Hedging For Bees

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Honey bee hives do not really hibernate. They are active on warm winter days, so plants that flower in cold weather are extra important.

By mixing several varieties together, you ensure a good spread of flowering times.

The plants listed above are not all native, they just make the most nectar.

Which Garden Hedge Plants Are Best For Bees & Butterflies?

This page lists the best bee friendly hedge plants for ornamental garden use, based on the RHS 2025 Plants for Pollinators Lists.

Best Native Hedge Plants for Bees & Butterflies?

All native plants, which make up our conservation hedge mixes, are great for bees and insects, but they are less popular choices for tidy, private garden hedges. Blackthorn and hazel, which flower before most other trees and shrubs, and good old Hawthorn, the heaviest flowering plant in mid-Spring, are great for bees.

The other native classics are Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Common Dogwood, Field Maple, Guelder Rose, Spindle, Sweet Briar Rose or Wayfaring Tree.

Best Low Ornamental Hedge Plants for Bees & Butterflies

• Lavender
• Rosemary 
• Buxus (boxwood)
• Sweet Box - Sarcococca confusa (Mid-Winter flowering)

Buddleja davidii, the butterfly bush, is too messy for most people's taste as a front garden hedge, but it grows anywhere and fills unseen back corners quickly.

Hedera species (ivy) deserves special mention, and it's a hedge shaped plant when you grow it over a fence or wall.