Sue Bradley outlines some of the best flowers and shrubs to grow which help our precious insect pollinators .
Gardeners can play an important role in helping to reverse the decline in pollinator populations. As well as playing an important role in food crop production, these insects provide a vital role in the food chain for birds, bats and other creatures higher up. The 2023 State of Nature report made sober rendering, and we lost 97% of our lowland meadows between 1930 and 1987 which once provided habitats and nectar-rich wild flowers for insects.
Yet, with more than 700,000 hectares (10 million acres) of gardens across the UK, plus window boxes, pots and troughs, what we plant and the way we manage our plots matters.
Plant by plant gardeners can help together to make a huge positive difference. Here’s some inspiration to help you attract more pollinators into your garden over the year ahead.
Top five flowering herbs
Herbs provide delightfully aromatic leaves for the kitchen, and many produce flowers which are incredibly valuable to pollinating insects. Each has its own ornamental qualities and several are great for ground cover also. Grow herbs close to fruit and vegetables and you will help encourage greater pollination of food crops.
Marjoram
Marjoram (oregano) is a low-growing herb that suits the front of beds and borders and thrives in rock gardens and pots. Its fragrant foliage is great for ground cover, with white to purple flowers in summer. Look for cultivars of the pot marjoram Origanum onites from Sicily, Greece and Turkey and sweet marjoram O. majorana from the Mediterranean, which are half hardy, or seek out native wild marjoram, O. vulgare, which is a favourite with bees and butterflies.
Flowering time: June to September Soil type: Poorer, free draining, preferably alkaline Aspect: full sun or partial shade Plant: Put in plants in spring, or sow seeds in spring or autumn
Rosemary
Whether upright or sprawling, evergreen rosemary is a sunloving plant that produces nectar and pollen-rich flowers in blue, pink or white. It looks good in ornamental gardens, herb patches and pots and prostrate forms are great for covering walls. Locate close to a path so its fragrance is released when things brush past it. It hates waterlogged soil and can survive to beyond -10 C.
Flowering time: March to May Soil type: Free draining Aspect: Full sun Plant: Put in ground between May and September.
Borage
Borage is generally an annual that produces white or sky blue star-shaped flowers above pointed and hairy oval leaves. Both its blooms and young foliage are edible. Choose between Borago officionalis, with its blue flowers, the white blooms of ‘Alba’ and variegated leaves of ‘Bill Archer’
