Topic: Stranvaesia and bees

[Torreya]

Can anyone help. I have a customer with an enormous Stranvaesia davidiana covered in blossom. When I was there to-day, it was smothered in bees.  Anyone know if it's poisonous (wouldn't have thought so, they were obviously very happy!!) or if it makes for a good, bad or indifferent honey??

[Robert_Brenchley]

One bush isn't going to provide a noticeable quantity of honey, so don't worry about it. There are plants which produce pisonous honey, but there have only been two cases recorded in the UK; both involved mild poisoning from rhododendron, which rarely produces honey in our climate. Ragwort honey is supposed to be poisonous, but I've also read that if it's left for a few months to mature, it's OK. Some say privet is poisonous, but it's been fine when I've had it.

[Torreya]

Thanks for that, however the little 'bush' is 25+ ft high and about 15+ft across!! It's loaded with flowers every year and smothered in all sorts of insect-life, but mainly bees.  It's in a customer's garden in Boldmere, she's a flower-arranging nut, so the rest of the garden's got loads of herbaceous, but this Stranvaesia really stands out, mainly because of the awful smell!!
 By the way, never heard of pisinous honey, is it like Manuka?    ;D