If bees could make a list of their favourite plants to
collect nectar and pollen from, I bet phacelia would be on it. A shame it is
not very well-known and not planted more often in gardens and allotments in the
UK.
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| Phacelia makes a pretty addition to an allotment plot |
Phacelia tanacetifolia
is an annual plant and belongs to the borage family (Boraginaceae) together
with other good pollinator plants such as borage (Borago officinalis) and viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare). It is native to
California, Arizona and Mexico and colonises dry stony hillsides up to 2000 m
above sea level. Phacelia is not very frost-hardy and will only survive light
frosts but can overwinter in mild areas.
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| Phacelia as green manure (in the foreground): still looking good in mid-December |
Phacelia has pretty blue flowers and ferny
leaves and can be sown from late March to September in almost any garden soil. Slugs
and snails tend to ignore the seedlings so if you have problems with these
pests phacelia is the right plant for you. The plant is pretty enough to grow
in a flower border, together with other pollinator-friendly annual plants such
as cosmos and sunflowers. It can also be grown in small patches between
vegetables on your allotment or as a green manure which is dug into the soil
after flowering.
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| The blue flowers of phacelia are a nice contrast to orange pot marigold and yellow sunflowers |
Phacelia is a prolific self-seeder but never
gets invasive as the seedlings are easy to pull out or hoe off. The plant can
also cope with dry soil once established so you don`t have to water in summer.
The flowers produce lots of nectar and will attract
countless honeybees, bumblebees and other pollinators (the German name for this
plant is quite aptly Friend-of-the-bees or Bee-feast). It is amazing to see how
many bees are actually visiting on a sunny day; I often counted up to 30 bees
per 1m2 at a time. Below you can see some pictures of bumblebees enjoying the nectar and pollen feast:
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So, if you have not grown this plant before,
give it a try. You will be rewarded with pretty flowers and lots and lots of
pollinators.
Phacelia is indeed a lovely looking plant - the foliage is nicely feathery, and the flowers are prettily frothy! I've seen it grown in tiny patches on allotments, and in big swathes along field margins in Scotland, where I assumed it was part of some agri-environment scheme. Nice to see some pics, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI first saw phacelia in Germany, covering whole fields which really looks amazing. A field just full of blue flowers and alive with pollinators. I have not seen something like this here in England but as you write it seems to play a bigger role in Scotland. Hope it will be planted more widespread in the near future along with other pollinator-friendly plants.
ReplyDeleteA lovely plant. I do have borage and that's a gorgeous colour, too.
ReplyDeleteI planted borage this year and became a believer, so it looks like phacelia is next years addition. You doing nice work, Thanks.
ReplyDelete