The Bees Garden
March 2010

Winter Honey Suckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. What a wonderful plant for theBees! And FRAGRANTISSIMA it is! It smells so good. No wonder the Bees like it. It has a lemony scent. It blooms from mid-February to April with creamy white flowers. It can grow to 10 feet tall but can be managed to be smaller sizes by hedging. It is tolerant of many soil types and has low water requirements. My Bees have been on myplant at my office every day that it has been warm enough for them to fly.

Normally when we think of Honey Suckle we think of the vine and climbervarieties that can sometimes get out of hand and are hard to manage. Winter HoneySuckle is a bush form easy to grow and easy to manage. It can be used as a hedge oras a background plant. You and your bees will love the fragrance of this plant in your Bee Garden!

Raffle Plant of the month at our next meeting in March will be Winter Honey Suckle, Lonicera fragrantissima
Raffle plant at February 8th meeting.Flowering Quince chaenomeles japonica

The Quince will start to bloom as early as February and be in bloom in March. Not onlyis this plant an excellent early food source it is a beautiful landscape plant that is astough as Texas. It can handle extreme cold as well as the blasting Texas heat and drouth. It has apple-like, edible fruit that can be used to make Quince Jam. This plantwas a food source for early homesteaders across the country. You will notice this plant in its blooming splendor on old homesteads where the old farm house has past its timebut the Quince is still there providing food for the honey bee.