Summer savory
An annual herb whose small white-pink flowers give good nectar in July-September; a valuable garden and field source in the late-summer dearth.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,2-0,4 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
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Summer savory is an annual culinary herb with narrow leaves and a thyme-like scent. The small white, pink or pale lilac lipped flowers in the leaf axils have short tubes, and their nectar is easy for honey bees to reach. Each plant carries many flowers and bees work it intensively.
Flowering
Plants sown in spring flower from July to September, for about 6-8 weeks. In many regions this is the time when the main flows are over and colonies are rearing winter bees.
Honey and pollen
It is not common as a monofloral honey; it gives an aromatic touch to late-summer mixed honey. Its pollen contribution is small.
Note for the beekeeper
In eastern Anatolia and central Europe it is also grown on a field scale as a spice. Sowing small plots around the apiary in April-May is a practical measure against the late-summer dearth. The species that actually go into thyme honey in Turkey, however, are the perennial Satureja species of the mountains.