Garden bumblebee
Bombus hortorum
Role in the garden
A specialist of long-tubed flowers (deep corollas) thanks to its long tongue. Pollinates plants inaccessible to other bumblebees.
Activity period
April to September
Practical guide
Where to find them
Preferentially visits long-corolla flowers: sages, salvia, foxgloves, snapdragon, comfrey, lemon balm. Recognisable by its long tongue, sometimes visible in flight. Nests mainly in old rodent nests.
Prevention
Deep-flowered plants (Lamiaceae above all). Preserved natural cavities. No pulling up of grassy edges and moss. No close mowing.
Sources
- Bumblebee Conservation Trust : Garden bumblebee (bumblebeeconservation.org)
Favourite plants / resources
Related plant entries
Lavender
A Mediterranean subshrub with evergreen grey foliage, true lavender forms structuring low edges and hedges that hold the dry garden together in full sun, on poor, dry, free-draining soils. Its summer flowering is among the most melliferous in the garden: it offers nectar and pollen at the height of summer, an often lean period, and draws honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies, the latter beneficial insects whose larvae devour aphids. A refuge for wild pollinators, it is traditionally planted along vegetable borders and near roses, its scent reputed to help diversify the surrounding odours. Drought-tolerant and hardy once established, it clothes rockeries, banks and paths without watering, while keeping its grey outline all year round.
Sage
A nectar-bearing herb traditionally planted near cabbages: its scent is said to confuse cabbage-white pests. A medicinal plant (leaf listed in the European Pharmacopoeia).
Comfrey
A mainstay of fruit-tree guilds: its potassium-rich leaves are cut several times a season and dropped at the base of trees as a living mulch (chop-and-drop) or steeped into a potassium-rich liquid feed, traditionally used to support flowering and fruiting. Ringed around an apple tree, it covers the ground, checks competing grass and draws bumblebees to its nectar-rich bells. The sterile 'Bocking 14' cultivar does not self-seed, which keeps it easy to contain. It is one of the most widely used fertilising-biomass plants in permaculture.
Lemon balm
An exceptional nectar-bearing perennial, its Greek name means 'bee': it massively attracts foragers and self-seeds readily.