Plants to attract wildlife, particularly butterflies and bees

[CruCru]

We are in the Isle of Wight and have a fairly clay y soil. There is lots of light and usually a bit of rain every day.

I need to plant some hedges but also want to put in a wild bit in the garden to encourage wildlife.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

I can recommend a good book - Attracting Wildlife To Your Garden by Michael Chinery

hints and tips on what to do, what to plant, etc.

Buddleia is good for butterflies but not a native plant and can be quite invasive. Honeysuckle would be a better bet if you can.
Sage, lavender, verbena, thyme will all attract bees and butterflies.

like that but definitely silvery green leaves rather than dark. maybe a variety?

Maybe, you can have a look on google images and see if you can find it.

My cotoneaster is v popular as are the cornflower and delphiniums. We got rid of a buddleia this year as it was taking over the garden (not a large garden!) and I felt a bit guilty about that, but I've put in a couple of honeysuckles and a jasmine to assuage my conscience

Oh lovely, thank you all.

Can all these plants cope with being on the coast? We are on the top of a cliff and get some sea spray.

In my garden lavender, wallflowers (butterflies, particularly swallowtails), coreopsis, lamb's ears (counted 10 bumblebees on one plant!), clary sage (carpenter bees) are always, always covered in bees and butterflies. Madonna lilies are the favourites of rose chafers, as are cardoons.

I have 3 large areas with lavender, and I would never, ever have a garden without. They are teeming with insects for the whole of june.

Oh, and campanula too. I have loads of the creeping variety and the flowers are such a pretty blue. The bees go mad for them.....as they do for borage (with the added bonus that you can freeze the flowers in ice cubes for your g & t, or add them to Pimms )

oh yes..borage good, in fact bees seem to love any blue/purple flowers

nastursiums also good for bees, hyssop, the flowers on fennel, Erigeron 'fleabane'

this was one of my sunflowers last year- we counted 25 bees on it one morning

budelia can take over but to be fair to them you can literally just break off branches all year long if they're growing where you don't want them. so as long as you're willing to brutal they'll withstand it. i've filled my brown bin with branches twice already this year and it responds really well as in you can guide which way you want it to grow so long as you fight back i like hardy plants.

Thanks all, this is brilliant. I also have one spot that will be more shaded than the rest of the garden. Do you have any recommendations? I was considering some ferns. I would also like a climber - my mum loves clematis but I don't know whether it will work in a more shady area.

Hostas, begonias, aquilegia, astilbes, hellebores and hydrangeas are all supposed to do well in shade. Maybe some clematis? - I always read read the labels!

We get absolutely loads of butterflies on our buddleia.

Verbena bonariensis is a bee/butterfly magnet, they also grow like weeds in my garden in Essex. Supposed to be tender plants but mine have lasted 3 years, also loads of self sown seedlings every year.

what about some redcurrants for the shady area (they dont like very very dry though) They can be a bit floppy but they provide early insect pollination followed by yummy currants and if you dont eat them the birds will.

Lots of ideas for attracting wildlife up thread, but to help with your shady patch: Hydrangeas can do well in shade. And they I have seen them in a lot of gardens on the Isle of Wight so should cope in your garden. Clematis can be fine in shade, depending which you choose. Clematis Armandii is a popular choice for shade and has lovely fragrant white flowers in late winter / early spring. And foxgloves are brilliant! They thrive in shade AND attract bees. White ones seem to glow in really shady areas. They take 2 years to flower though, and may need replacing if they decide not to self seed. I try to remember to plant one or two each year in my shadiest corner to keep up the supply.

I love foxgloves. Are they poisonous? I have tiny (not very sensible) children.

foxgloves are glorious but all parts very poisonous

Buddlea for butterflies - you can get white ones and some lovely dark blues and burgundies. It grows well on clay soil.

And I second fox gloves for bees!

I did a post about this last year - all of the following work well for me to attract the bees

Calendula

Lavender

Lavatera

Catmint (Nepeta)

Chives

Rosemary

Thyme

Poppies

Foxgloves

Honeysuckle

Everlasting Sweet Pea

Lilac

Apple Tree Blossom

Scabious

Aster

Echinacea

kidsinthegarden.co.uk/10-simple-steps-to-creating-a-bee-friendly-garden/

Ah lovely.

ah i guess my apple tree might be part of the attraction then. i have an ancient but still very fruitful bramley at the end of the garden.

whilst there are garden clever people in the house how poisonous is labernum? (sp sorry) my son is now 7 so beyond the eating things off the floor randomly stage and my dogs don't seem to go for dodgy things. would be ok wouldn't it?

Hmmmm Bramleys. Drool. They don't exist in Australian shops. Granny Smiths have to do.

As for laburnums, they're OK. As long as kids are told never to eat anything from the garden, they'll be OK. No deaths from laburnum have been reported in over a century.

We have an apple tree (miniature one) in the front garden.

Thanks all very much. I'm planning on getting a clematis, a couple of hydrangeas (the incrediball and the oak leaf), some foxgloves and some sunflowers (for the kids). I'm also planning to get some roses (just because I love them).