Popular pincushions

Val looks at why pollinators love scabious flowers

- Val Bourne

I DELIBERATELY choose plants that attract insects into my garden and, over the years, I’ve got to know which flowers attract which pollinator. My early flying queen bumblebees prefer open flowers, because most have short tongues, so I provide them with winter-flowering clematis, hybrid hellebores and crocuses. Once the cowslips flower, I know I will find fast-flying, black, female hairy-footed flower bees all over them. Sweet rocket and honesty draw the orange-tip butterflies into the garden in April and early May. I also provide one of their food plants, Jack-by-the-hedge or garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).

Once summer arrives, there will be red-tailed bumblebees on my annual blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus). Speckled wood butterflies generally descend on earlier flowering asters, and small tortoiseshells love an August-flowering marjoram. These pollinators are actively selecting their favourite flowers for a supply of pollen or concentrated nectar. Larger butterflies, the painted ladies, peacocks, commas and red admirals, will hopefully feed on my buddleia, if the two coincide. These flowers are popular with certain pollinators, but not others.