Without pollinating insects, as we know, we would have substantially less food to feed the planet. Compared with when I was young (yes, well) there are far fewer insects around, which sounds like a good thing when you’re trying to enjoy a picnic in the park on a sunny afternoon BUT, really, we do need more around. Luckily it turns out we can tempt them back and a recent report by the British Ecological Society shows that small urban gardens have a surprisingly important part to play in this!
It found that common or garden shrubs, rather than pretty meadows, were far and away the best all round for pollinators, producing masses of flowers over long periods of time.
So here are 7 of the best easily available shrubs to try, giving non-stop flowers all year round:
Late autumn to early spring – Mahonia – great for those bees late to overwinter or early in the year to rise! Some varieties are breathtakingly fragrant, too. Evergreen.
Pieris
Mahonia
Spring to summer – Pieris – lots of cheery varieties (need acid soil, or grow in a pot with ericaceous compost). Evergreen.
Early summer through to late autumn – Fuschia magellanica, overall best pollinator from the study. Delicate pink or typical red/mauve flowers.
Early summer – Ribes sanguineum – pretty bells of pink flowers, followed by berries.
All summer – Lavender – of course! – purple, pink and white options – great fragrance for humans too
Summer and autumn – Ceanothus – bees particularly love the blue flowering ones
Summer and autumn – Buddleia – some neat smaller varieties now available, not just the ones that colonise railway sidings! Colours range from white to lavender to deep pink to deepest purple.
So if you plant just one thing this year – maybe make it a shrub.
Lavender
Fuschia Magellanica
