Summer blooms - your favourites and the best for wildlife?

One I intend to plant in my garden is Tansy! Everything seems to love it! Also looking forward to the knapweeds and thistles coming out! :-)

I grow year round flowers for bees and other "beneficial" insects. In the summer my choice would be a bedding plant - a trailing lobelia (sapphire fountain because I love the blue) . I put them in my bedding pots and they buzz with bees all summer. There are other flowers available in the garden but these go on until the frosts.

I've noticed a cotoneaster at the school I work at which has been covered in bees lately.  I intend to buy one, or ask the caretaker for a cutting!!

I agree with Lavender and Cotoneaster, which also has berries that the birds love. But trying to find plants that are also foodplants for insect larvae as well is difficult, I come up with Dandilion, Bramble, Oak, etc!

Honeysuckle  seems to provide food for 12 moth larvae, nectar and berries and I also love its flowers and fragrance and may soon be over-ran with it as I keep trying to squeeze another one in.

Birdsfoot Trefoil is another one I'm trying.

Fortunately wildflowers are very much 'in' at the moment - the Telegraph garden at Chelsea looked beautiful (at least on telly). One of the things that I love best in my garden is a strip in the lawn that I leave uncut. Its so relaxing to see the grass swaying in the breeze and apparently food for lots of moth and butterfly larvae. 

Raspberries are flowering at the moment,which the bees love. They also love our hibiscus, when that flowers. Otherwise, climbing roses, clematis and honeysuckle bring in the insects for the birds.

I grow Hostas to feed the slugs . . .  well , they seem to think I do :- (

I'd echo the sentiments of other posters, in that Lavendar, Honeysuckles, Clematis, and a patch of wildflowers have been very successful for me. I've made sure that everything I plant is good for pollinators, there is still so much choice. I have a lovely Sage bush that is mobbed by bees whenever in flower and some patches of Borage I have are the same. I've planted a small mixed hedge of Cotoneaster, Pyrcantha, Hawthorn, Rosa Rugosa, Berberis, and Gorse in the wild area of my garden. Hopefully this will attract some nesting birds as well as insects in the next few years.

We have lots of Aquilegia that self seed around the garden. The bees seem to love them and they add some lovely shades of purple, pink and burgundy and a bit of height that sways in the breeze. The only problem is that they sometimes need staking against the Welsh wind. Another for the bees are Pulmonaria or Lungwort. We have two species (one plain leaf and the other speckled leaf) in the garden that are both a firm favourite of the bees. We also have lots of Clematis and have tried Lavender but with the harsh winters lately the Lavender hasn't made it through.

Can anyone suggest some very hardy lavender?

Thank you for the reminder to sow some Borage again. Fab for bees. I must remember to move our Cotoneaster as it isn't doing so well where it is. Another vote of Pyracantha here too. We struggle in a frost pocket but these do well and the black birds are happy too. They also love the Ivy that grows in a old Elder, which is also very popular. Close to that we have Rowan which again is popular for its berries. It also gets mobbed by Long Tailed Tits so must attract some tasty insects or something they like.

Great selections and a wide variety at that! There is just so much to choose from!

Hi Clarebear, I know what you mean, some of the lavenders I put in around a newly planted fruit patch didn't survive. The ones that fared the best were cuttings from an established English lavender - sorry no idea what the cultivar name is. Check with the garden centre before buying I guess!

I intended to share some pictures of the various blooms i'm a fan of including some red valerian and honeysuckle however my trusty bridge camera is currently being fixed after the lens decided it was going on strike. Hopefully i'll get it back whilst there are still flowers to photograph!

Just waiting for my sea holly to come out, the bees adore it, and with the bee covered Ceanothus just starting to fade they will be all over the cotoneaster and sea holly