zinnias are exceptional for pollinators and are considered a top choice for attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to the garden. They provide a consistent, high-energy source of nectar and pollen throughout the summer and into late autumn.
Create a garden for pollinators
Sat in your garden on a nice sunny day watching the Bees & butterflies go about their business is a wonderful thing, so to help them stay around in your garden, plant perennials and shrubs to attract them.
Butterflies: butterflies may look like there just flying around your garden, but they are looking for their next meal, adult butterflies really on flower nectar to live and feed constantly. They like to dine in the sun, and they prefer flat top flowers such as (Zinnias, Corn flowers, Cosmas & phlox) are just a few. Provide a small stack of stones in a sunny position for a warm place to rest and a shallow saucer of water for a place to grab a drink.
Bees: Bees are a very important pollinator to visit our gardens as one of the primary pollinators they boost fruit & veg yields and increase biodiversity, allow plants to reproduce.
To encourage Bees into the garden plant a range of nectar rich flower form early spring to late summer like (Primroses, foxgloves, alliums & Sunflowers) are just a few of the plants you can plant.
Create log, piles bare earth or even a bee hotel as nesting sites and ensure there is a shallow source of water with stones in to prevent drowning.
Alliums are a great plant to attract bees, butterflies & hoverflies to your garden with their nectar rich flowers. They are considered as bee magnets by providing a high energy nectar rich blooms form early to mid-summer.
A list of sutable plants: Allium, Aster, Azalea, Buddleia, Cosmos, Dahlia, Coneflower, Hibiscus, Lavender, Liatris, Lobelia, Phlox, Salvia, Sunflower,Verbena & Zinnia
• Continue planting up pots, baskets & borders with bedding plants water regularly to help them establish. • Tie in new stems of climbing and rambling roses to supports. • Pinch outshoots on fuchsias to encourage bushier growth. • Start feeding containers and baskets with a liquid feed every few weeks. • Start to pick sweet pea flowers as this will encourage more flowers. • Use soft ties to tie in new clematis shoots. • Stake perennials like hollyhocks & Delphiniums to prevent damage in the wind. • Dead head repeat flowering roses. • Give wisteria its summer prune cutting all the long side shoots back to 20cm, to promote flowering for next spring. • Dot a few French marigolds around tomato plants - these strongly scented flowers will help deter insect pests. • Keep the surface of ponds clean by removing floating weeds. Use a net to scoop out mats of tiny-leaved duck weed and twirl hair-like blanket weed from the surface with a stick or garden cane – before putting on the compost heap, leave on the edge of the pond overnight so any aquatic creatures can crawl back into the water.
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