Woody plants are the backbone of a good forage landscape: a single mature willow or lime tree can carry as many flowers as an entire acre of herbaceous flowers, and a mixed hedgerow strings together bloom periods from March to October. This flat, chart-first view plants ten characteristic UK trees and shrubs along a drawn hedge line, each blossoming only during its real flowering window, so you can read exactly which species plug the gaps between the others — no camera to orbit, just the numbers and the picture.
Ivy is one of the last major UK nectar sources of the year, flowering September–October when almost nothing else is blooming — it can make the difference between a colony entering winter with full stores or running short.
Ten characteristic UK trees and shrubs drawn along a flat hedge line, each blossoming only on its real calendar window, so you can watch nectar flow rise, fall and gap through the year on a chart-first view built for reading the numbers.
Woody plants stagger their bloom across the whole season — willow and blackthorn open the year, hawthorn and lime carry the summer nectar flow, and ivy closes it in autumn. Removing shrubs or restricting the planting site opens up forage gaps, visible directly in the monthly bar chart.
Scrub the day-of-year slider (or press Play) to move through the seasons, switch planting site to see which species suit a hedgerow versus a garden or woodland edge, and toggle the shrub layer and foraging bees on or off.
A single mature lime or willow tree in full flower can outproduce an acre of wildflower meadow for nectar — which is why trees and shrubs are the backbone of a forage landscape.