Attracting pollinators: it's flowers that count, not origin

Readers with long memories will recall me writing about the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plants for Bugs project, which aimed to investigate whether you need to grow native plants to attract wildlife to your garden.

Three sets of replicate “flower beds” were planted at RHS Wisley with either British native plants, plants from Europe, Asia and North America that were quite closely related to natives (“near natives”), or southern hemisphere plants that were often rather remote, both taxonomically and geographically, from the natives (“exotics”).

The wildlife in these plots has been monitored for four years, and the first results – on pollinators – were recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

The first good news (basically, it’s all good news) is that whatever you grow, there’s a strong, linear relationship between the number of flowers available and the number of pollinating insects you attract. So the more flowers you have the better, which is yet more reason to cram in as many plants as you can.

The Telegraph: Attracting pollinators: it's flowers that count, not origin

So what are the key messages gardeners should take from this first paper on pollinating insects? We've narrowed it down to three:

1. The best strategy for gardeners wanting to support pollinating insects in gardens is to plant a mix of flowering plants from different countries and regions.

2. Emphasis should be given to plants native to the UK and the northern hemisphere, though exotic plants from the southern hemisphere can be used to extend the season (there are a greater proportion of exotic plants flowering later in the season compared to UK native and northern hemisphere plants) and provide nectar and pollen for some specific pollinators.

3. Regardless of plant origin (native or non-native), the more flowers a garden can offer throughout the year, the greater the number of bees, hoverflies and other pollinating insects it will attract and support.

The RHS: The much-anticipated results from the Plants for Bugs project are now in

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