Bee and Butterfly Friendly Plants

How to choose plants that pollinators actually visit

Not every flower feeds a bee. Heavily bred double blooms often hide their nectar behind extra petals, so the workhorses of a pollinator garden are simple, open flowers backed by nectar rich natives. Plan a relay rather than one big spring flush: French Lavender (Lavandula dentata) flowers most of the year in mild climates, crepe myrtles own high summer from December to March, and banksias carry nectar into the cooler months when little else is open.

Then think in layers. Groundcovers such as native violet and seaside daisy feed insects at ankle height, shrubs like westringia, murraya and rosemary hold the middle storey, and one flowering tree outweighs a whole bed of perennials: a mature Coast Banksia (Banksia integrifolia) or Ivory Curl Tree carries many thousands of flowers at once. Many of the best performers here double as fragrant plants, murraya and star jasmine among them, so the garden works on the nose as well.

Accept one honest trade off before you buy: a pollinator garden is never perfectly tidy. Seaside daisy self seeds, Brisbane Golden Wattle races up but lives only 15 to 20 years, and any hedge clipped hard every few weeks barely flowers at all. Decide where you can let things loosen up.

Where bee and butterfly friendly plants work hardest

Put them where the pollination pays: beside vegetable beds and under fruit trees, where better fruit set is the immediate reward, and along paths and borders where you will actually see the traffic. In tropical and subtropical gardens, Golden Penda, Ivory Curl Tree, murraya and Lemon Scented Myrtle flower generously in the warmth, though Golden Penda is frost tender and stays north. In cooler southern gardens, lean on the frost hardy core: Coast Banksia, Brisbane Golden Wattle, westringia, Snowstorm Melaleuca, liriope and seaside daisy all cope with frost, and star jasmine climbs through every zone. In dry inland and Mediterranean gardens around Adelaide and Perth, lavender, rosemary and westringia deliver nectar on very little summer water.

Planting and spacing for a pollinator border

Plant in drifts of three to five of one species rather than singles. Bees tend to work one flower type at a time, so a block of a single plant gets visited far more than a scatter of everything.

• Low flowering hedges. French Lavender and Tuscan Blue rosemary at 60cm apart, Westringia 'Zena' at 600mm.
• Borders and edges. Liriope 'Evergreen Giant' at 40cm centres, seaside daisy at 40cm in full sun.
• Groundcover. Native violet at 300mm spacings in moist shade, with edible flowers as a bonus.
• Flowering screens. Murraya and Snowstorm Melaleuca at 1m apart, Brisbane Golden Wattle at 2m for fast cover, and Star Jasmine at 1m spacings along a fence.
• Trees. Ivory Curl Tree at 3m spacings for an avenue; give a Coast Banksia room for a 5m spread.

Most bee and butterfly friendly plants want six hours of sun, deep watering twice a week through the first summer and 75mm of mulch. Leave one sunny patch of bare, undisturbed soil somewhere out of the way, because most Australian native bees nest in the ground, not in hives.

Care that keeps the nectar flowing

The single biggest favour you can do pollinators is putting the sprays away. Systemic insecticides move into nectar and pollen and undo everything the flowers achieve, so spot treat pests with horticultural oil, never spray anything that is in flower, and accept a few chewed leaves as the price of butterflies, since caterpillars have to eat something. Trim flowering shrubs lightly after each flush rather than clipping hard on a schedule, feed natives with a low phosphorus native fertiliser in spring, and set out a shallow dish of water with a few pebbles for bees to land on in summer.

Common questions

Which plants flower for the longest?

French Lavender is the standout, flowering most of the year in mild climates, and crepe myrtles hold their colour from December to March. Add banksias and wattles for the cooler months and the calendar is close to covered.

Do I need Australian natives to help native bees?

A mixed garden serves the widest range. Australia has well over a thousand native bee species and many forage happily on lavender and rosemary, but the Australian native range offers the flower shapes and flowering times local species evolved with.

Will these plants bring bees too close to the pool or back door?

Bees working flowers are foraging, not defending a hive, and stings in the open garden are rare. If you want a buffer, plant the heaviest bee magnets such as lavender and citrus away from doorways and the pool edge.

Do the same plants attract birds?

Often, and the overlap is worth using. Coast Banksia, wattles and melaleucas feed honeyeaters as well as insects, and our bird attracting plants collection picks up where the pollinator list ends.

How does delivery work?

Everything here is delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95 and no minimum order. Advanced and large stock is freighted at cost, and every plant carries our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.