Plant Britain BULBS FOR BEES AND BUTTERFLIES

Autumn is the ideal time to plant bulbs for an uplifting display of colour next spring and summer. But how do you choose the best flowers to benefit insect pollinators? Wild gardener and insect ecology expert Dave Goulson reveals his favourites

- Dave Goulson

The first sighting of a bee-fly each year – a flying powderpuff of brown fur with a fixed, long, straight tongue – is a sure sign that spring has arrived and something I look forward to every year. They are one of my favourite insects, so I keep a keen eye out as the days lengthen.

Usually the first one I see is sipping from the patch of grape hyacinths next to my drive, often competing with hairy-footed flower bees and bumblebee queens for the sweet nectar.

Instead, as I write, the days are drawing in fast and the last pollinators of the year – red admiral butterflies, honeybees and drone flies – are stocking up on sweet nectar from the ivy blossom in my garden hedge that will fuel them through the winter. I need to collect up my squashes and pumpkins, store my root crops in a clamp, and carefully pack apples into crates for the winter. The garden plants, too, are drawing in their resources, shedding leaves and swelling tubers, bulbs and corms beneath the ground.

Spring may seem a long time away right now, but if you want to maximise the chances of having lovely insects in your garden, and of attracting many other spring pollinators, October is the time to get planting, and as this issue comes out in late October, there’s no time like the present.

BULB BEGINNINGS

Just as our insect life settles down for the long sleep, bulbs will be slowly starting to send out roots as early as November, gently readying themselves for the big push of spring. Late winter and spring-flowering bulbs, such as snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, grape hyacinths and bluebells are best planted in early autumn, so they have time to get established.