Growing beautiful blooms in your flower garden is a wonderful way to bring it to life with an array of colours. However, it becomes even more pleasing to look at when the local wildlife can also enjoy it. There are many butterfly—and bee-friendly plants that are both beautiful for humans to look at and filled with nectar and pollen for pollinators.
Growing specific pollinator-friendly plants can make your garden a haven for butterflies and bees and contribute to a better-sustained environment. To get you started, we detail below the best plants for bees and butterflies that are excellent choices for humans and pollinators.
What Plants Should You Plant for Bees and Butterflies?
Pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are an essential part of the ecosystem, helping flowers to set seed and bear fruit by carrying pollen to and from other plants. With numbers of pollinators having declined in past decades in the UK and globally, it’s more important than ever to provide them with food and habitats with bee and butterfly plants. What’s more, your garden will look even more vibrant as a sanctuary for bees and butterflies!
Though these pollinators will be attracted to various flowers, there are specific butterfly- and bee-friendly plants that are more likely to attract them. Specifically, they are attracted to plants that produce large amounts of pollen and nectar that are easy for them to access.
If you’re limited on growing space, you can still attract bees and butterflies, as there are plenty of container and patio flower plants for pollinators available. You can attract pollinators with even just a few of the right flowers.
The Best Bee- and Butterfly-Friendly Plants
To attract these colourful guests into your space, we’ve devised a list of the best flowers for bees and butterflies for you to grow in your garden.
It’s important to note that while various cultivars of the flower seeds and flower plants below are ideal for pollinators, it’s important to check this prior to planting, as some are not. This can be due to factors such as a weaker scent, low colour variation, or low nectar production.
Our most recommended plants for bees and butterflies are as follows:
- Sunflowers
- Lavender
- Wildflowers
- Cosmos
- Foxglove
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are a clear indicator that summer has arrived, making for some of the best flowers for bees and butterflies. Their large, open flowers make it simple for pollinators to access and provide abundant amounts of nectar and pollen. By sowing sunflower seeds, you’ll have plenty of pollinators in your garden in no time. Even when summer passes, your sunflowers’ seeds will provide food for birds in the area.
Variety recommendation: Our Russian Giant Sunflower seeds and Titan Sunflower seeds are good choices for pollinators, owing to their especially large flower heads.
Lavender
Many gardeners grow lavender due to its elegant appearance and wonderful scent. However, pollinators love it just as much due to its richness in nectar and pollen. This makes it an even more convenient variety for those limited on space. Lavender does just as well in borders as it does in containers.
Variety recommendation: By growing Hidcote Lavender seeds, you will produce flowers high in nectar and pollen that easily attract pollinators due to their strong scent. In fact, it’s one of the most commonly chosen plants to plant for bees and butterflies!
Wildflowers
Our Wildflower seed collection is an especially great choice for pollinators. Unlike cultivated flowers, these varieties have grown naturally alongside pollinators, making them perfectly suited to their needs. Many varieties feature simple, single flowers, making it especially easy for pollinators to feed. Making things even easier for gardeners is that these are very low maintenance and will self-seed and return year after year with minimal effort.
Variety recommendation: Our Wildflower Pollinators Mix seeds have been specifically curated to grow a diverse range of wildflowers that pollinators are well known to love. These include field scabious, meadow buttercup, wild pansy, and much more.
Foxglove
Foxgloves are a fantastic pollen source, suited to long-tongued bumblebees and other pollinators. Their brightly coloured flowers are clearly visible and attractive to bees and butterflies, with the lower lips of the flowers creating a convenient landing platform before climbing inside the flowers.
In addition, foxglove seeds are easy to grow for all gardeners, as they will grow in a wide range of conditions and soil types.
Variety recommendation: Excelsior Foxglove mixed seeds are an excellent choice for pollinators owing to the greater number of flowers that blossom all around the stem, unlike some species that only produce flowers down one side of it.
Cosmos
Cosmos seeds will produce fantastic flowers that are just as appealing to humans as bees and butterflies. Their large, open flowers make them particularly simple for pollinators to land on and feed from. They come in many colours, allowing you to choose pollinator-friendly flowers that match your garden’s colour scheme. As a bonus, cosmos is also very simple to grow and quick to flower.
Variety recommendation: Grow Sensation Cosmos mixed seeds in your garden to attract pollinators. Their diversity in colour and classic, single flowers make them very attractive to bees and butterflies.
Related Products
Shop Pollinator-Friendly Plants at D.T. Brown
By growing our selection of butterfly- and bee-friendly plants, your growing space will quickly become the ideal home for pollinators!
At D.T. Brown, we offer a diverse range of flower seeds, vegetable seeds, fruit seeds, herb seeds, and other gardening supplies to bring your garden to life. With over a century of experience providing UK gardeners with quality supplies, you can trust our seeds to grow vigorously and produce dazzling blooms.
In addition to our bee and butterfly plants, you can bring bees directly to your growing space by ordering our bee hives. These hives contain a colony of bumblebees and space to suitably house them.
If you’re interested in further useful blogs and in-depth growing guides on cultivating a range of vegetable plants and fruit plants, browse our garden blog.
For more information about our range of herb plants, garden accessories, garden buildings, or anything else in our collection, contact us today, and a member of our team will be happy to help you.
