Every little discovery helps

In my quest to probe around the gardens of Britain to find what wildlife is doing what, I always get a thrill when I make a new discovery.

So last weekend was especially exciting when I found a new plant attractive to nectaring butterflies while visiting the lovely Merriments Garden in East Sussex.

(Now when I say 'new', I fully expect that someone else has known about it for ages. But it was definitely a new one to me, so it still feels like a discovery.)

And my 'find' was a perennial sunflower called Helianthus 'Capenoch Star'.

It wasn't one of your giant-headed Van Gogh-type sunflowers, but one of the well-branched perennials, about five foot high, and with masses of flowers with golden yellow rays and florets.

A few sunflowers can be pretty poor for attracting wildlife, but many are brilliant, offering nectar for bumblebees, Honeybees and hoverflies, and then copious seeds for birds.

But here was one that seemed irresistible to a Small Tortoiseshell:

and to a Comma:

No matter how often they were disturbed by passing people, they couldn't stop themselves coming back for more, just like me and strawberry-creme chocolates.

I snapped up the last Capenoch Star they had for sale in the adjacent nursery and will give it a go in my garden to see if I can get the same results at home. It has the RHS Award of Merit, which is always encouraging, and seems to be available from a good number of nurseries around the country.

So have you made any garden wildlife or plant discoveries lately? Every little discovery helps!