Plant a bee garden and they will come — except when they do not. The difference between a border that hums from March to October and one that merely looks the part usually comes down to a few decisions: which flowers you choose, how tidy you keep the ground, and what you reach for when the aphids arrive. The ten mistakes below are the ones I see most often, and each has a fix that costs little more than a change of habit.

1. Double flowers that look generous but feed almost nothing

Breeding for extra petals usually means turning stamens — the parts that make pollen — into more petals. A double begonia, a pom-pom dahlia or a frilly petunia may be spectacular, but for a bee it is often an empty flower: no landing pad, little pollen, and nectar buried behind a wall of petal.

Watch a bee on a double bloom and you will often see it land, probe briefly, then leave. Choose single, open flowers where the centre is visible:

• Single dahlias, such as the dark-leaved 'Bishop' types
• Cosmos, calendula, helenium, rudbeckia and single echinacea
• Single-flowered roses, including most shrub roses
• Open daisies: ox-eye daisy, feverfew, yarrow

Labels claiming "bee-friendly" are not policed, so judge the flower itself. Can you see the stamens? Can you reach the centre with a fingertip? If not, a bee probably cannot either.

2. A garden that feeds for three weeks, then goes quiet

Most bee gardens peak in June and run out of steam by August, just as bumblebee colonies are still rearing young and solitary bees are stocking their nests. Planting in succession matters more than planting a lot.

• Late winter to early spring: snowdrop, crocus, winter aconite, willow, hellebore, pulmonaria
• Spring: comfrey, apple and cherry blossom, wallflower, white dead-nettle
• Early summer: foxglove, borage, viper's bugloss, red and white clover
• Midsummer: lavender, catmint, wild marjoram, betony, common knapweed
• Late summer and autumn: sedum, asters, helenium, teasel, ivy

Ivy is the most underrated plant on that list. A mature ivy left to flower in October feeds late bumblebees, hoverflies and moths when very little else is open, and it costs you nothing but the decision not to cut it back.

3. Ignoring UK-native and near-native plants

Our bees evolved alongside our wildflowers, so natives tend to be reliable in both nectar and pollen, and they cope with our damp winters without fuss. That does not mean a garden has to be a meadow. Lavender, rosemary and borage are not British natives, but they are Mediterranean plants from a similar climate and they are superb bee plants.

Use natives as the backbone: foxglove, field scabious, betony, bird's-foot trefoil, meadow cranesbill, hedge woundwort, selfheal, common mallow, wild marjoram. Then add near-natives for punch and length of season — salvia, catmint, eryngium, verbena, hyssop, thyme.

One warning: some plants that bees adore are invasive here. Himalayan balsam is a magnet for bumblebees, but it spreads along waterways and smothers native vegetation, so leave it where it is and plant something else. If you buy wildflower seed, check the provenance and the species list rather than trusting a picture on the packet.

4. Bare soil, stripped stems and a war on mess

Many of our solitary bees nest in the ground, in bare, sunny patches of light soil, along lawn edges and on south-facing banks. Thick mulch, weed fabric and wall-to-wall planting remove exactly the habitat they need. Then autumn arrives and every stem is cut to the ground, taking away the hollow stems that leafcutter and mason bees use, and the seedheads that feed birds through winter.

The fix is a compromise, not a wilderness:

1. Leave one sunny square metre of undisturbed, unmulched soil. Do not dig it over.
2. Keep mulch away from that patch and from the crowns of your bee plants.
3. Leave stems standing over winter, then cut back to 30–45cm in late spring.
4. Allow a few dandelions and clover in the lawn — they are early-season food.
5. Add a small log pile or a bundle of cut stems tied in a dry, sheltered spot.

5. Reaching for the spray

Aphids on the roses are irritating, but a dead bee is worse. Insecticides do not distinguish between pests and pollinators. That includes the contact sprays often described as natural, such as pyrethrum, neem and soap-based products, and it includes systemics that end up in nectar and pollen.

Try the slower route first. Blast aphids off with a jet of water in the morning, squash them by hand, and plant umbellifers — dill, fennel, angelica, cow parsley — plus poached egg plant to feed hoverflies and lacewings, which will do the work for you. If you must treat something, never spray or water a plant that is in flower, and follow the label exactly. If you are unsure whether a product is safe around pollinators, ask a qualified garden adviser rather than guessing; labels and restrictions change over time.

6. Getting the flower shape, colour and site wrong

Match the flower to the bee

Long-tongued bumblebees can reach into foxgloves, comfrey and honeysuckle. Short-tongued species — including many solitary bees and honeybees — need shallow, open flowers: daisies, umbellifers, and the mint family. If you notice neat holes bitten in the base of deep flowers, that is nectar robbing, and it is a sign you need more open blooms.

Think about colour

Bees see blue, violet, purple, yellow and white well. Deep red often registers as dark, so a red rose may look lovely to you and nearly invisible to them.

Plant somewhere warm

Bees are cold-blooded and will choose a warm flower over a cool one every time. A south- or west-facing border against a wall, sheltered from wind, with gravel or stone nearby to hold heat, will be far busier than the same plants in a windy, shaded spot or a frost pocket at the bottom of the garden. A shallow dish of water with pebbles for landing is a welcome addition, especially in dry spells.

Start with three changes this weekend

You do not need to redesign the garden. Pick one plant for each season from the list above and put it somewhere sunny. Dig out the double bedding and replace it with single flowers. Leave one patch of soil bare and stop cutting every stem in October.

Then spend ten minutes sitting still and watching. The plants that actually attract bees in your garden — not the ones the labels promise — are the truest guide you have, and next spring you will know exactly what to plant more of.

Photo: Lisa Fotios / Pexels