Thoughts from my garden

Lavender and bees - lots of them!

This is a bumblebee on the lavender hedge in my front garden. I was going to tell you (as if I’m very knowledgeable about these things) that it’s a white-tailed bumble bee but when I check with The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, I discover there are lots of species with white tails and I don’t know enough to tell you which this is! No matter. It’s a bumblebee. And there are lots of them, buzzing around happily on my lavender hedge.

Every year when it flowers, the bees arrive. The hedge is huge – about a metre and a half tall and 170 cm wide with its flower stems when it is in bloom. I planted it around 12 years ago and it is still going strong. Although is very woody at the base, the wall it grows against disguises this and once it plumps up in the summer its scraggy legs aren’t noticeable.  I shear the flower stems off once it has finished flowering and it returns to being the silvery-grey mounds that will remain all though the autumn, winter and spring until summer comes and it sends up its flower spikes again.

The plants came from a nursery that is now, sadly, closed, so I cannot check the variety. I think it is Lavandula x intermedia ‘Sussex’ although, when I look this up, the flower colour and long stems marry up, but it’s never meant to be this tall. Maybe it’s just that mine is comparatively old. I’m thinking I should begin taking cuttings to grow on now, so I have the same variety to replace these old bushes when they finally give up the ghost. Typically, lavender has a life span of 10-15 years.

Aside from the long flower spikes, the other thing that makes this different to many lavenders is the flower colour. Unlike the dark and mid blue blooms of Lavandula angustifolia “Hidcote” or “Munstead” that I have also grown, the flowers are a lovely, pale purple and their scent is amazing. I have one flower sitting next to me as I write, and the perfume is so strong it is scenting the air all around me.  

My hedge is planted in a border in front of a 60cm high wall. The wall is topped off with black railings. The stems grow through the railings and so, as well as our display on the inside, they put on a stunning show all along the pavement outside, that invites much comment from passers-by. I often see people stopping to touch it, to smell it, and to watch the bees that are all over it, moving from flower to flower. I don’t even mind when people take a stem or two, but I did chastise one lady last summer who seemed to be gathering rather too many!

When I am working at the front of the house, people often stop and chat, so pleased are they to see the lavender and so many bees. A week or two ago a man and his small son were passing by as I was chatting to a neighbour. The dad pointed to the flowers and asked his son

“That’s lavender, can you smell the flowers?”

The little boy pressed his nose towards them and nodded his head. I commented,

“And that lovely smell can help you sleep at night”

His dad laughed and replied

“We definitely need some of that then”.

Only yesterday, when I was taking a video of the bees, a man stopped and said

“Isn’t that lavender a gorgeous sight? I love it. And look at all the bees too!”

Each year, when the weather is dry, and the flowers have lost their colour and started to fall, I collect handfuls to place in bowls around the house and to put into small bags that hang in our wardrobes to scent our clothes and keep the clothes moth away. A friend sometimes asks for some of the stems when they are in full flower to weave with ribbon into the lavender “bottles” so loved by the Victorians.

It's no secret that there is widespread concern about the decline of pollinators - hoverflies, moths, butterflies and, most especially bees. There are a number of reasons for this: habitat loss through building on greenfield sites, the concreting and astroturfing of gardens, habitats cut off from one another and, one I didn’t know, increased competition from commercially reared honeybees and bumblebees. Modern farming methods using pesticides and herbicides are a big problem and, increasingly, so too, is climate change. Shifts in weather and seasonal patterns can impact the lifecycles of insects.

This can rightly be called a crisis. It isn’t just that bees are a pleasing addition to our lives as they buzz busily around us, bees, and other pollinators, are essential for the vegetable and fruit crops that feed us as a nation. With almost half of Europe’s 68 species of bumblebee endangered or facing extinction, and the American bumblebee already lost to eight US states, urgent action needs to be taken by governments to halt these declines.

In the face of such challenges, we, ordinary citizens, often feel powerless to help, but there are things we can do. In Britain we can volunteer or fundraise for conservation charities, and we can help with bumblebee surveys and monitoring. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust are looking for Bee Walkers. These volunteers choose a local route of a mile long they are happy to walk once a month between March and October. They record the numbers of each bumblebee species seen, (the trust offer training on recognition of species) and submit the results via the trust’s website. The growth of this data has turned it into one of the largest bumblebee datasets in the world which all helps with ongoing scientific research.

The simplest thing we can do is to spread the word and, of course, make sure we include bee-friendly plants in our gardens. To help you make a choice, Google What are the best bee-friendly plants? And there are many sources including BBC Gardener’s World https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plants-for-bees/

The Royal Horicultural Society https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-inspiration/wildlife/top-10-garden-plants-for-specialist-bees

The wildlife trusts https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/best-plants-bees-and-pollinators

Friends of the Earth https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/beefriendly-plants-every-season

You won’t be surprised to discover one of the plants listed is lavender. My hedge is evidence of how much the bees love it. Here is a video to show you just a few of them at work

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You’re reading Home Truths, a newsletter from me, Susy Smith. I am many things: a parent of grown-up kids, a dog owner, a gardener and a compulsive mover of vases (I worked for years as a stylist). I am also a writer/editor and former Editor-in-Chief of British Country Living Magazine.

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