Monty Don's urgent bee warning as swarms set to appear in weeks

Daily Mirror

14-05-2025

British horticulturalist Monty Don shared advice for gardeners ahead of June for the ultimate outdoor space- from swarms of bees to growing fruit, roses, and allotment care
As we near closer to summer, gardeners are urged to look out for these few things that Monty Don warns of. The days are longer and lighter, with dawn as early as four in the morning and sunshine lasting as long as 10, so it's the perfect time to focus on your garden and its pollinators. With a blooming outdoors come swarms of bees, the gardening enthusiast warns.
He claimed: "Swarming bees are a sight that can be alarming at this time of year, but in fact, they are highly unlikely to attack or bother you at all. The queen will leave her hive looking for a new home, taking with her thousands of male worker bees".
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Don explained that the bees tend to circle "furiously", making lots of sound "like a hundred motorbikes", before eventually settling on a branch in a giant cluster. It's then thought that they will leave your plants alone and head off to rest in a hollow trunk or a roof.
When it comes to roses, Don states that June is "their time" of the year. In order to keep roses flowering for as long as possible, his secret is to deadhead them on a daily basis.
"Do not just pull off the spent petals but use secateurs and cut the spent stem right back to the next leaf or bud below it," the horticulturalist suggests. According to him, this particular method helps to provoke a side shoot, which allows it to carry more flowers.
Some types of flowers, such as Rosa rugosa or Rosa moysii, grow hips in the autumn and will only develop later on if the flowers are allowed to set seed and fruit. With this in mind, he suggests basking in the sight of the flowers for as long as possible and not deadheading, so that they can develop their pear-shaped rose fruit.
Something to be mindful of in June is weeds, as the warm weather helps give them the boosts they need. Be mindful of this and regularly weed vegetable plots, preferably in dry weather, using a garden hoe.
He shared: "The secret of effective hoeing is to always do it in dry weather and preferably in the morning so that the weeds will cut cleanly from the soil and then dry out and die during the day. They can then be raked up in the afternoon and taken to the compost heap."
Another aspect of June tends to bring the "June drop", Done explains, where your trees release their fruit, such as apples and pears, but this is not a cause for concern. What this usually signifies is the tree simply reducing the amount of fruit it can carry in order to successfully ripen what is left.
It may be a good idea, the expert suggests, to selectively remove the smallest fruit before the tree makes the decision for you, and therefore, you're not losing your biggest and juiciest picks. By reducing the clusters on each spur to just two fruits that aren't touching, you've got the best bet of well-ripened results.