Plants For Pollinators

According to research, you need both native and non-native plants to help a diverse range of pollinators. Graham Rice offers the best selection for you to grow

- Graham Rice

We hear a lot about bees these days. We hear about insecticides killing them off, about diseases decimating them in their hives – plus, of course, how essential they are to ensuring good harvests of so many crops, from apples to beans. Pollinators are also important in producing the seed from which we grow other crops, from lettuces to onions. Gardeners have an important role in helping to restore pollinator numbers.

Bees are the most familiar of our pollinators, but there are so many others. Hummingbirds are important in some parts of the world, and here in Britain hoverflies, wasps, moths, beetles, butterflies and all sorts of other invertebrates, whose names we don’t even know, have their part to play.

Our gardens would be very different without pollinators and to help them in the wild, and to ensure that we have the best possible crops in our gardens, planting for pollinators should always be in our minds. But, what exactly, should we plant? And when should we plant it?

We can plant now. Of course, in high summer we need to ensure that our newly planted perennials and shrubs are well watered and looked after. But what should we be planting? We always thought that we knew the answer – our native pollinators need native plants on which to forage, but this is only half true.

Study of pollinators

In 2009 the Royal Horticultural Society began a ground-breaking four-year study of pollinators and the plants they pollinate. This was sparked by the revelation that, since 1970, 41% of the native species studied had declined and 133 species had already been lost.

Plant a mix of flowering plants