A study revealed that most of the garden centers recommended flowers can't attract insect pollinators. Notably, the majority of the insect-friendly flowers and plants don't belong to the recommended list.
Many publicity already surfaced that requested the gardeners to grow the flowers that can attract the butterflies and the bees. But, the question is whether this actually brings any fruitful result or not. Some of the garden flowers even advertised as the bee-friendly. But a recent research study suggests that the major portion of these flowers is useless to attract the insect pollinators.
Most of the times it is assumed that a beautiful and big flower to the human eyes should be attractive to the bees. In a word, these flowers can attract many flower-visiting insects like butterflies. But, a research study at the famous University of Sussex thoroughly studied several varieties of garden plants with flowers that were marketed as the bee-friendly.
Interestingly, the researchers had a surprising conclusion regarding the number of visits by the insects. The majority of the flowers in the gardens, parks, and garden centers had a very low number of visits from several pollinating insects that include bees. The Royal Horticultural Society even endorsed some flowers as bee-friendly, though they brought no fruitful outcome.
According to The Guardian, some best bee-friendly flowers come from the popular Lamiaceae family. Some others include lavender, thyme, Russian sage that have aromatic leaves. Another very important plant that attracts insects is Agastache that contains small flowers. Apart from these the list of the flowers that are butterfly-friendly includes lavender, Michaelmas daisy, and buddleia.
Marjoram was considered as the best garden flower that could attract insects. Insects get attracted to the clusters of these pinky-white flowers that are rich in nectar. One of the best parts of this plant is the leaves that contain very strong fragrance. The wild marjoram is the aromatic herb frequently used for cooking.