Garden plant of the moment

Do you find that, at any given point in the year, there's a plant that is most definitely flavour of the moment in your garden? It's the place that you know you can guarantee you will go out and see some kind of wildlife action.

Well, this is mine at the moment - lavender. Or more specifically, English Lavender Lavandula angustifolia. My five plants are of one of the larger cultivars, now about four years old, and with the flowering stems about three foot high with a hundred or so stems to each plant.

The flowers of lavender are hardly scene-stealers in terms of showiness. But en masse they are a lovely haze of pastel colour, And it is the sheer number of them that helps them work wonders for wildlife. They are the main source of nectar for Honeybees in my garden at the moment, and are doing wonders for bumblebees and hoverflies too. And they are a guranteed stop off for any passing white butterfly, be it Large, Green-veined or - as in my photo from the weekend - Small (this is a second brood male, with smaller paler-grey wing-tips than a Large White, and just one little black dot on his upper forewing).

It is the lavender too that last weekend played host to only the second and third Common Blue butterflies I've seen in my garden.

And then last night, it was the turn of a Hummingbird Hawkmoth to visit. It only hung in front of each flower for a moment - clearly the nectar well in each flower isn't huge - before nipping on to the next. But with so many flowers to choose from, it was busy for ten minutes or so.

And I must admit I have a little sniff at the foliage each time I pass - yes, I get my pleasure from lavenders in many a way!