Amongst all the early bulbs that are beginning to flower in my garden weeks early (and which today got splatted by an immense hailstorm), there is one plant that has been merrily flowering for the last 12 months non-stop.
Here it is, a gorgeous little fuchsia all the way from Mexico where the little candy-pink pendant flowers, barely a centimetre long, are visited by hummingbirds.
Now in its homeland it is thought to be a spontaenously arising hybrid, which happens from time to time in the plant world. And it is called Fuchsia x bacillaris.
As always, I'm not going to claim things for a plant which it is not, so this is not THE best pollinator plant ever for a UK garden. But I have seen it visited by bumblebees, and it has little black berries that 'go missing' although I've yet to catch whoever it is who is munching them.
And although it is a plant that would need a bit of protection in colder areas, maybe coming into the greenhouse in its pot during snows and hard frosts, it does have this endearing habit of just going on. And on. And on. It sits outside my conservatory window where it brightens up many a winter's day.
I'm always on the look out for more unusual plants that are pollinator friendly - have you got any 'left-field' suggestions you'd like to share?
(Apologies for my blogging absence last week, due to the worst case of Man-Flu you've ever seen!)
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
Was looking for a topic like this, I would suggest the Viburnum mariesii which i have, it doesn't have the RHS plants for pollinators logo on it but the Andrena cineraria solitary bee and also the occasional bumblebee seems to like it.
I am doing an experiment in terms of unusual plants, I got a crinodendron and a desfontania which are shrubs with really nice tubular flowers that can grow in shade; they should contain enough nectar being Chilean hummingbird plants so I am going to see if bees can use them perhaps through nectar-robbing. If they don't I'll be a disappointed but the desfontania has spiny leaves like the holly so should be good for birds to take shelter in anyway even if the flowers are useless.