Bee-Friendly Planting: Feed Your Bees, Fight Varroa
A well-fed colony shrugs off pressure a starving one can't. Here's how your garden becomes varroa defence.
Varroa doesn't just bite bees, it spreads viruses, and a colony's ability to ride that out comes down to nutrition. Bees with steady pollen and nectar across the season raise stronger brood and recover from a knock far better. You can't spray your way out of poor forage, but you can plant your way to healthier bees.
The four rules of a bee garden
- Something in flower every month. The dangerous gaps are late summer and late winter. Plan for those.
- Plant in drifts, not dots. A clump of one flower beats a scatter of singles.
- Single, open flowers beat frilly doubles that have had the nectar bred out of them.
- Never spray insecticide on anything in flower. See our safe sprays guide.
What to plant, season by season (New Zealand)
Mix and match for your region — check anything against the plant library and your region's calendar.
Spring, build the population: borage, phacelia, calendula, alyssum, tree lucerne (tagasaste), fruit blossom, clover in the lawn, coriander and brassicas left to bolt.
Summer, keep energy up: pōhutukawa, sunflowers, cosmos, herbs in flower, lavender, echium, pumpkin and other cucurbit flowers.
Autumn, the pre-winter top-up: sedum, salvia, late basil, buckwheat as a quick cover crop, ivy where it's not a weed.
Winter, the hungry gap that matters most: five finger (whauwhaupaku), kōwhai, banksia, rosemary, hellebore, tree lucerne, early stone-fruit blossom.
Natives and water
New Zealand natives such as pōhutukawa, mānuka, kānuka, rewarewa, kōwhai and flax (harakeke) are superb nectar and pollen sources and feed native solitary bees too. And bees need to drink: a shallow dish with pebbles gives them a safe landing spot.
Planting Season shows what's flowering and what to sow now for your region.
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