Phacelia tanacetifolia – a great plant for bees

Phacelia makes a pretty addition to an allotment plot

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.

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.

Phacelia as green manure (in the foreground): still looking good in December

Covering empty beds with Phacelia helps bees and your soil

Phacelia has pretty blue flowers which attract lots of bees

The plants have 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 Borage (Borago officinalis), Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus and C. sulphureus), Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) and sunflowers (Helianthemum annuum). It can also be grown in small patches between vegetables on your allotment or as a green manure on empty beds which is dug into the soil after flowering. You also don`t have to incorporate it into a rotation plan as Phacelia is not related to any of the vegetables commonly grown in the UK.

 Phacelia looks good with 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 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. If sown later in summer Phacelia will flower right until the first sharp frosts and provide welcome food for young bumblebee queens.

Below you can see some pictures of pollinators enjoying the nectar and pollen feast: 

Even hoverflies are attracted to the flowers

A Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) visits the flowers

Phacelia is a great plant for bees

A Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

Phacelia pollen is bright blue

An Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) collecting nectar

If you have not grown this plant before, give it a try. Sown as green manure it will help increase soil fertility and you will be rewarded with pretty flowers and lots and lots of pollinators.