Lesson 2
The nectar calendar and strategic planting
The worst thing a gardener does to pollinators is create a June boom and a March famine. Your garden might blaze with roses and foxgloves in midsummer, but if you have nothing blooming when the first bumblebee queens emerge in February, they starve before they can nest. The nectar calendar is about continuity, not abundance. One crocus in March is worth more than fifty dahlias in August.
February to April needs bulbs and early perennials. Crocus tommasinianus, winter aconite, pulmonaria, rosemary if your site is mild. Bumblebees will work these in temperatures as low as 6°C. May and June are easy — everything blooms. July is fine. August starts to thin. By September you need deliberate late flowers: sedums, asters, verbena bonariensis, single dahlias, ivy if you let it flower. October ivy blossom feeds the last hoverflies and the hibernating queen wasps that will eat your caterpillars next spring.
The useful technique is staggered sowing and successional flowering. Plant three pulmonarias with slightly different bloom times. Sow phacelia every three weeks from April to July. Let your salad bolts run to flower — rocket and mizuna are loved by hoverflies, and you lose nothing by letting six plants stand. Every gap you fill is a population you can hold through lean weeks.
Month-by-month essentials
- Feb–Mar: Crocus tommasinianus, hellebore, winter aconite
- Apr–May: Pulmonaria, apple blossom, wallflower, forget-me-not
- Jun–Jul: Borage, phacelia, single roses, catmint, lavender
- Aug–Sep: Sedum spectabile, verbena bonariensis, single dahlias
- Oct–Nov: Ivy, Aster novae-angliae, Limnanthes if resown
Planting a reliable nectar border
- 1.Choose a sunny spot — most nectar plants need 6+ hours of direct sun.
- 2.Prepare soil with compost but no fertiliser — lean soil extends flowering.
- 3.Plant in drifts of 3–5 of one species, not dotted singles.
- 4.Include one early (crocus), one June peak (catmint), one late (sedum).
- 5.Mulch lightly with compost in March but leave bare soil patches for ground-nesting bees.
- 6.Deadhead only after petals drop — let hoverflies have the pollen phase first.
Single flowers always outperform doubles — bees cannot reach nectar through frilly petals.