Blackberry, Brambles Rubus fruticosus
The factors that make a good bee plant are the number of flowers it bears, the quality and quantity of nectar and pollen produced, the length of time that they produce flower and the time of year when those flowers are producing bee fodder. These factors can be weighted in order of their importance. For instance flowers that produce pollen and or nectar very early in the year such as winter Aconite, Crocus and the various Willows allow the bees to build the strength of the colony ready to exploit the main flows of nectar later in the year. Added to the above the Beekeeper must consider the fact that bees concentrate their efforts where there is most nectar / pollen closest to the hive, thus a large area of inferior flowers will be preferred to flowers which individually yield more forage but are scattered in small groups.
Blackberries score highly according to the all the above criteria and are a major source of pollen and nectar for bees and many other insects. They are very widely distributed and cover large areas. Added to this, individual plants flower prolifically from May to September covering the periods when there is little nectar available from other plants.
Management of Blackberries is easy. All you need to remember is that they fruit on last years growth, so after they have cropped prune out all the old growth and leave the current year's stems (the green ones). To make life easy train this years runners in the opposite direction from last years.
When the insects have done their work of pollination the brambles fruit prolifically. A win - win situation, stores for the bees and jam for us!
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