International School Parent Magazine - Spring 2022

ADVERTORIAL
Crocus and a
happy bee!
©HM
colour later in the season. When they’ve
finished flowering, you can plant them in
the garden, where they prefer an open,
sunny spot.
We all know how good honey is for our
health, not just for sore throats, but also
for healing wounds and minor burns. Did
you know that heather helps bees to fight
off a common gut parasite? The chemical,
called callunene, is found in Calluna
vulgaris, a summer-flowering heather. If
you want to give your local bees a boost,
maybe you could find a little spot in your
garden for some Calluna vulgaris too?
Winter aconite or Eranthis hyemalis
is a fantastic ground-cover plant that is
very easy to grow. It is a member of the
buttercup family, with attractive cupped
bright yellow flowers. It is typical of forest
floor plants, as the flowers and leaves
appear very early in the season, usually
around March, before the leaves in the
woodland canopy have opened, and die
back by mid-summer, when the light levels
have declined. You can grow it under trees
in the garden, or leave it to naturalise in
grass, either planting the bulbs in autumn,
or the plants “in the green” (with their
leaves, after flowering) in late spring. Bees
and other pollinators go crazy for the
nectar and pollen in these easy-access,
open flowers. One of my favourite patches
of aconites is in the Bern Rosengarten,
where they are combined with crocuses and
hellebores in a wonderful winter-beating
planting.
Crocuses are probably the easiest of all
spring-flowering bulbs. They are small,
robust, cheap to buy, and although one or
two might get dug up by squirrels, they
seem to be less attractive to being nibbled
by mice than some other bulbs. Once
planted, they flower year after year, slowly
increasing their numbers as the bulbs, or
“corms” as they are actually called, create
offsets, which are small bulblets, that will
grow into adult flowering corms. They are
the ultimate no-nonsense, low-maintenance,
spring splash of happiness for gardeners.
Luckily, bees love them too, particularly for
early emerging queen bumble bees, solitary
bees and foraging worker bees, looking
to replenish their stocks of pollen. The
majority of crocuses will provide this, and
nectar, but if you have a choice, look for
the varieties that flower earliest in the year.
There are also autumn-flowering crocuses,
which do very well in pots, and in rockeries
or in a sheltered position under other
shrubs. They provide essential fat stores for
bees late in the season to help them survive
the winter. You could even try growing
saffron crocuses, Crocus sativa, which are
autumn flowering, and enjoy a feast for the
eyes and the taste buds, as well as helping
our furry buzzing friends.
Hester Macdonald is a garden designer, broadcaster, and founder of the Swiss Gardening
School. She is also the author of “Gardens Schweiz Suisse Switzerland”, a trilingual
(English/French/German) guide to the 52 best gardens open to public across Switzerland,
published by Bergli Books, available in all good book shops.
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2022 | 54