Dear Matthew,
It is really great that you are doing something for the butterflies and bees.
I too am creating a front garden with pollinators in mind. So far I have put in a Rosa Rugosa hedge to create a windbreak, and used single flowered roses to get the shape of the 4 triangular beds with lots of stuff underplanting them. I hope the bees will like the roses but it is my garden and I like roses!
I use this book to guide me ‘Plants for Bees’ by Kirk & Howes – it is really good but £25 – makes a nice birthday gift. I also consult this website http://www.rosybee.com which is very useful – if you find her research on plants that bees visit it is very interesting, she also supplies mailorder suitable plants.
I am trying to put in things that will flower in Autumn – so Sedum Autumn Joy, late flowering Hebe, single flowered dahlias, mich daisies. And some early flowers like snowdrops but not the doubles. You need to avoid anything that is double flowered as it is too difficult to get the nectar. Most bedding plants that you get in garden centres are useless for insects. Flowers with a nice landing area are good. Bees prefer to feed in the sun, but bumblebees will cope with shade thanks to their more furry bodies. I also found bees love Nepeta – and Summer Magic is good long flowering, and Phacelia is easy as an annual, and much visited. If you need a climber – passionflowers are visited a lot and honeysuckle of course. I have a row of lavender Gigantum on my allotment and it was heaving with bees etc last summer and it has a long flowering season compared to some lavenders, and as someone else has mentioned they don’t seem to go near sweet peas but runner beans seem ok.
I could probably go on quite a long time about this subject but am sure this is quite enough.
