If you don’t have a garden but want to provide insects with a source of food, you can support the animals with bee-friendly balcony flowers. Without honey bees and bumblebees as well as many other insects, the fertilization of crops would not be possible. Supporting animals is therefore essential. Unfortunately, due to numerous large-scale monocultures in agriculture, nectar collectors do not always find enough food. If you have a balcony, that is already enough to help the insects. You can find out here which plants are suitable and what solutions are available for shade balconies.
With the help of bee-friendly balcony flowers as well as ornamental plants and herbs, the flying acrobats can partially cover their needs for nectar and pollen. Varied pots and boxes on the balcony also support honey bees etc. When putting them together, however, it is important to choose the right variety, because not all classic summer bloomers are bee-friendly balcony flowers.
The name gives it away: It can get icy cold again during the Ice Saints between May 11th and 15th. On these days, ground frost can occur at night, even though spring has long since arrived. That’s why you only start planting bee-friendly balcony flowers after the Ice Saints.
Popular flower species that bloom all summer long such as geraniums and petunias are useless for insect feeding. This also applies to plants with double flowers, because then the supply of pollen and nectar is usually very low. These so-called double flowers are plants in which breeding means that the stamens are also petals, so they only offer color. Unfortunately, bees no longer find pollen and nectar in it. When purchasing, you should therefore make sure to only select flowering plants. Even if you only buy spring bloomers, you will no longer be able to provide the animals with food in the summer.
Luckily, there are a variety of bee-friendly balcony flowers. These include, for example:
You can even sow plants yourself, such as:
If you have little to no sun on your balcony, you don’t have to despair. Both the fuchsia and the bluebell also thrive on shady balconies and provide food for bees.
You can choose between plants that you can buy or grow every year and those that don’t have to be replanted every year. Perennials are therefore well suited as bee-friendly balcony plants, as are bush mallow, red coneflower, tall sedum and cranesbill. Herbs are also sensible choices, including lemon balm, sage, thyme and mountain savory. People and animals benefit from these bee-friendly balcony flowers.
In addition, you will help the flying artists if you avoid using chemical pesticides, as these can harm the bees. You can also give various insects a home in the form of an insect hotel (either built yourself or purchased).
Sources: My beautiful garden, Nabu, Codecheck
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