The Ultimate Wildlife Plant/ Top Ten Wildlife Magnets?!

Our favourite is Evening Primrose let them flower and leave the seed heads all trough the winter some seem to open up all through the winter and lots of Finches etc love the seeds,they also re-seed themselves but sometimes grow one year then flower the next.

Hi Andy/Sooty

Just to mention, I love Poppies - the large Red floppy ones which you see in the fields

As a matter of fact all Poppies are beautiful to me

I will think about the top 10 and answer asap

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Wild thyme is very popular with the insects in my garden, and pyracantha ('firethorn') is both bushy and prickly (so good for birds to hide in) as well has having lovely white flowers (for the insects) followed by lovely orange berries (for the birds).

I'm also sure there's a thread on here somewhere that has a fairly extensive list of good plants, if you can find it! (think it was more than a month ago but probably less than 4!) so it might not be around any more - and i can't remember who posted it!

Hello Andy B

When Cartimandua mentioned a previous thread I remembered this one. Mainly about plants to attract bees.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/p/17607/124014.aspx#124014

It contains a lot of helpful information I think but I don't know if it is the one Carti. was thinking of.

I find my pond is brilliant for attracting wildlife. I also have a white, a dark blue and a pink buddeia which the butterflies have enjoyed this year. 

This is a lovely idea for a thread and I hope you receive loads of ideas. 

Hi Andy,

I find some hardy geraniums really useful for several reasons - they flower over a long period and are popular with bees; they suppress weeds; they provide cover for insects and secretive little insect eating birds, such as the wrens and dunnocks; they will grow just about anywhere - prolifically! They are also very easy to propagate and share with others or offer for sale for causes such as feeding our group's birds through the winter! LOL

I also like to poke in the pruned bits from current bushes, and we get a fair bit of success with those taking and forming new bushes, which attract aphids and other insects for the birds, even before they provide fruit! Strawberry runners have gone mad with us this year, so will be transplanting many of those around the bird garden soon, and in the hope of a bumper crop for all next year! (I only managed to pinch two strawberries this year, the birds and bugs beat me to all the rest! LOL )

Hello,

I am fairly new to the forum and I  would like to 'big-up' Lavender!  My 3 young plants realy got going this year and were a magnet for all types of bees and butterflies, especially the smaller ones - I had rarely seen a Common Blue in my garden until the Lavender flowered - then they became quite 'common'!  - (As long as the lavender was in the sunlight - the butterflies magically disappeared when it was in the shade)   But my best surprise was seeing Brown Argus butterflies - I had not seen one here before in 30 yrs!

A big clump a Marjoram (mixed types) was their next favourite - the Buddleia was almost ignored while the Lavender and Marjoram were flowering (except by  Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies)

Ordinary garden Roses are a recent obsession and a more unlikely 'wildlife' shrub, but have provided me with my first  Chiffchaffs in the garden, probably as they always carry a good crop of greenfly and sawfly larvae!  A couple of days ago we saw one in the big birdbath just outside the kitchen window,  it stay for what seemed ages, rapidly 'swimming' from one side to the other - we couldn't take our eyes of it!

Liz

I am going to wade in here with a controversial plant - ivy, more specifically the native Hedera helix, not any of the 'meddled with' varieties! If managed correctly ivy can be a great plant to have.

Ivy can be used as ground cover, it can be grown up walls and fences as well as trees. It's dense foliage is great shelter for birds to nest and roost in, the leaves are also the food stuff of many insects and the flowers and berries appear at times when many birds, bees and bugs have little else on offer. Ivy is truly a star for wildlife and i would recommend it for any garden.

Honeysuckle is good too and can be grown through a herbaceous border as well as trained against walls and trellis. Other shrubs you could consider that have wildlife benefits include berberis, pyracantha and guelder rose.

Check out the link here for a few more suggestion for planting gardens for wildlife.

Hello Andy B, after several years of trial and error I have at last achieved a very successful wildlife friendly garden. Speaking from my own experience  I think the most important consideration is to provide lots of cover. I plant trees, shrubs, plants, and soft fruit so tightly together you can't get a weed between them. Birds, mammals, amphibians and much to my horror Snakes all love to lurk in the undergrowth. It's also important to provide lots of perching places. I have divided the garden into different areas using trellis and arches which I have covered in evergreen Honeysuckle. If I had to choose only one plant it would be Lonicera 'Haliana' it's flowers are not so showy as some other honeysuckles but it stays evergreen in the winter and grows very fast into a very dense creeper. The birds nest in it, roost in it feed on the bugs and hide from the Sparrowhawk in it.  I have planted lots of Crab apple trees and shrubs with berries on to feed the birds in the winter. I have 4 bird baths dotted around the garden but I also put shallow bowls of water on the ground. Hedgehogs in particular drink a lot of water.

I never tidy the garden in autumn I wait until spring this way the birds have the seeds to eat and can hide from the predators and when the snow comes the annuals fall onto and therefore protect the more delicate plants.

This year I have seen more Butterflies and Bees in the garden than any other year. The favourite food of the Orange tip Butterfly is Sweet Rocket which seeds itself so no need to plant every year. Although I have10 or 12 Buddleia there were more Butterflies on the Scabious than the Buddleia. ( Do you know that when you prune a Buddleia if you poke some of the cut off branches into the ground they will grow?)  The plants that have attracted the most Bees and Butterflies into my garden this year are Lavender, Nepeta, (I hate the stuff but the Bees adore it) Hardy Geraniums, Sedum, Bergamot, Chives, Monarda, Viburnum Tinus, Hops and Valerian.  They did of coarse visit other plants but these attracted them more than the others.  I always plant the same variety in groups of 3 or 4 rather than one here and there.  Open Daisy type flowers are better than double flowers.

At this time of the year it is more important than ever to provide food for the Bees, Today the Astors, Michealmas Daisies and Sedums were buzzing with Bees and I even saw a few Butterflies.

I wish you well with your garden and can honestly say the rewards will more than compensate for all the hard work.

                                     DON'T LET THE WEEDS IN            

                                        THESE BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE HOPS

                                                     SEDUM

                                                 DAISY TYPE FLOWERS ARE BEST

                                         ASTORS FOR AUTUMN FOOD

You have had some really great suggestions here + the ones that I love are already mentioned so I will have to 2nd the ideas!! In no particular order -

Honeysuckle - for flowers + berries, diff types flower through out the summer, the evergreen ones are great, so I've got lots dotted around!

Sedum - lots of bees at the moment again diff types to spread the length of flowering.

Scabius - I just love these + the way they team with life. The large pale yellow type offer a diff level + lots of ground cover with their large leaves lots self seeding on the gravel drive that I keep offering to folk.

Thyme.     Sea thrift.     Asters.     Evening primrose.     Hop.     Dianthis.     Buddleia.

I'm giong more + more native with my planting + that seems to make the wildlife happy - newts, toads, frogs hedgehogs, pipistral bats, all our lovely birds + comma butterflies are the best we have seen. Had a humming bird hawk moth visit the flowering bramble growing through the hawthorn hedge about a month ago. Made me hop about with excitement run around + shout the kids in from the sheep field!! Oh that was a spot - unfortunately not in my book so no sticker for that one - boo hoo!!

Looking forward to hearing how it all goes a great time to plant as the soilis still warm. Got lots to do here :-)

what a fabulous post, CottageGardener. And lovely photos