The Royal Horticultural Society has recently published a list of plants that attract and support pollinating insects, so important when you consider planting schemes for landscaping around barren expanses of tarmac, concrete and cladding on projects. Not only does careful choice of local / native species improve your “credit rating” under BREEAM LE5, but deliberately including ones good for pollinating insects also attracts birds, as well as providing a haven for the insects themselves.
The RHS list can be found at:
A small selection of my own personal favourite “wildlife” trees, shrubs and hardy perennials includes:
Berberis darwinii (Shrub) – Not native, but a prolific flowerer, but also devilishly spiny, so good for secure areas where you don’t want people pushing through.
Buddleja davidii (Shrub) – The common “butterfly bush”. Is this a native now? I think it probably is as it’s so widespread.
Hebe species (Shrub) – Not native, but such prolific flowerers. Pick those with small leaves – they have an “alpine” heritage and are hardy even in winters such as the one we’ve just had. (Large leaved ones have a “maritime” ancestry, and need a milder climate). Masses of flowers and buzzing with insects in early summer.
Mentha aquatica (Hardy perennial) – Water mint. Excellent for damp meadows and margins of SuDS schemes.
Primula vulgaris (Hardy perennial) – The common primrose. How could you not include these in grassed areas? And oddly, although rabbits relish “commercial” coloured primulas, they seem to leave the native yellow ones alone.
Polemonium caeruleum (Hardy perennial) – Jacob’s ladder. I used to come across this while walking, growing wild on the limestone cliffs in deep valleys in Derbyshire. Not a plant for acid soils, but worth the effort to find a spot to feature it, if only for its spikes of blue flowers.
Rosmarinus officinalis (Shrub) – Rosemary. Not only a prolific flowerer with both blue and white forms, but an edible herb as well!
Sorbus aria (Tree) – The native whitebeam. “Lutescens” has deep purple shoots contrasting with silvery unfolding leaves in May, as well as having a dense oval shape.
Sorbus aucuparia (Tree) – The mountain ash or rowan. Dense inflorescences of woolly stems followed by clusters of berries in August, quickly stripped by mistle-thrushes, blackbirds and starlings.
Tilia cordata (Tree) – The small-leaved lime. Short dense bunches of flowers in early July. Good for long-term structure planting especially on alkaline soils but will grow to about 30m.
Verbascum thapsus
Viburnum opulus (Shrub) – The Guelder Rose. A deciduous shrub to about 4m that prefers damper places. Masses of shiny red berries after umbel-like clusters of flowers from May onwards.
And, of course, all the usual suspects – ivys, blackberries, teasels - and field poppies, scabious, ragged robin – lots of others suitable to create native “meadow” plantings for grassy areas to attract wildlife. (And you can always sell this idea to the client by pointing out that as it’s not designed to regularly mown, it keeps the maintenance costs down too!)
