See our top plants to help bring a buzz to your garden!
Our wild bees and other pollinators are considered to be in serious decline in the UK. As gardeners we have a responsibilty to garden with all wildlife in mind.
Pollinators play a crucial role in plant reproduction. The fruit and seeds of many plants are an important food source for people and wildlife. With some small changes in your planting you can help to protect Bees, Butterflys and other insects food source, as well as your own.
In general plants that have an open flower are easier for most pollinaters to land on and collect nector from. Single flowers like Echinachiea and Rudbeckia are ideal as they have a large flat landing pad for pollinators to land on. Butterflys also like Garden Mint, Blackberry bushes and Lavendar.
We've come up with a list of our top picks to help you decide on which plants to use to get your garden buzzing:
Many varieties of lavender, ‘hidcote’ in particular, are attraactive to bumblebees, we think it is because they have a simple stem with clusters for flowers on ,making it easy for them to get to the pollen.
Lavandula Angustifolia 'Hidcote'
Buddleja, commonly known as 'butterfly bush', is one of the best-known nectar flowers for adult butterflies. Its sweet fragrance is like a honeypot to all kinds of butterflies from Red Admirals to Painted Ladies.
Buddleja Davidii 'Royal Red'
Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' is full of nectar and is popular with butterflies and in particluar long-tongued bumble bees. It is also ideal for scent in the garden making it appeal to both humans and pollinators.
Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant'
Asters tend to flower late in the season so are great for butterflies that hibernate over winter. Try to incorporate varieties with fewer petals as those with lots of petals make it difficult for insects to land on.
Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’
With a very long blooming season, Geranium Rozanne is popular amongst gardeners and bees alike. All ground cover Geraniums are good but Rozanne is the longest flowering.
Geranium Rozanne
The Foxglove is ideal for attracting larger pollinators like the bumblebee. Nectar is produced at the base of the flower ,so this menas that the Bees have to go all the way into the tube shaped flowe, leaving pollen from other flowers as they travel along the tube.
Digitalis Purpurea
