Plants for pollinators

WE hear a lot about bees these days. We hear about insecticides killing them off, about diseases decimating them in their hives – plus, of course, how essential they are to ensuring good harvests of so many crops, from apples to beans. Pollinators are also important in producing the seed from which we grow other crops, from lettuces to onions. Gardeners have an important role in helping to restore pollinator numbers.

Bees are the most familiar of our pollinators, but there are so many others. Hummingbirds are important in some parts of the world, and here in Britain hoverflies, wasps, moths, beetles, butterflies and all sorts of other invertebrates, whose names we don’t even know, have their part to play.