Birds, Bees and Butterflies

When choosing plants to attract bees remember bees can’t see red. But their vision extends into the ultra violet. Many bee-friendly plants have blue or purple flowers, such as Lavender.

In fact, red or orange flowers are generally outside the vision of most insects, some bumblebees will have a go at some of these, but on the whole they are not suited for the majority of British insects, these brighter flowers often evolved to be pollinated by birds and were so coloured to attract them down from a long way up. Red flowers for example are visited by birds such as hummingbirds. Such plants include Kniphophia, Fuchsia, Callistemon, Fritillaries imperialis, and the lantern-flower, Crinodendron.

No matter what space you have available we can all do our bit to make our gardens more welcoming to insects.

Below are a few ideas.

• Bees love herbs such as thyme, rosemary, mint and sage. Plant them in window boxes or in pots in a sunny position and allow the herbs to flower.
• Plant perennials in drifts rather than ones and twos, so that the colour and scent are easy to detect. Insects prefer large stands of the same species. The honey bee “waggle dance” evolved to let others know the location of large stands of suitable flowers.
• Flowers with simple, flat or dome shapes are easiest for insects to feed from. Some bees, in particular, are not able to squeeze into long, narrow, tubular flowers.
• Highly cultivated double-flowered forms of flowers, such as Dahlias often have no nectar or pollen.
• Avoid traditional bedding plants which produce bright colour. Most are highly bred flowers producing next to nothing for feeding insects.
• Remember to provide a night-time feast for moths. Plant some night-scented flowers. Moths will, in turn, provide food for bats.
• Fill hanging baskets and pots with insect favourites, such as; snowdrops, bluebells, primulas, crocus, aubretia, marigolds, campanula and lavender which will attract butterflies and hoverflies.
• Plant climbers, such as honeysuckle and ivy which provide late season food and shelter for birds and insects.
• Plant  Buddleias’ to attract bees, moths and butterflies.
• Choose plants so that you have a show of flowers from early spring to late autumn. This will help early-emerging insects and those preparing for hibernation.