attracting bees and butterflies

[DragonFlyx]

My daughter loves bees.. and I love butterflies. They always remind me of my late dad. What can we do or plant to attract them? we have lavender, a number of different plants and fruit/veg growing but we don't seem to have many come to the garden! Tips greatly appreciated :)

Buddleia is always popular with butterflies. You can get smaller ones to grow in pots if you haven't got space for a large shrub. Ice plant, geranium, foxgloves, oregano, chives, echinacea, borage are all good. Also if you let some clover grow in your lawn and don't cut it too short, the bees go crazy for that. Adding a bug box will help too.

If you buy plants, try not to pick ones that are 'hybrids' - many of them are sterile so they don't have nectar. Also many modern versions of plants have been bred to be doubles - ie they have twice as many petals as the original or wild version - and insects can't get into them so they don't bother.

this includes lots of garden centre bedding and annual plants (the ones sold in polystyrene trays for instant colour).

As a rough and ready guide, any plants that you can grow from seed are probably not hybrids. So if you buy seeds, the bees and butterflies will probably love the results. Try poppies and daisy shaped flowers or pin-cushion shaped flowers (like scabious, knautia).

Bees go made for nectaroscordum,a summer flowering bulb,also purple salvias( herb.perennial types),rudbeckias,esp.green wizard.
Try to work it that there's always something in flower,good idea about the lawn clover too.

caterpillars like nettles. I keep a nettle patch!

Alliums always seem to have bees swarming over them. Also foxgloves and snapdragons

Buddleia gets covered in bees and butterflies.