Bee-autiful Boraginaceae

Now how about that for a snappy blog title? Oh, how ‘Boraginaceae’ just slips off the tongue!

In fact, you wouldn't want to put them anywhere near your tongue, or at least their leaves, because the Boraginaceae are some of the bristliest plants you can find, covered in tiny rough hairs full of silica.

But they are a total winner in the wildlife-friendly garden because they have some of the very best flowers for attracting bees. These plants are floral supermarkets, their shelves packed to the rafters with pollen and nectar.

I was staying in a country cottage a couple of weeks ago in which the delightful garden was full of one of the commonest members of the family, a plant called Green Alkanet (confusingly so as the flowers are blue, fading to lilac).

It’s not actually native to the UK, but was introduced prior to 1700 (and I don't mean five o'clock). It can be a bit thuggish, throwing down deep roots, but it sure is a winner with the bees, such as this Tawny Mining Bee (below) that was loving it. See just how bristly Green Alkanet is - it is worse than my legs.

But there are some much better-behaved relatives of Green Alkanet you might like to try growing in your outside space. 

Before I reveal them, I know you like a quiz, so see if you can name (or guess) some of the other members of the family. They tend to share some typical features; we've seen the bristliness, but as well as that:

• The flowers tend to be carried in loose strings that uncoil from the tip
• Typically, the flowers are blue, which is always a good sign for bees that tend to home in on anything at that end of the spectrum, although they often fade to pink.

Got some flowers in mind? Here, then, are some of the most familiar garden members of the family, which is like a who’s who of bee-friendly flowers:

• Borage – of course, given the family name, and such an easy to grow annual

• Viper’s buglosses (Echium) – such as this, the native Common Viper's Bugloss Echium vulgare (here with Six-spot Burnet Moth)

• Forget-me-nots – so easy to allow to self-seed to create a bed of blue under spring bulbs, here with a Common Bee-fly (below)

• Scorpionweed (Phacelia tanacetifolia) – the annual plant I’m always recommending as a cheap green manure

• Comfreys (Symphytum) – as with Green Alkanet, they can be rather on the invasive side, but the leaves make a great (if stinky) natural fertiliser when steeped in water

And then we've got Pulmonarias (lungworts), Cerinthe (Honeywort), Brunnera, Omphalodes and Anchusa, all in the family, all beautiful, and all brilliant for insects.

So is this family well represented in your garden? If not, it could be one well worth getting to know.