Mother's Day is coming up on May 11, and what better gift to give or receive than a plant?
A good choice would be a flowering one, particularly one that will have open flowers showing stamens during the warmer parts of the year when bees are active.
There are 16,000 different species of bees in the world (including some indigenous to Australia). The western honey bee, which produces the honey and beeswax that we use, is the one we are most familiar with.
We are constantly being told bees are in short supply and that there are a number of diseases affecting them.
Because a big majority of the world's food crops are predominantly pollinated by bees it is critical we don't lose them.
If we do, we could all end up starving - I kid you not!
Bees accidentally pollinate flowers as they go about their daily lives of collecting pollen and nectar to take back to their hive.
When we give them more flowers more of them survive to breed and carry on their valuable pollination work.
In order to produce seed or fruit, a plant needs to be cross-fertilised and this happens when the bee gets some pollen on its body or wings, thus transferring it from one flower to another.
It is not just annual plants that bees like but also flowers from some perennials, shrubs and trees.
The main criterion for bees is to be able to easily access the pollen so, generally speaking, an open-type flower such as a daisy, some roses, fruit blossom or actually anything at all that shows the pollen.
Lavenders are also very popular with bees and you can buy some lovely ones from your local nursery.
Perhaps a lavender hedge might look nice somewhere in your garden or even a few of them in pots?
We all know that certain bees give us honey but not everyone realises the job of pollination is an even more important one.
Grow something for the bees.
Read more: Bloomin' Beautiful: A guide to frangipanis
