Pollinating insects are in decline, but there are plenty of flowering plants to help them. Increasing flowering plants in our gardens can also improve fruit and vegetables: with more pollinating insects around, harvests will be bigger and better.

The plants included below provide a succession of pollen and nectar for insects across the growing season.

The rose and geranium provide some groundcover and will help prevent erosion of bare soil. Groundcover can also help to reduce moisture evaporation from the soil surface and suppress weed growth. Additional organic mulching can further improve soil moisture retention and weed suppression.

1 - Lonicera × purpusii 'Winter Beauty' 

2 - Hydrangea paniculata ‘Big Ben’

3 - Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna 'Purple Stem' 

4 - Skimmia japonica 'Fragrans’ 

5 - Geranium macrorrhizum ‘White-Ness’

2 - Hydrangea paniculata ‘Big Ben’ is an upright, slightly spreading deciduous shrub with light green leaves and reddish-purple young stems that turn brown as they age. The summer flowers have a distinctive tapered conical shape, opening pale green, changing to greenish-white then maturing to deep pink. This cultivar is very floriferous and strongly scented.

3 - Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna 'Purple Stem' is small evergreen shrub, growing to around 75cm with narrow lanceolate leaves held alternately on purple stems. Small, delicate and muskily-scented light red and white flowers are borne in the leaf axils in winter.

4 - Skimmia japonica 'Fragrans’ is a small, bushy evergreen shrub, growing to around 1m forming a low dome with aromatic, dark green, obovate leaves to 10cm in length. Dense clusters of small, fragrant white male flowers appear in the spring.

5 - Geranium macrorrhizum ‘White-Ness’ is a robust evergreen perennial with pale green lobed leaves and profusions of small, pure white flowers in summer.