Hydrangea is a very popular plant in our gardens. The bright large flowers delight us for a long season. But if we look beyond beauty and aesthetics, we can see that apart from people, Hydrangeas attract bees and other pollinators and nectar gatherers.
Blooming period
If you’re a conscious gardener and understand the importance of bees in human life, you’ll probably want to plant a Hydrangea in your garden. Hydrangea starts blooming in spring and continues to delight gardeners until the first frosts arrive. It turns out that bees can visit the blossoms almost all season long.
Hydrangea blossoms
The flowers are gathered at the end of the stem in beautiful ball-shaped inflorescences. In most species, the flower heads contain two types of flowers: small fertile flowers in the middle and large sterile flowers at the edges. In some species, all flowers are fertile and of the same size.
Hydrangea species
Today, a huge variety of flowering crops are grown in gardens. Among them, a special place is occupied by hydrangea. There are about 100 species in the world, and the sorts are even more. These plants are represented by small trees, shrubs, lianas. We have collected the most popular species and varieties of Gartensia, which bees will definitely love.
Hydrangea paniculata
This hydrangea has a dense crown with an abundance of panicles. Hydrangea paniculata looks like a huge bouquet shrub in the garden until late autumn, reaching 2-5 m depending on climatic conditions. The flowers are white with a rum tinge. They turn slightly pinkish in autumn. The flowers are fragrant and attract a lot of bees.
Hydrangea arborescens
This type of hydrangea is an upright shrub up to 2 metres high. It has a round crown and large leaves with serrated edges. The flowers are gathered in wide and large ball-like blooms. Diameter up to 25 cm. Bees like it.
Hydrangeas petiolaris
The lushly flowering Hydrangeas petiolaris is characterised by its hardy and highly decorative nature. It is an excellent choice for decorating the east or north wall of a building, pergola, façade or the darkest corners of the garden. This rather tall cultivar has become a favourite with gardeners thanks to its lovely white inflorescences and the bright orange colour of its leaves in autumn.
Hydrangea serrata
This species has thinner and more pointed leaves that can turn red with enough sunlight hours, the shrubs grow on average 30 cm lower than large-leaved shrubs, and flower several weeks earlier than Hydrangea macrophylla.
Hydrangea quercifolia
This large shrub can reach a height of up to 2 metres. The plant’s attraction is its special leaves – large, textured leaves with a similar surface and shape to oak leaves. The sharply serrated edges of each leaflet give them an interesting contour. The leaf size reaches up to 25 cm, and fresh shoots and young leaves are covered with a light white fuzz, which disappears over time, remaining only on the reverse side of the leaf.
Hydrangea blooms are its trademark. The large flowers are made up of small white florets up to 3 cm in size and form cone-shaped structures. The flowering starts in June and lasts until autumn, creating an amazing floral décor in the garden.
Hydrangeas macrophylla
Hydrangea macrophylla , which blooms in spring and summer, is considered a shrub. There are more than 500 known varieties of large-leaved hydrangeas. Large-leaved and panicle hydrangeas are the most common in landscape design. Hydrangeas macrophylla is a lush bush with huge large inflorescences, the colour depends on the variety. The height varies from 0.5 m to 3 m.
Conclusion
Of course we have listed only a part of the species of Hydrangeas that bees like. As we wrote above, there are about 100 species in the world. To please both yourself and the bees, you can choose those that will suit your climate. But the bees will approve of your choice anyway because hydrangeas attract bees.
