TREES
● Fruit trees apple, crab, pear, cherry, plum.
● Willows are fast growing trees, with bee-perfect catkins in spring. Weeping willow, salix ‘Kilmarnock’, is suitable for small gardens.
● Lime is a native tree species for big gardens only. A lime tree in flower can roar with bee noise.
● Alder buckthorn is suitable for small gardens and is one of the very best for bees. It is also the caterpillar foodplant of the Brimstone butterfly.
● Hawthorn – the native ‘May’ tree with its spume of white blossom is glorious.
SHRUBS & CLIMBERS
● Deutzia Single-flowered cultivars, such as ‘Strawberry Fields’, are a hit with bumblebees.
● Buddlejas are the best for butterflies, in whites, pinks and purples.
● If allowed to get its head into the sun, ivy will flower and is great for pollinators in autumn.
● Winter heather Erica carnea or the many summer flowering varieties, these may be out of fashion with humans but not with insects!
● Lavender is sensational for insects, in both the English and French cultivars.
HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS
● Salvias are a super set of perennials for pollinators, whether Salvia superba or plain old garden sage.
● Marjoram is superb for many pollinators, including butterflies.
● The open flowers of hardy geran
