Wild About Gardens, for the benefit of people and wildlife

Flowers and Nectar

You can encourage many insects including bees, butterflies and hoverflies into your garden by including plants whose flowers contain good quantities of pollen and nectar. These in turn are food for other animals, including birds.

Plant your flowers in a sheltered, sunny position to maximise the numbers of insects visiting your high-nectar flowers. The very best nectar plants, planted in a cold, windy position, will have few visitors. If your garden is particularly exposed, think about installing a wind-break.
Plant a group or drift of each plant so that the colour or scent is easy to detect. Individual specimens may be difficult for insects to find.
Aim to have as long a flowering period as possible in the garden. You can achieve this by careful choice of plants. High-nectar flowers in spring are important for early emerging insects. In autumn, high nectar plants will help insects preparing for hibernation.
Choose plants that have flowers with a simple structure, such as old cottage garden varieties. Many insects, and particularly bees, are unable to reach the nectar in some highly cultivated forms, especially those with 'double flowers'. There are also some modern varieties have been bred to have low levels or no nectar and pollen.
Provide high-nectar flowers for those insects that feed at night, such as moths, which in turn, provide food for bats.
Many herbs are attractive to a wide range of insects and many have the advantage of being drought resistant.
When visiting other gardens, make a note of those plants that you can see are visited by a large numbers of insects and, if suitable, try to include these plants in your own garden.

some planting ideas >>