering hedges
fruit trees
Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus)
- Flowering period: June to August
- Flower: white or pink cup flowers
- Fruits: edible black berries
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to 300 centimeters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: humus
- Special features: friendly to insects and bees, valuable wood for feeding birds
Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
Raspberries (Rubus idaeus)
- Flowering period: May to June
- Flowers: white cup flowers
- Fruits: red or yellow berries, edible
- Foliage: deciduous
- Height of growth: up to approx. 180 centimetres
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: humic, rich in nutrients
- Special features: large variety of varieties
Tip: Raspberries not only ripen in summer, but also in autumn, depending on the variety. In addition, there are not only varieties with red, but also those with aromatic yellow fruits.
Black elder (Sambucus nigra)
- Flowering period: June to July
- Flowers: creamy white umbelliferous flowers
- Fruits: black berries, edible (for juice etc.)
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to ten meters
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: rich in nutrients
- Special features: very bee-friendly, valuable for birds
Black currant (Ribes nigrum)
- Flowering time: depending on the variety, April to May
- Flower: white
- Fruits: black, edible berries
- Foliage: deciduous
- Growth height: up to approx. 150 centimetres
- Location: sunny to semi-shady
- Soil: normal garden soil
- Special features: very popular with bees and other insects
Tip: Black currants are also divided into early, medium-early or late and late-ripening varieties. With the right selection, you can harvest all summer long.
frequently asked Questions
Which plants belong in a bee-friendly garden?Bee-friendly and therefore ecologically valuable are native flowers, perennials and woody species with single flowers. Wild perennials and wild flowers (e.g. a colorful flower meadow instead of a lawn) should therefore not be missing. For example, create a perennial bed of columbine, cranesbill, meadow sage, wild strawberry, pigeon scabious, trefoil, viper's bugloss and bellflower - it not only looks pretty, but also feeds numerous insects.
Why not plant varieties with double flowers?In the case of so-called "double" flowers, the stamens have been transformed into petals by breeding, which means that these flowering plants appear to bloom particularly extravagantly. Unfortunately, bees and other insects can no longer find any nectar or pollen in them, so these varieties are not bee-friendly - and should therefore only be planted sporadically in the garden.
How do I create a bee friendly garden?In contrast to the honey bee, most wild bees live solitarily (i.e. individually) and nest primarily in dead wood. Therefore, create a small pile of dead wood or set up a suitable insect hotel by filling in narrow tubes (e.g. reed or bamboo), drilled wood and perforated bricks. Also, in a garden that is bee friendly, no poison should be sprayed (i.e. no pesticides, herbicides and other crop protection products or artificial fertilizers).