Single-flowered plants, such as cosmos, are great for bees and butterflies
Nectar-rich
beds and baskets
Plant out summer bedding, hanging baskets and containers that provide food for bees and butterflies to help make your garden a wildlife haven, says Hazel Sillver
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NJOY the sight of bees and butterflies in the garden this summer by selecting wildlife-friendly bedding plants for borders and hanging baskets. Single-flowered choices, such as cosmos, give pollinators access to nectar, whereas traditional bedding plants (including double French marigolds) have such layers of petals as a result of horticultural breeding that the nectar and pollen are unreachable. On top of this, the single-flowered and semi-double species that wildlife feed on have a more contemporary look, injecting the garden with refreshing new life. Increasingly, councils are planting this type of bedding in parks and on roundabouts, both to help wildlife and to create a modern look. Another change is that summer bedding is planted in layers, as a border would be, with ‘see-through’ airy plants and tall plants providing height at the back. The days of park flowerbeds being a flat sea of double begonias,
30 AMATEUR GARDENING 19 JUNE 2021
pansies and petunias, with not a bee or butterfly in sight, are gone. Butterflies and bees One of the best bedding plants for butterflies is sweetly scented heliotrope, such as ice-blue ‘Reva’ and violet ‘Nautilus Power Blue’. They also flock to vervain, including the airy purple Verbena bonariensis ‘Lollipop’, which can be used to create layers, and
Hoverflies love Iceland poppies, such as this red Papaver nudicaule ‘Party Fun’
lipstick-pink Glandularia ‘Sissinghurst’, which looks lovely tumbling out of a pot on the patio. Hoverflies like marigolds, including the flame-orange Calendula officinalis ‘Indian Prince’, and single-flowered Mexican varieties, such as Tagetes tenuifolia ‘Tangerine Gem’. Both provide fiery colour and act as effective pest control in the vegetable patch. Hoverflies also love Icelandic poppies, and their crepe-paper flowers provide charm and colour for months. Bees are partial to the daisy-like flowers of cosmos, which are available in mid-border and back-of-border sizes, and flower all summer. They also love single-flowered hollyhocks, which provide drama and height. Ready-grown poached egg plants (Limnanthes douglasii) are a great alternative to the old guard of double-flowered bedding for the front of a border. Opt for these contemporary bedding plants and enjoy an abundance of wildlife in the garden this summer.
