The Natural Gardener
If you want truths and facts to rise like bubbles to the surface, look to science. There’s always someone out there, finding things out for us to help make the world a better place.
Ever wanted to know exactly how much wildlife visits urban gardens? Look no further than Ken Thompson’s extensive work of 20 years ago on the Sheffield BUGS project, an investigation of biodiversity and habitats in 61 typical Sheffield gardens, which revealed a surprising number and range of resident creatures. Want to know whether insects prefer native or non-native plants? Seek out the RHS Plants for Bugs study; it concluded that the best way to encourage the most pollinating insects for longer in gardens is to plant a dense mix of flowers from all different countries and regions – make the most of it all, in short, to serve them best.
Likewise, if you want to know some of the best pollinator plants, consider the results of the Plants for Bees study by Rosi Rollings and Dave Goulson, an evidence-based bit of research from data collected over five years as to which plants really are most attractive to flowervisiting insects. True, there were a number of variables at play, including the weather, geography (the survey was done in Oxfordshire), and the fact they tested a finite number of plants (117), which all varied in health and, therefore, attractiveness to pollinators. Of course, different things grow well in different gardens, but it’s a great starting point for us gardeners to be confident we’ll bring in the beneficial beasties.
And the overall winners? Well, the results are interesting. Heleniums, oregano, anthemis and Echium vulgare – all lovely, open-flowered herbs or daisies – fared well. The best for bumblebees was Nepeta racemosa, or catmint, while honeybees went mad for calamint. Lavender ‘Edelweiss’, lavender ‘Grosso’ and borage featured highly, but most surprising, I think, is that solitary bees chose geranium ‘Rozanne’ as their favourite. In fact, it brought in far more bees all round than any other plant. This highly bred, designer creation was voted ‘RHS Plant of the Century’, though Rosi herself admits to resisting it, due to its sterility and being an unnatural product of human meddling. So, the scientists can be unsatisfied too! But to turn it on its head, it’s because of human breeding that geranium ‘Rozanne’ is such a magnet, not just to bees but hoverflies and butterflies, too. Because it’s sterile, it flowers constantly for several months and doesn’t set seed, looking good in our gardens and offering non-stop food for pollinators. It has a mass of open, simple, accessible flowers that produce nectar between early spring and late autumn.
So there you have it, the number one for pollinator perfection! Best get planting…