Searching the BeeSource archives for information on heather did not reveal all that much. It has come up a time or two - but I couldn't find any recent posts.
So I'm wondering if heather is a good plant to add to the mix of things that bloom during July/August - My plan would be to plant it along a hedgerow that I have and along field edges. I hope that after a few years it will have spread enough to amount to a decent nectar source for the bees. Far fetched? I have acidic soil so no problem there!
I am not looking to collect heather honey but rather to add to what is available to bees during our usual dearth period.
So specific questions - What is reasonable planting density? How quickly does it spread? What varieties are known to be good for honey production?
Brother Adam tested his queens on the heather crop in the Dartmoor. I believe it is a quick crystalizing honey that he extracted all and replaced with syrup as he believed it caused the bees to winter poorly. I don't think this will be a concern since you are planting it (not enough to get a crop unless you are planting several square miles of it). However, I would think that pretty much any variety would yield. The fact that it grows wild means that it is pretty tough and self-sufficient (and hard to mess up).
I picked up a heather plant a Lowes in late April that had bees all over it in the parking lot. My bees worked it hard until there were options, then it was ignored all summer though it bloomed. Did not overwinter, and I have not tried again. Low density (Single Porch Plant) was probably more of a factor than the plant itself though.
I got a response on Facebook that someone near me successfully grows a variety of heathers and so I will try a few plants next year. (darn those catalogs!)
I do not know the type, I may even be incorrect about the plant. It is currently one of the only things blooming except a couple of early Crocus. I had a flying day last week and the bees were coming in with red pollen, it was suggested that it may be maple. I went and looked at all the different types of Maple I could find and it was way to early for them still (cold year). I am now thinking the red Heather (we get red and white).
Spring blooming "heather" is likely a cultivar of the South African (Cape Province) genus Erica. These are not frost hardy, being from the mild winter Mediterranean climate of the south Cape.
Bees work landscape plantings of this for pollen in my region in December and January.
New England, Scottish and German heathland "heather" is now in the genus Calluna. It naturally blooms in August-September. Calluna vulgaris, is self-incompatible and must be cross pollinated. This has permitted the bewildering development of hundreds of cultivars. Some of the cultivars are sterile (and must be vegetatively reproduced). My suspicion is that some nectar and pollen production has been lost in the push to create ornamental cultivars with enlarged,unusually colored, and doubled flowers, etc. Stamens (the pollen bearing structure) are often lost when petal parts are doubled in garden selection. Chemicals (colchicine) are applied to mutate the plant to provide unusual, sterile and non-hardy specimens for the creation of cultivars.
Went to the plant nursery and took a look around. Turns out it is a Erica, the whites are a white sprine or wood white, the Mediterranean came in two types of red Myers Town Ruby and Spring wood Pink. Not saying that that is all there is, just that you guys are on your game for plants. Also found that the other thing I have blooming now I used to call a mountain ash is really a Pieris Japonica
All I can say is that I saw a plant at Home Depot that had lots of tiny white flowers that was labeled as "Heather" that I thought the girls would be all over.
To my knowledge not a single one has touched it. Most I ever saw on it was a single bumblebee.
So from limited personal experience, they don't touch the stuff if anything else is available.
When I saw heather, I'm reminded of those IWF videos. I googled it and found one here (Heathland Beekeeping - 7 - Harvest of Heather Honey in a Skep Apiary):
I'm not sure it has much of interest with regards to the plant, but...
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