on the umbels, as I discovered this year, letting a couple of parsnips and/or celeriac stay in for flowering the next year produces tonnes of flowers the pollinators love... and so many hoverflies! (Fantastic predators to attract to your garden.)
I put in snowdrops and early crocus to attract in and give the pollinators something in the very early months of the year. They establish and "naturalise" nicely in a sheltered spot.
Flowering perennials like the aforementioned achillea are a fantastic maintenance way to go (achillea can be a bit of a space & self-seeding thug, but is controllable, and worth it IMO), I also love echinops and perennial foxgloves for this. They just do their thing with no effort from me beyond planting them.
They're huge and also a bit thuggish, but cardoons are also fantastic - super structural, and they really stand out with their glaucous look ... bumblebees adore them.
I need to get more flowering alliums in.
Yvan
npub13t…72ksn
2026-08-23 13:32:41 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…5ps7
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npub13t8xasqr2n9ke0py3dj6gcxxmt9gcd0p85392z38lhahgd2nh5kqw72ksnPublished at
2026-08-23 13:32:41 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "on the umbels, as I discovered this year, letting a couple of parsnips and/or celeriac stay in for flowering the next year produces tonnes of flowers the pollinators love... and so many hoverflies! (Fantastic predators to attract to your garden.)\n\nI put in snowdrops and early crocus to attract in and give the pollinators something in the very early months of the year. They establish and \"naturalise\" nicely in a sheltered spot.\n\nFlowering perennials like the aforementioned achillea are a fantastic maintenance way to go (achillea can be a bit of a space \u0026 self-seeding thug, but is controllable, and worth it IMO), I also love echinops and perennial foxgloves for this. They just do their thing with no effort from me beyond planting them.\n\nThey're huge and also a bit thuggish, but cardoons are also fantastic - super structural, and they really stand out with their glaucous look ... bumblebees adore them.\n\nI need to get more flowering alliums in.",
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