Just discovered that the big mop head versions we have are sterile and useless to bees and butterflies.

Can anyone recommend something that grows to about 6′ to replace them with?

Lilac

Californian lilac, I have two, they grow quickly and the bees love them. Good vibrant colour too.

ceanothus, the bees love it .

Honeysuckle if you can get it near a fence to climb up.
Buddleia is known as the Butterfly Bush for that very reason.

Have a huge honeysuckle, so all good there.

Going to replace with a lilac and a buddleia!

Cheers all!

Buddleia is a horrible invasive weed that only works for a small number of species. Go for a mix of plants, native if possible with different flowering times.

Aye, buddleia is a monstrous horrible thing most of the year. Honeysuckle smells awesome!.

Buddleia, but cut it back every year, that way you only get new growth which is where the flowers come – and the bees.

Most folk leave it to grow tall and scraggy then you get those horrible brown stems. Cut the new growth back once it’s finished flowering and leave it over winter at near ground level. You should only have this year’s fresh green growth, full of flowers and butterflies to see.

Grow lots of chives! I’ve got a pot full of it that’s come into flower, and bumblebees are all over it. It has the added benefit of being edible, including the flowers.

ceanothus, the bees love it .

This. And a trimmed budlia. And an oregano / marjoram plant. Had our garden singing with bees.

Another vote for ceanothus here. The one in our back garden sounds like it’s about to take off there’s so much buzzing that comes from it with all the bees it attracts during the summer.

At the moment the bees are going mad for the cotoneasters, thymes, alliums and the aqualegias.

Another suggestion, which is right outside my living room window, is a pyracantha hedge. Kept trimmed it’ll happily stay around 5’, and when it flowers, which mine is at the moment, the bees are all over it! My g/f commented on it this morning, with the sun on it there were dozens of bees coming and going.

ceanothus, the bees love it .

+1

Lovely blue flowers

If you really want to help bees a range of plants that flower through the year (and if possible produce nectar through the day) is best to ensure a constant food source. RHS have a pollinator approved label on plants in their database now so along with all the other search criteria you should be able to look up what you already have and fill in the flowing gap appropriately .

Also, no budlia. Bloody awful things. Invasive.

We inherited a ceanothus in the new garden, it’s lovely when in flower but hardly has any leaves and looks like a large scraggly twiggy tree most of the year. Will cutting it back make it bush up? And how severely can you cut it back?

We had a lovely blossom tree I cut back and sadly killed it 🙁