Pollinator plants that make a border buzz.
A garden alive with bees and butterflies is one of the great joys, and it starts with the right pollinator plants – single, open, nectar-rich flowers arranged for a long, unbroken season of feeding. Beautiful for you, and a lifeline for the insects the whole garden depends on.
First design free · no card needed · UK plants
After
BeforeHow to plant for pollinators
Three rules make a border genuinely good for pollinators. First, choose single, open flowers – blowsy doubles look pretty but bees cannot reach the nectar. Second, aim for a long season, from early bumblebee flowers to late nectar for butterflies stocking up before winter. Third, plant in generous drifts, so foraging insects can move efficiently from flower to flower.
The happy truth is that pollinator-friendly and beautiful are the same thing: the plants that feed bees and butterflies are exactly the colourful, long-flowering perennials that make a border sing.
The best plants for pollinators
Your planting plan lists them in full, with how many to buy and where each goes – so the garden in the picture is one you can actually plant.
Catmint
a haze of nectar-rich blue that bees work all day
Salvias
long-flowering spires adored by bees
Verbena bonariensis
a butterfly magnet on tall, airy stems
Coneflowers
open daisies for bees, then seed heads for the birds
Scabious
pincushion flowers pollinators cannot resist
Lavender
scent, colour and a constant hum of bees
Achillea
flat plates that make perfect landing pads
Single dahlias
open-centred blooms bees can actually reach
Sedum
vital late nectar for butterflies before winter
Foxgloves
early flowers that bumblebees climb right inside
See a pollinator border on your own garden
Upload a photo of your garden and get it back designed as a nectar-rich, pollinator-friendly border – a photorealistic picture, full of colour, keeping your structure as it is.
When you love it, the planting plan names every plant, how many to buy and where each goes, with a flowering calendar so there is nectar on offer all season. Your first design is free.
Good to know.
Everything people ask about pollinator planting.
How does the AI garden design work?
Upload a photo of your garden or a single border, and tell us what you'd like: refresh your borders, keeping your garden's shape, or redesign the whole space with new layout, paths and planting. Pick a style, and we generate a photorealistic redesign of your actual garden. When you love one, unlock its planting plan – every plant, how many to buy, and where each goes.
Are the plants real – can I actually buy and plant them?
Yes. Every design can become a planting plan of real, available UK plants, with quantities, each plant's mature height and spread, where it goes and a month-by-month flowering guide. The plans are built on real horticultural data and shaped by a professional gardener – not generic AI guesses – so the garden in the picture is a garden you can genuinely plant.
Is the first design really free, and what does it cost after?
Your first design is genuinely free, with no card required. After that, subscriptions start at £19 a month. The professional planting plan is a separate one-off you only buy if you want to make a design real.
What flowers are best for bees?
Single, open flowers with accessible nectar – catmint, salvias, lavender, scabious, single dahlias and foxgloves are all superb. Avoid highly-bred double flowers, which often have little or no nectar the bees can reach.
More planting guides.
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