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Butterfly nectar plants
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Some useful nectar plants for the garden:

Buddleias - the most popular Butterfly bush. Favoured by Red Admirals, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshell, Commas, Brimstones and Whites.
At their best from mid-July to mid August.

Cat-mint such as 'Six Hills Giant'. Small Tortoiseshell etc. June and July. Much favoured by Bees.

Asters - there are many kinds and the Michaelmas Daisies can be visited by the usual garden butterflies especially in an 'Indian Summer' of warm days in early autumn.

Aubretia - handy for the early part of the season. Visitors include Orange Tips.

Holly - Flowers in late May. Favoured by Holly Blues and Bees.

Pretty well any composite with flowers looking like Thistles.

Privet - as long as it is not prevented from flowering by clipping. Wild Privet for mid to late June flowering, garden Privet flowers about 2 weeks later for the first half of July.

Some useful nectar plants for meadows and wild places:

Dead Nettle. Free flowering in grassland. Can appear where Common Nettle has dwindled as soil fertility leaches away.

Ground Ivy. Common, low growing plant flowering in spring, often at the bottom of hedges.

Ladies Smock, a common plant of damp grassland. Visited by Orange Tips (it is one of their food plants).

Garlic Mustard, common beside hedges and under light shade, as at the Balsham end of Fleam Dyke. Another early flowering crucifer visited by Orange Tips and Green Veined whites.

Creeping Thistle in early to mid July - good in permanent pasture of low fertility. Visited by Brown Argus, Common Blues, Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Skippers, Small Coppers, White-letter Hairstreaks.

Dandelions are much visited by Brimstones in the spring.

Knapweed - as for Creeping Thistle but starts and finishes a few weeks later.

Brambles - much favoured by Skippers, also by Holly Blues. Flowering in June and July.

Buckthorn. Planted in groups in open spaces as a food plant for Brimstone larvae, but also in mid June a superb nectar plant visited by Bumble and Honey Bees and many other insects.

Water Mint - starts to flower as the Thistles finish, and carries on until early autumn. Needs damp ground. Visited by Brimstones, Brown Argus, Commas, Common Blues, Gatekeepers, Holly Blues, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Skippers, Small Coppers, Speckled Woods, White-letter Hairstreaks, Whites.

Self Heal. Good for most butterflies including Meadow Browns and Small Tortoiseshells. Also good in lawns, flowers for most of the summer.

Sallow. Flowers in from spring into early summer.

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31 Mar 2013