We’re planting …flowers for butterflies and bees
Gardens that are alive with bees and butterflies send out the message, ‘nature is welcome here!’
Without bees and other pollinators, there would be fewer flowers and even less fruits and vegetables. Imagine a world like that? No food, colour, fragrance or beauty?
Bees and other pollinators as well as beneficial predatory insects are attracted to nectar and pollen rich flowers. Even in low maintenance gardens that use predominantly foliage plants, planting pockets of flowering perennials will achieve a healthy biodiversity that benefits the environment beyond your own property.
Four things you need to know
- Blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow flowers are the most attractive to bees and butterflies.
- Group the same flowers together, which makes it easier for the bees to harvest the pollen or nectar, and they use less energy. If space allows, try to plant at least one square meter of the same type of flower together.
- Choose flowers with a long flowering season, or quick repeat flowering cycles so that the bees keep coming back to the garden. That way, there will always be something in flower
- This greatest threat to bees and butterflies is the use of poisonous pesticides. When using a garden spray check the label because it is compulsory for companies to indicate the possible threats to garden wildlife.
Try these five easy growers.
Whether you opt for indigenous or traditional favourites, it makes sense to opt for varieties that don’t have high water requirements and tolerate summer heat.
Scabiosa columbaria, also known as the pincushion flower, is one of our indigenous beauties that attracts both butterflies and bees. A range of great garden performers have been developed from the species, the newest being Scabiosa ‘Flutter’ in shades of pure white, deep blue and rose pink. It flowers from spring through to autumn and is a neat, mounded plant for garden beds, borders and containers. Plants grow in sun or semi-shade, need regular but not excessive watering and fertilising once a month. It is very disease resistant.
Gazania splendens, which originate from Namaqualand and the South-western Cape, offer brilliant colour for sunny beds. Gazania ‘New Day’ hybrids offer pollen rich flowers in a profusion of colours, from bright orange and yellow to pink, white and striped mixes. Plants are drought tolerant, and more compact that other varieties, with bigger flowers on shorter stems.
Delosperma ‘Lido’ are low-growing, spreading succulents with large vygie-like flowers in brilliant colours of magenta, yellow, orange, pink, and white. Originating from Ceres and the southern Karoo, they are heat and drought tolerant, good for containers and as flowering groundcovers.
Alyssum Lavender Stream™ (Lobularia maritima) produce an abundance of tiny honey-scented blooms on a plant that spreads out into a beautiful mound, attracting both bees and butterflies to its nectar-rich blooms. It is an eye-catching plant for containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets as well as in the garden. It is easy to grow and thrives in the heat.
Petunia ‘Bees Knees’ is the most intense yellow petunia that holds its bright yellow colour better than other yellow petunias. The lush blooms cover this spreading plant, and because the blooms are trumpet-shaped they are more attractive to butterflies and nectar-sipping birds than bees. This versatile petunia flowers from spring onwards and needs very little attention. It grows in full sun or semi-shade, has medium water requirements and looks equally good in containers.
