Add beautiful colours and encourage pollinators into your garden this summer by planting some of our favourite nectar-rich wildlife-friendly plants.
It has never been more important to protect our pollinators. Bees, butterflies, birds and other insects are extremely beneficial pollinators that are invaluable to our ecosystem. especially useful for kitchen gardens, they pollinate a whole range of plants and enable the formation of many fruits and vegetables.
One of the easiest and simplest ways we can help encourage wildlife into our garden is by planting more flowers. There are so many beautiful flowers that the bees, butterflies and birds all adore. Therefore by planting these, you will not only be helping the pollinators do their job, but your garden will look and smell incredible! Here is a small selection of our favourite summer flowers that bees and butterflies will love!
Wildlife-Friendly Flowers
Lavender
Lavender is an instantly recognisable and much-loved cottage garden favourite. It will transform your garden with its bushy form, gorgeous colour, and incredible fragrance. It’s perfect for attracting lots of beneficial wildlife into your garden. This is thanks to its nectar-rich blooms that are loved by bees, butterflies, birds and many others. Lavender is a really simple and easy way to start encouraging wildlife into your garden. Just position your plant in a sunny spot and wait for the buzzing to begin.
Buddleia
Also known as the butterfly bush, Buddleias are a gorgeous summer flower and will encourage pollinators into your garden. Sweetly fragranced, this variety ‘Davidii Buzz’ is in flower from June all the way through to November. It will provide you with beautiful shades of pink and purple that the bees and butterflies will love.
Penstemons
Penstemons are a classic cottage garden perennial and a firm favourite with butterflies and bees. With spires enchanting bell-shaped flowers, they are easy to grow and will guarantee you masses of spectacular flowers. In bloom throughout the summer and into the autumn, they will thrive in a sunny spot in your garden. These beautiful blooms are a perfect choice if you are looking to encourage more wildlife into your garden this summer.
Foxgloves
Foxgloves are a charming summer perennial, producing multiple spikes of tubular blooms that will take your breath away. Its striking and lightly speckled flowers shimmer in the sunshine, providing an eye-catching display in your garden. Produced in abundance from early June to October, they are magnets to bees and other beneficial pollinating insects. Therefore, Foxgloves are a must-have for your wildlife garden.
Alcea rosea ‘Hollyhock’
Hollyhock is a summer-flowering perennial, with gorgeous rounded, palm-shaped leaves. The Alcea rosea is instantly recognisable with its towering spires of single, loose trumpet-shaped flowers. Adored by bees and other beneficial pollinators, the flowers are produced from early summer and will last until August.
Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’
Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant‘ (Cat Mint) has beautiful, bushy aromatic green-grey leaves that sit below beautiful lavender-blue floral spike. In bloom from June all the way through to October, this low maintenance plant will thrive in full sun. Extremely popular with pollinating wildlife, it is also a caterpillar food plant and cats absolutely love it!
Enkianthus campanulatus
Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Red Bells’ has small leaves that come to life in spring with its clusters of red-tipped blooms. Flowering again in autumn with a spectacular display of red, orange, and yellow. As an RHS Plant for Pollinators, it will make your garden into a haven for bees.
Rudbeckia Goldstrum
Rudbeckia Goldstrum is a neat daisy that erupts into bloom from July to October. These beautiful flowers will add warm, end of season colour to your borders. Also known as Black-Eyed-Susan, it produces masses of uniform, golden-yellow flowers, that will light up the garden like sunshine. Adored by bees in the summer, leave the faded blooms and they will continue to encourage wildlife into the autumn. They will also provide a natural mulch and home for overwintering insects and invertebrates.
Helenium
Also known as sneezeweed, Helenuim’s flower over a long period from June, guaranteeing you a spectacular display every year. Producing an endless display of dark centred flowers from early summer into autumn. On tall, straight stems, they are perfect for cutting and bringing into your home for a splash of rich colour. They are also loved by a whole host of beneficial pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, birds, and other insects. Therefore, they are a must-have for your summer wildlife garden.
This selection of beautiful summer flowers perennials will certainly be a haven for our pollinating creatures. Plant them now and get ready for them to come into bloom starting in June and lasting through to November.
