Plants

Attracting beneficials

There are many ways we can use plants in the garden to aid in our quest to produce the best vegetables we could possibly eat. By making use of their beneficial qualities, we can improve the soil and plants around them, and hopefully reduce the need for insecticides.

Insectary plants are those plants that have some important interaction with insects, whether it is to attract beneficial insects or to repel pests.

Insectary plants to attract beneficial insects

These plants will attract beneficial insects to the garden. Many adults of beneficial insects either supplement their diet or feed exclusively on nectar and pollen. By growing a range of these plants we can offer a choice to suit many of them and create all-important diversity in the garden.

By incorporating plants which produce nectar in the garden you can attract insect eating birds.

Tips for attracting beneficial insects

Plant attractant plants in rows or islands in the vegetable beds, or even place in pots around the garden, so they are not disturbed when you’re working in the garden bed
Allow crops to flower, especially salad and cabbage plants
Have plants of varying heights to create different habitats - e.g. beetles require cover, taller plants protect hoverflies
Plants with tiny flowers are good as large blooms can overwhelm tiny wasps
Grow green manure crops, such as clover and vetch

Top Picks

These plants listed below are all valuable in the garden when left to flower.

Coriander

Queen Anne’s lace

Bronze fennel

Golden rod

Dwarf cosmos

Bells of Ireland (in the mint family)

Caraway

Chervil

Dill

Fennel

Italian parsley

Full plant list

* Asterisk denotes plants that have both attractant and repellent qualities

Ajuga

Bees / Butterflies / Birds

Alyssum

Hoverflies / Lacewings / Tachinid flies / Tiny parasitic wasps
Alyssum is an exceptional, fast blooming insectary plant that has plentiful small flowers. It is not aggressive so it doesn’t compete with or shade crop plants, and there are no problems with it becoming weedy.

*Amaranthus

Host to predatory ground beetles.

Angelica gigas

Lacewings.

Astragalus

Bees / Butterflies.

Bergamot

Bees.

Broad bean

In addition to the flower, it has nectaries that are very attractive to beneficial insects.

Broccoli flowers

Attracts beneficial insects.

Buckwheat

Hoverflies / Predatory wasps / Pirate bugs / Tachinid flies / Lady beetles'

Buckwheat is particularly useful as it is fast to flower and makes an excellent green manure crop.

Calendula (marigold)

Bees.

Candytuft (Iberis umbellate)

Hoverflies.

Caraway

Hoverflies / Predatory wasps / Robber flies.

*Chamomile

Hoverflies / wasps

Chinese spinach

flowers attract beneficial insects

*Clover

White flowers: Bees.
Red flowers: Bees / Butterflies.

*Coriander

Hoverflies / Lady beetles.
Coriander is one of the most beneficial plants you can use.

*Cosmos bipinnatus

Hoverflies / Lacewings / Parasitic wasps.
Cosmos is part of the daisy or aster family

*Daisy family (Compositae)

Butterflies / Hoverflies / Lacewings / Parasitic wasps- Shasta daisy (white petals, yellow centres) - Minute pirate bugs / Beneficial mites.

The daisy family includes Mugwort, Sagebrush, Wormwood, Tarragon, Southern wood.