What flowers do bees and pollinators actually use?

Two ideas do most of the work here. The first is continuity: a garden with something in flower for nine months supports far more pollinators than one with a spectacular six weeks in June. The second is accessibility: many garden flowers have been bred for petal count and colour at the expense of the nectaries and anthers, so they are decorative and empty.

Step by step

1. Plant for the hungry gaps first.Late winter and early spring, when queen bumblebees emerge and there is almost nothing about, and autumn, when colonies are building up reserves. Those months are worth more than another summer plant.
2. Cover late winter and early spring.Snowdrop, winter aconite, crocus, hellebore, pulmonaria, mahonia, willow catkins, winter honeysuckle, primrose, flowering currant and single early tulips. Crocus and pulmonaria in particular are heavily used.
3. Cover late spring and early summer.Aquilegia, geum, hardy geranium, comfrey, foxglove, allium, borage, chives, honeysuckle, cotoneaster and the fruit blossoms. Cotoneaster and comfrey are two of the hardest-working plants in a garden.
4. Cover high summer generously.Lavender, catmint, scabious, knautia, echinops, eryngium, salvia, marjoram, thyme, verbena bonariensis, cosmos, single dahlias, phacelia and buddleja. This is the easy season and most gardens already do it.
5. Cover late summer and autumn.Sedum, aster, rudbeckia, helenium, echinacea, verbena bonariensis, ivy flowers, single chrysanthemum and salvia. Ivy is one of the most important autumn nectar sources in Britain and is usually cut off.
6. Choose single flowers over double.A double flower has extra petals in place of the reproductive parts, so it is often sterile and physically impassable. Single dahlias, single roses and open-centred varieties are the ones with something in them.
7. Match flower shape to pollinator.Open, flat, daisy-like flowers suit hoverflies, solitary bees and beetles, which have short tongues. Deep tubular flowers such as foxglove, honeysuckle and comfrey suit long-tongued bumblebees. A garden needs both shapes to support both groups.
8. Do not stop at bees.Hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids, need flat open umbels — fennel, dill, angelica, achillea. Moths, which are major pollinators, need night-scented flowers such as evening primrose, honeysuckle, nicotiana and night-scented stock. Butterflies need nectar plants and larval food plants, which are usually not the same thing.
9. Include some larval food plants.Nectar feeds adults; caterpillars need specific plants. Nettles for several butterflies, holly and ivy for the holly blue, garlic mustard and honesty for the orange tip, and a patch of long grass for several species. A garden with only nectar plants supports adults passing through.
10. Prefer plenty of a few to one of everything.Pollinators forage more efficiently on a drift than on single plants scattered about. Three or five of the same plant together does more good than five different ones.
11. Let the herbs and vegetables flower.Marjoram, thyme, chives, sage, borage, fennel and a few leeks or brassicas allowed to bolt are among the best pollinator plants a garden can have, and they cost nothing extra.
12. Stop using pesticides where you can.Insecticides do not distinguish between pests and pollinators, and some persist in the plant. If you must treat something, follow the current label exactly, never apply to open flowers, and treat in the evening when bees are not flying.
13. Ignore the marketing and look at the plant.Pollinator labels are applied loosely. The honest test is whether you can see the centre of the flower and whether insects are actually on it. Go to a garden centre on a warm day and watch.

Tips

• Ivy allowed to flower is one of the most valuable autumn nectar sources in Britain, and it is almost always cut back before it can.
• A single mature cotoneaster in flower can be audibly loud with bees. Few plants do more for less effort.
• Watch before you buy. Whatever the label says, the insects on the plant in the nursery are telling you the truth.

Common mistakes

• Buying double-flowered varieties from a pollinator display — Extra petals usually replace the nectaries and anthers, so the flower is decorative and empty. Single, open-centred flowers are what to look for.
• Planting only for June and July — That is the season of plenty. The shortage is in February to April and September to November, and filling those months does far more good.
• Scattering one of each plant around the garden — Pollinators forage on drifts. Groups of three or five of the same plant are used far more heavily.
• Spraying insecticide on flowering plants — It kills pollinators directly. If treatment is unavoidable, follow the current label, never spray open flowers, and do it when bees are not flying.

Questions people ask