The best plants for bees and pollinators
Set up a ‘nectar café’ by planting flowers for pollinating insects like bees and butterflies
Set up a ‘nectar café’ by planting flowers for pollinating insects like bees and butterflies
The common dandelion is a most familiar flower: counting down the 'clock', while blowing the fluffy seeds from its head, is a favourite childhood game. Dandelions are an important early…
The Broad centurion, or 'Green soldier fly', is one of our most common soldier flies, and is often found in gardens. It has hairy eyes and a metallic blue or bronze body. It is an…
Renowned for ruining picnics and its fearsome sting, the black-and-yellow Common wasp is not a well-loved insect. Yet, it is an important pollinator and pest controller, so can be a gardener'…
Planting herbs will attract important pollinators into your garden, which will, in turn, attract birds and small mammals looking for a meal.
The fearsome-looking hornet may not be a well-loved insect, but it is actually much less aggressive than the common wasp. It is also an important pollinator and a predator of species that feed on…
Solitary bees are important pollinators and a gardener’s friend. Help them by building a bee hotel for your home or garden and watch them buzz happily about their business.
Water figwort is a tall plant of riverbanks, pond margins, damp meadows and wet woodlands. Its maroon flowers are pollinated by the Common wasp.
The yellow, star-like flowers of bog asphodel brighten up our peat bogs, damp heaths and moors in early summer, attracting a range of pollinating insects.
The bee orchid is a sneaky mimic - the flower’s velvety lip looks like a female bee. Males fly in to try to mate with it and end up pollinating the flower. Sadly, the right bee species doesn’t…
The best plants for bumblebees! Bees are important pollinating insects, but they are under threat. You can help them by planting bumblebee-friendly flowers.
From building a bug hotel to creating a garden pond, here are some ideas for things you can do yourself at home to help wildlife.