MOTH PLANT

I am quietly delighted with the way my “top” garden has behaved during lockdown this year.

It has just got on with it and has produced the most beautiful displays of wild flowers, from a froth of ox-eyed daisies to the waves of yellow evening primrose that now dominate.

I have always claimed, “In gardening one needs to know what to do, but also what to leave alone.”

Whilst some of the evening primrose flowers open in the morning, and are primarily pollinated by bees, many open at night and are pollinated by moths, giving it its common name of the moth plant.

They are attracted to flowers by their sweet fragrance and light colour, with the colour allowing for greater night-time detection.

It’s a great plant for encouraging wildlife into your garden and I have lots of bats in the garden at night also feeding on the moths that feed on the evening primrose.

And not just bats … yesterday evening I was watching a moth dining out on the flowers only to be snatched out of the air by an aptly named, pied flycatcher.

The food chain at its finest.