A Trio of Early Spring Bee Flowers with White Blossoms

 This weekend I was lucky to be able to visit the HCP : Horticulture Centre of the Pacific on Vancouver Island. We had a lovely brunch at the Nourish café and then I took a quick stroll through the gardens. I discovered a couple of sweet early bee plants: a winter-blooming honeysuckle that attracts bees and hummingbirds called Lonicera standishii. It is originally from China and the corolla is short enough to provide nectar to early-emerging bees. (Be advised it can be invasive in some conditions.)

This fragrant Clematis armandii aka Old Man's Beard or Armand clematis was blooming profusely. I was very glad to see was a also lot of Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) blooming along the roadsides, an important native source of nectar for orchard mason bees. These three plants would make enchanting additions to a white bee garden.