Over the years l have planted various plants recommended for nectar/pollen/bee friendly etc. I have to say with little success. My bees seem to fly off in the opposite direction to my garden. Instead of planting just two or three of a species, should l plant whole swathes? Bees do come into my garden for early winter honeysuckle, and later, ivy.
Hi monbees
Well done giving it a go. There will be things that have benefitted even if your own bees may not have been very visible. Bumbles, solitary bees, hoverflies and moths may all have had a look in.
Honey bees will tend to target nectar sources that offer greatest reward vs effort vs other known available opportunities . It may be that whilst your flowers were available a whole field of something else was in flower a way away and they were away targeting that. Also be careful of the source of such plants, some less scrupulous or ignorant sources offer cheaply available commercial cultivar varieties of thing which may not actually produce nectar. Flowers that are double or tripled petal varieties or grown for the cut flower market may fall into that group.
You may indeed find a block of plants or shrubs and trees that provide nectar and pollen when others don’t will get a lot more attention. Long flowering things like phacelia or borage will tide bees over periods of dearth and may still flower until the first frosts. It may be why your autumn species are getting more attention?
I have an Abelia grandiflora in the garden that is largely ignored by honey bees when it starts to flower and becomes progressively more popular further into summer and autumn.