So many great tips. Thank you all so much. This morning I remembered that there is a small privately owned garden centre in walking distance from me. They're also wild life garden specialists and offer varieties that I can't find anywhere else. So I will pay them a visit on a nice day. The place is so beautiful to look at and even though I am not sure if they sell online or via telephone, I thought I'd just post up the link here as there are some beautiful photos to look at.
The more I read in this forum, the more ideas I develope. I envisage my garden quite Gothic. With gargoyles rather than gnomes . It's a bit daunting to start on a blank canvas and I'm not so great at planning and imagining the end result. So I think I will start pretty random and then see what I do next. As long I keep focused on attracting bees, beautiflies and birds I'm happy
I am seeing a good number of bees on my spring flowering heathers. ( I put each plant in a large hole filled with ericaceous compost to get them off to a good start as I don't have the right sort of soil in my garden.) Mags
Novice flower gardener here so i could be wrong but this is what i have done and i'm now waiting to see if my choices have been well made:
end of last year i bought about 300 bulbs, most of which i chose as they encourage wildlife and flower at different times and at different heights and are different colours, bees love Alliums - i got Drumsticks and purple sensation (i think), as well as Tulips, Daffodils, snow drops, iris, crocus, de caen anenomes, mixed sparaxis, gladiolas, Some kind of lily, most of these are attractive to butterflies and bees, I also buy a wildfloer seed mix and put that under one of my trees. The Honey suckle is always a big hit with all insects, as well as the Foxgloves that grow in my garden.
I am trying to have as many flowers flowering as far throught the year as i can, i also try and have a insect house near by for those lonely bees in need of a shelter. I'm next buying a ladybird house to stick under my Sambucus Nigra "Black Beauty" as it gets horded with Aphids so hoping to encourage more ladybirds to deal with the problem naturally. It also has loads of small bunched pink flowers on it that lasts for quite some time.
The Geranium i have in the garden "Purple Cranesbill" has always been covered in bees and wasps etc. My roses are seen to by them as well, but at the moment arn't as bushy as i'd like so only have a couple of flowers on them. My Fushia bush too is favoured by the bees, and grows wild - So i'm trying to train it up to save space in my small garden, easier said than done....So they will love yours.
When I was a kid a neighbour had these in her garden and they were always buzzing with butterflies. I don't know what they're called in English. I only know them as "Bartnelken"
Let us know if you experience an increase in butterflies, please, nutcutlet. I remember the ones in our neighbour's garden were absolutely humming with butterflies. It was quite an amazing sight. Last year I only saw two butterflies in my area. I'm also looking into something that could help them breeding. I'll be going to my local garden centre next week (link is above) and ask for their wildlife expert advice on that subject.
One of the best flowers I know for butterflies is Sedum spectabile aka Ice plant. On sunny days in the late summer and autumn it will be covered with butterflies and bees.
“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh
My planting is mostly bee and butterfly attractors. A lot of natives for the larva food source. I grow them to counterbalance all the plantings by those who want the butterflies but not the larvae
Posts
So many great tips. Thank you all so much. This morning I remembered that there is a small privately owned garden centre in walking distance from me. They're also wild life garden specialists and offer varieties that I can't find anywhere else. So I will pay them a visit on a nice day. The place is so beautiful to look at and even though I am not sure if they sell online or via telephone, I thought I'd just post up the link here as there are some beautiful photos to look at.
http://cottage-garden-nursery.co.uk/
The more I read in this forum, the more ideas I develope. I envisage my garden quite Gothic. With gargoyles rather than gnomes
. It's a bit daunting to start on a blank canvas and I'm not so great at planning and imagining the end result. So I think I will start pretty random and then see what I do next. As long I keep focused on attracting bees, beautiflies and birds I'm happy 
I am seeing a good number of bees on my spring flowering heathers. ( I put each plant in a large hole filled with ericaceous compost to get them off to a good start as I don't have the right sort of soil in my garden.) Mags
Novice flower gardener here so i could be wrong but this is what i have done and i'm now waiting to see if my choices have been well made:
end of last year i bought about 300 bulbs, most of which i chose as they encourage wildlife and flower at different times and at different heights and are different colours, bees love Alliums - i got Drumsticks and purple sensation (i think), as well as Tulips, Daffodils, snow drops, iris, crocus, de caen anenomes, mixed sparaxis, gladiolas, Some kind of lily, most of these are attractive to butterflies and bees, I also buy a wildfloer seed mix and put that under one of my trees. The Honey suckle is always a big hit with all insects, as well as the Foxgloves that grow in my garden.
I am trying to have as many flowers flowering as far throught the year as i can, i also try and have a insect house near by for those lonely bees in need of a shelter. I'm next buying a ladybird house to stick under my Sambucus Nigra "Black Beauty" as it gets horded with Aphids so hoping to encourage more ladybirds to deal with the problem naturally. It also has loads of small bunched pink flowers on it that lasts for quite some time.
The Geranium i have in the garden "Purple Cranesbill" has always been covered in bees and wasps etc. My roses are seen to by them as well, but at the moment arn't as bushy as i'd like so only have a couple of flowers on them. My Fushia bush too is favoured by the bees, and grows wild - So i'm trying to train it up to save space in my small garden, easier said than done....So they will love yours.
Hope this helps
When I was a kid a neighbour had these in her garden and they were always buzzing with butterflies. I don't know what they're called in English. I only know them as "Bartnelken"
Dianthus barbatus Wk, aka Sweet Williams
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks nutcutlet. At least I now know what to ask for rather than explaining the flower.
I've got some of those waiting to go out. Haven't grown them for years. I got them through the forum seed swap.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Let us know if you experience an increase in butterflies, please, nutcutlet. I remember the ones in our neighbour's garden were absolutely humming with butterflies. It was quite an amazing sight. Last year I only saw two butterflies in my area. I'm also looking into something that could help them breeding. I'll be going to my local garden centre next week (link is above) and ask for their wildlife expert advice on that subject.
One of the best flowers I know for butterflies is Sedum spectabile aka Ice plant. On sunny days in the late summer and autumn it will be covered with butterflies and bees.
I'll keep an eye on them Wk.
My planting is mostly bee and butterfly attractors. A lot of natives for the larva food source. I grow them to counterbalance all the plantings by those who want the butterflies but not the larvae
In the sticks near Peterborough