Why the first flowers of the year matter most

By late February, queen bumblebees are waking from hibernation in hedgerows, compost heaps and quiet corners of the garden. They have spent the winter living off fat reserves, and they emerge hungry at the very moment when there is almost nothing in flower. A buff-tailed bumblebee queen needs nectar for immediate energy and pollen for protein to build a nest and lay her first eggs. If she finds nothing in the first few days, she may abandon the attempt altogether.

That is why early-flowering native plants are the single most useful thing you can add to a British garden. Later in the year there is plenty to choose from, but in March the larder is bare. Grow the right plants now and you will feed queens that go on to produce colonies of hundreds of workers by midsummer.

Lungwort: the workhorse of early spring

Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) starts flowering in late February and carries on for six or eight weeks, which is an extraordinarily long shift for an early plant. The flowers open pink and fade to blue as they age, and the hairy, spotted leaves make a handsome ground cover afterwards. Hairy-footed flower bees adore it, and so do emerging bumblebee queens.

It likes moisture-retentive soil and dappled shade, though in a coastal garden it will take more sun if the roots stay cool. Set plants about 30cm apart in groups of five or seven — a single lungwort will be missed, but a clump is a proper refuelling station. Lift and divide congested clumps in autumn every three or four years. In exposed coastal plots, plant it behind a low hedge or wall so the flowers are not shredded by salt-laden wind.

Primrose: small, tough and utterly reliable

Our native primrose (Primula vulgaris) is one of the best value plants in the garden. It flowers from February into May, copes with wind and salt spray better than most, and seeds itself gently into grass and border edges without ever becoming a thug. Buy native stock rather than the big florists' hybrids — they are hardier, longer-lived and far more useful to insects.

• Plant in clumps of at least five, roughly 20cm apart, in sun or half-shade.
• Leave the old leaves on over winter; they shelter the crown from frost and salt.
• Sow fresh seed in summer — it needs a cold spell to germinate, so leave the tray outside.
• Divide tired clumps after flowering every few years to keep them vigorous.

In a seaside garden, primroses do well on the sheltered side of a bank or at the foot of a hedge, where the soil stays reliably damp. Add a mulch of garden compost each autumn and they will reward you for a decade or more.

Willow: the great early pollen factory

Nothing feeds early bees quite like willow. Goat willow (Salix caprea) and grey willow (Salix cinerea) produce fat, silvery catkins in March, and the male trees are loaded with pollen at exactly the right moment. A single mature goat willow can carry thousands of catkins, and you will hear it buzzing from several metres away.

Willows are made for coastal gardens. They tolerate wind, salt, wet ground and heavy clay, and make an excellent natural windbreak. If you have limited space, pollard a tree to keep it to two or three metres, or coppice it on a three-year cycle for a shrubby, dense hedge. Willows root astonishingly easily — push a pencil-thick cutting into damp ground in winter and it will almost certainly take. Plant several if you can, and include a gorse bush or two nearby: gorse flowers through winter and early spring and is a magnet for queens on the coast.

Plant in sunny clumps — and shelter them from salt

Bees are cold-blooded. They need warmth to reach flying temperature, so a flower in full sun may be visited ten times as often as the same plant in shade. Group your early plants into generous clumps in the warmest, most sheltered spot you have — a south or west-facing border against a wall, fence or hedge is ideal.

• Concentrate flowers so a queen can visit many blooms without wasting energy in flight.
• Use native hedging — hawthorn, blackthorn or sea buckthorn — as a permeable windbreak rather than a solid fence.
• Improve sandy coastal soil with well-rotted compost to hold moisture through spring droughts.
• Leave a few dandelions, red deadnettle and groundsel in flower; they are valuable fillers in March.
• Delay your spring tidy-up until April so queens sheltering in leaf litter and hollow stems survive.

Never use pesticides, and be strict about it

It is no exaggeration to say that a single spray can undo years of good planting. Insecticides do not distinguish between pests and pollinators, and even products marketed as organic — including pyrethrum — are lethal to bees. Slug pellets based on metaldehyde should be avoided entirely; use barriers, night patrols or beer traps instead. Weedkillers strip out the wildflowers that fill the gaps between your plantings, and there is growing evidence that some fungicides harm the microbes in a bee's gut.

Check before you buy, too. Some nursery plants are treated with systemic insecticides that linger in the nectar for months. Growing from seed, taking cuttings from friends, or buying from a grower who can tell you exactly how the plants were raised is the safest route.

Get these few plants in the ground this autumn, keep them sunny, keep them clumped, and keep the chemicals out of the garden. The hum you hear on a mild March morning will be your reward.