Wildlife
Attract these fascinating creatures to your garden by growing some night-scented plants
Is your garden moth-friendly? You probably want to attract butterflies and bees, but possibly not moths. If people know one ‘fact’ about moths it’s that they eat holes in clothes!
In fact, only two British species nibble clothing. So, put prejudice aside and look again. If you take the time to find them, moths are fascinating creatures.
They’re biodiversity in action – where the UK has fewer than 90 species of butterfly, we have around 2,500 different sorts of moth. Even a fairly ordinary urban garden can be home to up to 100 different species.
Adult moths, such as the lime hawkmoth, six-spot burnet and white ermine, are as glamorous as any butterfly. As caterpillars, they can be quite striking, too. For example, the lime-green caterpillar of the emperor moth is covered with sharp spines that make it resemble a cactus plant.
If you want to make your garden more attractive to moths, you need to take a two-step approach – feeding adults and caterpillars. For adult moths, a garden that has lots of nectar-rich plants is a real plus. As a rule of thumb, night-scented flowers that open after dark are particularly effective. The classics are tobacco plant ( Nicotiana
alata) and night-scented stock ( Matthiola longipetala). Also worth finding space for are night-scented catchfly ( Silene nutans) for their after hours aroma and a number of climbers, including honeysuckle, sweetbriar and white jasmine.
Growing a really varied selection of plants will feed caterpillars. Some are species specific – they’ll eat only the foliage of one plant species.
For a list of plants that’ll keep hungry caterpillars happy, visit the Butterfly Conservation website (they do moths, too) at www.butterfly-conservation.org and look in the ‘how you can help’ section.