Witney Bees Winter Talks #1: “How to support bees in your garden – best plants for bees”

Witney Bees invite all beekeepers to their series of winter lectures:

The first of our winter talks for 2019 by Rosie Rollings (Rosiebee)– “How to support bees in your garden – best plants for bees”

Rosie has been a passionate amateur gardener for about 30 years. In 2009, her and her husband took up beekeeping and very naturally found that she wanted to grow plants to support them. The primary finding is that the number of bees each plant attracts varies hugely. Some attract surprisingly few, even supposedly ‘bee-friendly’ plants. This variation is significant for anyone wanting to maximize the amount of bee-food any area of land can provide.

It is commonly believed that you need to ensure there are flowers available in your garden throughout the season. Our observations are that historically bees would have had sufficient stores to make it through the winter and that they start to forage when the trees and hedges flower in March. After that, from May to September they would have relied on meadows and heaths i.e. herbaceous perennials and shrubs. Most meadows and heaths have been lost and so gardeners can provide great value by planting flowers to substitute for these losses.

PARKING.

Parking in High Street near the front of the building but parking is best at the rear which is in Waitrose car park. Follow the P parking signs to the car park and park nearest the Bistro/Cafe “Hacketts“ which is at the other end to Waitrose actual building . If you walk along the footpath past Hacketts you will gain access to the rear of The Methodist Church close by.

Please let Vera vera.jordanat11@gmail.com know if you plan to attend.

This will again be a popular event and all beekeepers of any age are welcome to attend.