Exciting times! We are continually discovering more and more bee-attracting natives that are now readily available for your garden to keep our bees busy. A huge range of groundcovers and small shrubs are now available. First thing though is to prepare your garden, pots or an appropriate spot in the yard so your natives will happily grow, be healthy and of course flower, which will bring in the bees. Whether you are planting them in the ground or a pot, there are special mixes and fertilisers that have been specially formulated for our native plants, so be sure to obtain these along with your plants. Once again there are so many plants to talk about, so here are just a few of our favourite flowering bee attracting natives.
Native Ground Covers
Leptospermum Pink Cascade and Leptospermum Red Cascade
What's not to love?! Both of these beauties reach a maximum height of only 80cm, but have a generous spread of 1.5-2m in width. The pink cascade has green foliage and gets covered in tiny delicate pink flowers, whilst the red cascade also has green foliage, but with a reddish tinge and also gets covered in tiny delicate red flowers. Bees love both of these and they make a beautiful addition to any garden. These plants are very versatile, thriving in arid and coastal regions since they can withstand drought. Additionally, they can manage such high winds with ease, which makes them ideal for difficult conditions.
Goodenia Ovata
Apart from being super-fast growing, bee-attracting and super hardy, this native groundcover is a superb choice for your garden. The Goodenia Ovata is a resilient, low-maintenance perennial that grows as an excellent groundcover. It has a much larger flower than other varieties of this plant and produces buttercup yellow flowers that are long lasting in the warmer months, therefore it flowers nearly all year! It stays quite low to the ground and has a massive spread of 1.5-2m. The dense growing habit of this plant will smother out those pesky weeds and to top it all off, this plant is super hardy in coastal windy conditions and is drought tolerant. If you don’t need a groundcover, this plant will also be great as a container or hanging basket plant as it trails down the sides.
Myoporum White and Myoporum Pink
Myoporum ground cover is known for its super dense growth, which can transform your garden's ground into a lush carpet of foliage and tiny delicate flowers. Myoporum’s robust branches and tightly packed, semi-succulent leaves may easily cover any garden space ranging from a steep sloped garden or a flat leveled garden. This can be done without requiring any work on your part as it grows super-fast and is super hardy. This plant also helps preserve the soil and suppresses bothersome weeds. Myoporum is not only incredibly practical, but is also incredibly attractive reaching a height of only 20cm and a massive spread of up to 3m. Wow! Flowering for most of the year (if the weather is warm), this stunner produces tiny, star-shaped white or pink blooms with delicate leaves (obviously) that our bees and birds adore.
Native Small Shrubs
Egg and Bacon Plant
We have talked about this stunner before but due to popular demand, it gets another mention. Unquestionably, this is one of our favorites! This attractive, compact shrub reaches a height and breadth of 1m. This gem has a lovely small pea-shaped display of two-toned orange and yellow flowers that are also subtly fragrant. This plant, once established, is highly drought-tolerant and prefers a sunny area in your garden. It is an excellent choice for Bribie Island due to its ability to withstand coastal conditions. Because of its dense growth, this lovely plant makes an excellent hedge or tiny screening plant. And to finish it off, it's another Australian native and bees just love it!. Whoa!
Leptospermum Ballerina
This gorgeous plant is classified as a shrub or a small tree. This stunner has masses of delicate little leaves and a profusion of exquisite flowers that are speckled pink, purple and white. What's not to love about this? It's not only attractive, but it's native to Australia and the bees are kept very busy with this plant. It is possible to utilise this plant as a low hedge or border or even as an attractive feature plant for your garden or pot. These plants can reach a height and width of 1-2m. They can also be grown in the sun or shade, making this plant a stunning allrounder!
Baeckea Mount Tozer
The Baeckea Mount Tozer is a dense, sprawling native shrub that has tiny, glossy dark green leaves and small dainty white blooms, which the bees just love. This beauty makes a lovely border plant in a cottage garden, an informal hedge in natural gardens or can even be grown in a pot as a stunning feature. This plant has also been known to make a great plant to bonsai. The Baecka Mount Tozer is a resilient plant that can grow in various types of soil and is tolerant of coastal conditions. It’s such a great shrub reaching a height of only 1m and a generous width of 2m.
Well that’s all folks! Happy gardening!
From Adelle and Paul
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