Encouraging Bees with Garden Trees

Why early-flowering trees do so much heavy lifting

By late February, queen bumblebees are already out of hibernation and hunting for a first meal, and honeybee colonies will fly on any mild day once the temperature edges past about 10°C. At that point most of the garden is still asleep. A tree in flower changes the arithmetic completely: hundreds of thousands of blossoms in one place, at a height where the air is a degree or two warmer than at ground level and the sun reaches the petals first.

That concentration matters. Bees burn energy travelling, so a single generous tree is worth far more than the same number of flowers scattered across a border. Early-flowering trees are, quite simply, the difference between a colony that builds up strongly in spring and one that limps into summer.

Trees worth planting for bees

• Goat willow (Salix caprea) — catkins from February, heavy with pollen and nectar when almost nothing else is open. It wants to be a big tree, but coppice it every three to five years and you keep it at head height, where you can actually watch the bees work.
• Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) — one of the earliest, flowering in February and March. It clips beautifully, so it earns its place either as a small tree or as a flowering hedge.
• Crab apple — April and May, with nectar and pollen in equal measure. Malus 'Evereste' stays around 4–5m, and the fruit feeds blackbirds and thrushes into the winter.
• Wild cherry or gean (Prunus avium) — single, open blossoms in April. Choose the species or a single-flowered cultivar; the frilly double cherries may look splendid but offer the bees next to nothing.
• Apple — May blossom is a superb nectar source, and you get fruit. Pick a single-flowered variety suited to your area and check whether it needs a pollination partner nearby.
• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — the classic hedgerow tree, flowering in May, thorny enough to make a stock-proof boundary and generous with both pollen and nectar.

If you have room for one more, a lime (Tilia) flowers in June and July and is one of the finest summer nectar trees in Britain. It will also host aphids, which drip honeydew — so plant it where you can tolerate the mess, and never reach for a spray.

Plant for succession, not just for spring

A single spectacular fortnight is not enough. Aim for a chain of flowering from February through to July: willow and cherry plum first, then cherry, then apple and hawthorn, then lime. Each link supports a different set of bees — the early ones feed emerging queens, the later ones fuel colony growth and, eventually, next year's queens.

Don't overlook autumn either. Ivy flowering in September and October is a lifeline for late bumblebees and for queen wasps, and a mature ivy-clad tree or wall is one of the best wildlife features you can leave alone.

Getting the planting right

Bare-root trees are cheaper, establish faster and are available between November and March while dormant. Pot-grown trees can go in at almost any time, provided the ground isn't frozen or waterlogged. Either way:

• Dig a hole two to three times the width of the rootball, but no deeper than the tree's original soil line.
• Soak bare roots for an hour before planting and spread them out over a cone of soil.
• Stake only if the site is windy, using a short stake that lets the trunk flex — this builds a stronger tree.
• Water thoroughly in the first two summers, roughly a full watering can a week in dry spells.
• Mulch 5–7cm deep with well-rotted compost, keeping it clear of the trunk to avoid rot.
• Keep willows and other thirsty trees well away from drains, foundations and sewer runs.

Hedges, pruning and the hands-off bits

If a hedge suits your plot better than a tree, a mixed native hedge of hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple and hazel will flower from March onwards and provide nesting cover too. Cut it after flowering, or in late winter — avoid the March to September window, when birds are nesting and bees are working the blossom.

On established trees, the single most useful thing you can do is nothing much. Leave dead wood where it is safe, resist tidying every hollow and scar, and never spray insecticides on a flowering tree. Aphids on lime or cherry are bird food, not a crisis, and a healthy garden has predators ready to deal with them within a week or two.

Small gardens count too

You don't need an acre. A coppiced willow in a corner, a columnar apple in a large pot, a crab apple kept to 4m by careful pruning — any of these will pull bees in from several streets away. Check the mature height and spread before you buy, think about the neighbour's light, and plant the biggest tree your space will genuinely take. Ten years from now it will be the best thing you ever put in the ground.