Bee Friendly Flowers for Cutting

I'm just picking out ones I know...

Salvia Viridis

I know this as clary sage. It comes in purple, pink and white. It's more of a "foliage" plant. I love it. 
Easy to grow from seed, self seeds if you leave it. 
It's a garde annual so you can start it off in autumn for a head start or sow early Spring. Beautiful in the garden.

This photo was taken the beginning of December - in a sheltered spot.

   

Scabious Atropurpuria

One of my absolute favourites in the garden - it's beautiful and so easy to grow. I grow snow maiden - the white and black Knight. Hardy and will self seed occasionally here. The white more so than the black. 
The bees love it and it's hardy so flowers for a long time. I do an autumn sowing and a spring sowing.
The seedlings are in my greenhouse at the moment from a late September sowing. The black scabious photo was taken in the garden in November, the white seems a little hardier  and often flowers much earlier than the black. 
   

   
   

There's another scabious in the seed swap ...........you'll have to wait and see which one.

Tithonia Rotundifolia./Mexican Sunflower 

I think this is stunning in the garden, I don't particularly rate it for cutting as the stems are hollow and quite soft, but the flower is a super bright orange similar to an open dahlia and is alway covered in bees.

It's tricky to start, seems slow from seed and I think needs a long growing season. So personally I start it early and really cosset it in the greenhouse/fleece at night. It growth habit is like a sunflower - so tall narrow plant, but has multiple blooms. I grow it in clumps of 3 to create more of a bush shape. If you like orange - you'll love this.

       

   

There's another scabious in the seed swap ...........you'll have to wait and see which one.

Woohoo!! Can't wait

Well, it's too cold to garden. So I thought I'd go to tha back of the book! I think those two pages were stuck.

Anyway....
callistephus chinensis - annual aster/

I bought seed for the duchess series as they are beautiful.I grew some asters in a pot a couple of years ago but I'm not so great on watering. They were lovely but not quite as beautiful as this variety. I'm going to grow the coral rose. They look almost like a chrysanthemum.
Really looking forward to sowing these.

I am really struggling on holding back sowing seeds this year - must be the boredom of staying at home?

Never hold back - give in to your urges - you'll feel so much better for it.

I don't want to waste my seed - I've spent far too much money on flower seed this year and I'm determined bit to get leggy plants through having to much on windowsills. I'm losing the use of my kitchen soon so I'm going to be crammed!

I wasn't going to buy any! Now I've even slipped up and bought a few dahlias and now that Spec has placed his Chrysanthemum order I want some of those too. I must be sensible.

Scarlet I hope you're not using me as an excuse for your weakness, it is easy not to spend money, well at least I find it easy though like you I am finding it difficult to hold off from sowing seeds, but the weather is not as good as my hopes however as I am a married man I am used to being patient

Personally I think there should be a warning posted on some of the threads on here, WARNING THIS THREAD MAY CAUSE YOUR WALET TO GET THINNER, in my case my mattress gets lower
I had never given asters a thought till I read Scarlets post re. asters, so had to go and look them up, the last time I tried asters would have been in the sixties (no Veggie I rushed home from school to check on them ) though nice flowers didn't last that long so stopped growing them, now I find that there has been a lot of work put into them, so now want to give them a try, all I need to do now is find the cheapest supplier

Just thought I would give Scarlet a big thank you, sowed and grew the Dutchess Asters this year and have been very pleased with them, I will try collecting some seeds, as long as OH leaves the flowers on the plants, she has liked them so much that practically every flower has landed in her flower vases in the house, I now intend to get some perennial phlox seeds for next year as she now thinks that those are good for cutting

I have been super pleased with mine too! I grow perennial phlox...I think they can be propagated by root cuttings - I will look it up.