Flowers to bring a buzz to the garden

A study at the University of Sussex found that the most insect-friendly plants aren't the ones recommended by garden centres

There's lots of publicity urging gardeners to grow flowers that attract bees and butterflies, but are we being led up the garden path? Even though many garden flowers are advertised as bee-friendly, a recent study reveals that most of them are fairly useless at attracting insect pollinators.

It's easy to assume that a flower that is big and beautiful to our eyes will be just as attractive to bees, butterflies and other flower-visiting insects. Researchers at the University of Sussex studied dozens of garden varieties of flowers marketed as bee-friendly. After counting the numbers of insects visiting the flowers in garden centres, gardens and parks, the scientists came to the startling conclusion that most flowers had few visits from bees or any other pollinating insects. Even those flowers endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society as bee-friendly were actually not very good at the job, and only a small number of the plants were really attractive to insects.