A border full of flowers is not automatically a border full of food. Many popular garden plants offer pollinators little or nothing, and even a good border can have hungry gaps in March or September when insects need it most. Building a genuine pollinator border means thinking about nectar and pollen as a continuous supply from late winter to the first hard frosts — and about shelter, water and what you spray as much as what you plant.
Think in terms of a season-long supply
Queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation as early as February and March in mild parts of the UK, and some species are still foraging in November. Solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths each have their own windows. The commonest failure in garden borders is a glut of flower in June and July with famine either side. Before buying anything, list what you already have flowering month by month; the gaps — usually March to April and September to November — are where your money should go first.
A useful rule of thumb: aim for at least two or three different plants in flower in every month from March to October. Diversity matters because different insects have different tongue lengths and preferences — a long-tongued garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) can work foxgloves that a short-tongued species cannot.
Single flowers beat doubles, almost every time
Double-flowered cultivars have had their stamens and nectaries bred into extra petals. They look sumptuous and feed almost nothing. A double dahlia, a fully double rose or a pom-pom peony is effectively a plastic flower to a bee. Choose single or semi-double forms: single dahlias such as the Bishop series are worked constantly by bumblebees, while cactus and decorative doubles beside them go untouched. The same logic applies to cherries, hollyhocks and chrysanthemums. When a label offers a choice, the simpler flower is nearly always the better wildlife plant.
Native versus non-native matters less than flower structure and season. Well-chosen garden plants from anywhere can feed pollinators; the RHS Plants for Pollinators mark is a reasonable shorthand when you are choosing at the nursery.
The best genera, season by season
| Period | Reliable choices |
|---|---|
| February–April | Crocus, Helleborus, Pulmonaria, willow (Salix) catkins, flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum), Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve' |
| May–June | Geranium (hardy cranesbills), Nepeta, comfrey (Symphytum), foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), Allium, Cirsium rivulare |
| July–August | Lavandula, Echinops, Eryngium, Salvia, Origanum (marjoram), Buddleja davidii, Knautia macedonica, single dahlias |
| September–November | Hylotelephium (sedum), Aster/Symphyotrichum, Verbena bonariensis, ivy (Hedera helix) flowers, Salvia 'Amistad' |
Ivy deserves a special word: its October flowers are one of the most important late nectar sources in Britain, feeding the ivy bee (Colletes hederae), red admirals and queen wasps fattening for winter. If you have mature ivy on a fence or tree, let some of it reach its flowering stage rather than clipping it all annually.
Do not forget the night shift
Moths outnumber butterflies in the UK many times over and are significant pollinators as well as crucial bird food. Plants that release scent in the evening are aimed at them: night-scented stock (Matthiola longipetala), evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis), tobacco plant (Nicotiana alata — the species, not scentless bedding hybrids) and jasmine. A pot of night-scented stock by a seat costs pennies from a seed packet and doubles the border's working hours. Avoid leaving bright security lights blazing over the border all night; artificial light disrupts moth activity.
Ditch the pesticides — including the subtle ones
A pollinator border sprayed with insecticide is a trap, not a refuge. The practical rules:
- Do not use insecticides on or near plants in flower. Even products sold as fatty-acid or organic sprays kill the insects they touch, pollinators included.
- Tolerate some damage. Aphid colonies feed hoverfly and ladybird larvae; a nibbled leaf is the food chain working.
- Check what you buy. Ask the nursery whether plants have been treated with systemic insecticides; buying from peat-free, organic or wildlife-focused nurseries sidesteps the problem.
- Skip weedkiller around the border edge — low "weeds" such as white clover and self-heal in adjacent grass are forage too.
Shelter, water and bare ground
Flowers are only part of the habitat. Around 70 per cent of Britain's solitary bee species nest in the ground, so leave a patch of bare, undisturbed, sunny soil or a south-facing bank unmulched. A log or a small stack of hollow stems suits cavity-nesters; bought "bee hotels" work if tubes are 2–10 mm across, replaceable and kept rain-sheltered. A shallow dish of water topped up in summer, with pebbles breaking the surface so insects can drink without drowning, completes the set. Site the border itself in sun if you can — most nectar plants and most pollinators strongly prefer warm, sheltered, sunny positions out of the wind.
Leave the stems standing over winter
The traditional autumn tidy-up removes exactly the structure many insects overwinter in. Hollow and pithy stems shelter solitary bees and ladybirds; seedheads of Echinops, teasel and Hylotelephium feed birds and look good frosted. Cut the border down in late February or March instead of October, and even then consider stacking the cut stems somewhere out of the way until mid-spring so anything inside can emerge. Leave a modest layer of leaf litter under shrubs — it is hibernation habitat for beetles and the food base for much else.
A sample plan for a 3 × 1 m sunny border
A workable scheme using nine plant groups, roughly back to front:
- Back row (tallest): one Buddleja davidii 'Nanho Blue' (kept to size by hard pruning to 30 cm each March), three Verbena bonariensis, three foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea — biennial, let it self-sow).
- Middle row: three Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' or Salvia 'Caradonna', three Echinops ritro, one Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve' (flowers March to November; short-lived, so take cuttings).
- Front row: three Origanum vulgare, three Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude', ten Crocus tommasinianus corms and ten Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' bulbs threaded through the gaps in autumn.
That gives crocus in February–March, erysimum from March onwards, alliums in May, nepeta or salvia from June, marjoram and echinops in July–August, buddleja and verbena through late summer, and sedum carrying into October — with standing seedheads for winter. Everything listed is H4–H7 and happy in ordinary, reasonably drained soil. Plant in September–October or April, water for the first summer, and resist the urge to feed heavily: rich soil produces leaves at the expense of flowers in most of these plants.
Sources and further reading
- Royal Horticultural Society — the Plants for Pollinators lists and plant-by-plant guidance
- Bumblebee Conservation Trust — bumblebee identification and gardening advice
- Butterfly Conservation — gardening for butterflies and moths
- Garden Organic — managing pests without pesticides