GARDEN PLANTS TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS
BEDDING PLANTS
Intensively bred annual bedding plants such as petunias and begonias often have little pollen or nectar available to insects. Though commonly used in municipal displays up and down the land, they attract virtually no pollinators. They may make a roundabout or park look pretty, but they are pollinator-deserts.
PLANTS LACED WITH PESTICIDE
Neonicotinoid pesticides are often used in soil dressings to kill pests such as vine weevils, and are absorbed by the plants, ending up in the flowers’ pollen and nectar. Many gardencentre plants have been pre-treated in this way, so always ask before you buy. And if you do see any on sale, consider taking this up with the manager – customer demand is key to changing habits.
DOUBLE-FLOWERED PLANTS
Flowers bred to have more petals than nature intended include roses, dahlias and cherry trees. Like a closed shop, the extra petals usually mask the reproductive parts of the flower. This makes it impossible for pollinators to access the pollen and nectar that they need within. friendly flowers and wildflower mixes everywhere in cities, who knows what might happen?” But he adds an important caveat. Despite the Urban Pollinators study confirming that towns and cities have a greater abundance of pollinators than farmland, efforts to cater for bees in cities remain patchy.
“Some cities are great, but you still see an awful lot of dreadful planting,” says Dave. “Bedding plants such as begonias, pansies and busy lizzies have been intensively bred for huge, showy flowers and a long flowering period, but this has made them next to useless for insects. Most have no nectar or no pollen, or are so far from their natural shape that bees can’t enter.
“It infuriates me that councils are spending taxpayers’ money on this. Virtually no insects will go anywhere near these plants. You might just as well have plastic flowers.”
SPECTACLE, NOT BIODIVERSITY
Councils also appear more inclined to sow annual wildflowerwil meadows, similar to the spectacular displays gra acing the 2012 Olympics site in Stratford, East London. Red dundant patches of grass in parks are sown with ann nual mixes of cosmos, Mexican hats,, calendula and fiel ld poppies. These look fan ntastic and draw in crowds of picn nickers and dog walkers – and insects benefit from a sou urce of pollen and nectar t that wouldn’t have otherwise bee en there. But there’s a pro oblem: annual meadows don’t see em to cater for a wide rang ge of pollinators.
“AAnnual wildflower meado ows can be of value,” says Sam m. “But often they’re bette er for the short-tongued pol linators. By contrast, pere nnial meadows, which are mo ore typical of the flower-ric ch grassland that we have lostt since the turn of the lastt century, tend to support a wwider range of species – in nc cluding the rarer, longer
tongued one es s. This is because these