[GYO Girl]

I'd like to attract lots more bees and butterflies into the garden this year.  Please could I have lots of suggestions of plants that might entice them in? 

[snowdrops]

Sedums,poached egg plants, buddleia. Wild flowers there's a new thread to send for some seeds for free.

[VegGirl7]

link to the thread that snowdrops has just mentioned...

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=92271.msg1026442#msg1026442


bees love my lavender (and it smells lovely and is edible too!) 

[snowdrops]

link to the thread that snowdrops has just mentioned...

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=92271.msg1026442#msg1026442
Thanks didn't know how to do that

bees love my lavender (and it smells lovely and is edible too!) 

[VegGirl7]

Thanks didn't know how to do that [/color]

you're welcome - you have to open up the page you want to put a link to, then copy everything that's written in the address bar at the top of the internet page, then paste it into your message 

[heloise]

the RHS has some advice http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Sustainable-gardening/Plants-for-pollinators which includes a large downloadable list of 'plants for pollinators'. Should be something on it that you like and its helpfully sorted by season.

[snowdrops]

Thanks didn't know how to do that [/color]

you're welcome - you have to open up the page you want to put a link to, then copy everything that's written in the address bar at the top of the internet page, then paste it into your message 

Ah yes now you mention it I have done it before ,once I think,unfortunately I don't remember things like that very easily though.

[GYO Girl]

Shame the free bee seeds have all gone, but the website says there are more on the way so I'm keeping an eye on it.

[tosca100]

They like open flowers like cosmos and daisies too, single flowers are easiest for them to get to.

[Growster...]

Definitely Buddleia! We've got a white one and loads of purple ones everywhere, and the butterflies just swarm round on a sunny day!

Mrs Growster is going to grow a couple on the 'Patch', as they help all the fruit etc.

[spottymint]

In our garden they seem to love Budleia Globosa (orange ball buleia) more so than the normal one's & Purple Loosestrife.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_loosestrife

[Pimento]

Phacelia tanacetifolia.  Really quick and easy seeds to grow, absolutely gorgeous, prolific blue flowers that also last for ages as a cut flower, the bees and hoverflies go beserk, and it's also a great green manure - just dig 'em back in at the end of the season to beautify your soil! They also self-seed freely, so next year's crop will be for free. Almost the perfect flower.

In the same vein, borage is also beautiful and beloved by bees, and the electric blue flowers are lovely in cold summer drinks and salads (they have a cucumber flavour). In truth, though, it self-seeds so readily it can become a bit of a thug if you're not careful.

As as already been stated, bees love single, open flowers where they can get to the pollen easily. So choose natural-looking plants over showy, double varieties where the pollen is often inaccessible to insects and the plants are often sterile anyway through over-breeding.

[GYO Girl]

I have just ordered 50g of phacelia seeds for the princely sum of £1.95 + p&p!  Thought that sounded a good deal to me!  It is sold in bulk as a green manure seed and says sow March - September so I'm really looking forward to a garden full of bees very soon.

I have also just sent off a mammoth seed order for many of the suggestions below and the list on the RHS link.

[Thrift]

Bees love fuchsia and luckily we have a lot of wild bushes in Ireland. The one by my veg plot sounds like the vuvuzelas ( forgotten how to spell that  ) when they are all massed all over it.

[Pimento]

Hi GYO Girl - great - you won't regret it!  If you stagger your phacelia planting - some seeds every couple of weeks between now and June, say - you'll have flowers right through to the first frosts and perhaps even a bit beyond. The same probably goes for some of the other things you've ordered. Happy planting!!

Pimento.