Your garden's coffee shop

Val explains why pollinators choose certain flowers

- Val Bourne

HAVE you ever found yourself in one of those coffee-shop queues? You're behind a group of people ordering H different things. I'll have a cappuccino with soya milk and an Americano with almond milk. You know you're in for a long wait while the barista hisses and steams his or her way through the order.

The pollinators in your garden are just as selective and fussy. They opt for different types of nectar-rich flowers to get their sugar-rich energy fix in order to facilitate flight. The sugar content of most nectar averages out at 40%, but content varies. Insects and Flowers by Friedrich G. Barth lists the two extremes. The crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) has only 8% sugar, but marjoram (Origanum vulgare) contains 76% sugar. Its close relative, Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen', is popular with small tortoiseshell butterflies and bees because the nectar is so concentrated.