Want pollinators? Grow weeds

If you want to help bumblebees and butterflies, forget wildflowers – grow weeds. Scientists at the University of Sussex have found four times as many insects visit ragwort, thistles and dock than pollinator-friendly wildflowers. Weed-loving designer Jack Wallington, author of Wild about Weeds, says it’s important to include these plants in the garden, deadheading to control their spread: “Pushing them out pushes out the rare insects which depend on them, too,” he says.

Ragwort is usually considered poisonous to livestock, but pollinators love it