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!
I have one of these sunflowers in my garden up to now it has produced 20 heads, its beautiful and appeared from now where, I think it was from the wild bird seed that I have been putting out for the birds. I have cut 6 heads off it but the seeds are so small I wonder if the birds will eat them in the winter. The rest I have left on the plant not knowing wether to cut them off or leave them. What does everyone else think.
Thanks for the tip, Wildlife Friendly. I like the sound of it spreading quickly - means more chance of dividing and sharing it around with friends :-)
I was given some clumps of this last year so this is the first year it has flowered in my garden. The number of insects it has attracted has surprised me too. I was watching the honey bees feeding on it this morning, each flower had at least one bee, if not two on it. This is definitely a plant I would recommend and it’s pretty too. I wonder if the seeds will be good or large enough for the birds later in the season? I shall be keeping an eye on mine. Not far from the Helianthus is a bed full of Verbena bonariensis and single flowered Dahlias which my butterflies seem to prefer at the moment.
I was warned that it spreads quickly so bear this in mind when choosing a spot for it. Mine is about six feet tall so it is fantastic for the back of a border or bed.