Plant: insect-friendly plants
by Rosemary Richardson.
Planting insect-friendly plants that will bloom throughout the spring & summer is a simple & effective way of encouraging beneficial insects to your garden. The birds will benefit as well. Below are some suggestions, with the approx. times they will flower. Further intensification of agriculture, new housing, and road building account for massive loss of habitat. Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” seems ominously near. Insect pollinators, including bees, are reckoned to contribute 14.2 bn euros to Europe’s economy and supply much of our food.
PRIVATE GARDENS ACCOUNT FOR OVER 1 MILLION ACRES OF LAND. ** This is more than the area of all the national nature reserves.
Let’s have a renewal of Dunkerque spirit !
March – April:
aconites, crocuses (Thomasina if you want them to naturalise), snowdrops, cillas, grape hyacinths, irises (plant in July), anemone blanda, winter jasmine, apple, bluebells, broom, bugle, cherry, heather, flowering currants, lungwort (pulmonaria), pear, plum, pussy willow, red dead nettle, rosemary, white dead nettle.
May – June:
alliums, aquilegias, bergamot, birds-foot trefoil, broad beans, bugle, campanula, ceanothus, chives, clover, comfrey, coriander, cotoneaster, escallonia, everlasting peas, everlasting wallflowers, foxgloves, geraniums, honeysuckle, laburnum, lupins, monkshood, poppies, raspberries, red campion, roses (singles), sage, salvia, thyme, wallflowers, wisteria.
July – September:
borage, buddleia, catmint, cornflowers, delphiniums, heathers, hebe, hollyhocks, hyssop, ice plant, ivy, knapweed, lavender, marjoram, mint, penstemons, polemonium, purple loosestrife, rock roses, scabious, sea holly, sedum, snapdragon, St John’s wort, sunflowers, thistles.
ALSO : for a range of shrubs, herbaceous plants, & bulbs available by mail-order, visit www.birdfood.co.uk
If everyone who reads this page spends £1 on making 10 photocopies to distribute to friends, at work, social clubs, church, sports club, gym, garden centres, pub, etc., and then plants some things, we can have an impact for nature.
This article is was first posted on this blog in November 2011 – but the advice and facts are the same 10 years later!!.
** This estimate is published in C J Wildlife’s 2009 catalogue, and is based on information from the Wildlife Trust’s website & a government website – directgov. main public service – that there are 15 million gardens in the UK which are reckoned to cover 270,000 hectares. For a free catalogue with more information ‘phone 0800 731 2820.
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Comments on "Plant: insect-friendly plants"
Philip Clarkson Webb:
Yes, Crocus tommasinianus (sic) is the crème de la crème for early spring pollinators. My lawn has turned lilac with them already. As soon as the temp. reaches 15 degrees, my local bumblebees, having overwintered in the compost tumbler, will be going mad over them.
Jo:
Diane,Yes, please do replicate in your parish magazine - but please mention that it came from our website and include our organisation name and the web page link.Also - if anybody asks you question in in person, mention Christian Ecology Link and the Green Christian magazine.Many thanks,jo.
Diane:
Really helpful. Can this be used in a parish magazine?
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