Set up a nectar café | Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

Invite a cloud of beautiful insects into your gardens by providing a source of nectar

Many of our prettiest insects are nectar feeders that need flowers for their survival. Butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies all need sources of nectar and pollen to thrive. As they travel from flower to flower they also pollinate them and enable them to set seed or bear fruit.

Setting up a nectar café is of benefit to your plants as well as allowing you to enjoy the flitting of beautiful butterflies from the comfort of your garden!

Know your soil

When planting an area for wildlife, it is important to know your soil type. Not all the plants listed below will be suitable for all soil types, and may not grow properly or die completely.

pH test

A simple test to find out if your soil is acid, alkaline or neutral can be carried out using a soil testing kit from your local garden centre, which uses colour as an indicator.

The solution will turn yellow-orange for acid soil, green for neutral and dark green for alkaline soil. Most plants prefer a pH of 6.5 to 7 – the point where nutrients are most easily available.

Water retention

Clay and peat soils hold water better than sandy and chalk soils. This test will show if your soil will become waterlogged in wet weather, or dry out quickly in summer.

To test the water retention of your soil:

Fold a piece of kitchen paper into a funnel and place in a jar, then fill a small measuring jug with a recorded amount of water. Place a tablespoon of your dry soil in the funnel and add water to the centre of the soil. Stop adding water when the first drop falls into jar, noting how much water you have added. Wait until soil has drained. Measure the volume of drained water: if over half of the added water is recovered, your soil is well drained.

Designing your nectar café

Choose a sheltered sunny spot
Place each plant in groups or drifts so that the colour and scent are easy to detect
Prolong the flowering season – select plants so that you have a show of flowers from early spring to late autumn
Flowers with a simple (often flat) structure, like old cottage varieties, are easiest for insects to feed from
Remember to provide a night-time feast for moths; plant some night-scented flowers
Many herbs are highly attractive to insects, so add them into the mix, or design a dedicated herb garden

Planting your nectar café

Take a look at our suggestions for plants and flowers through the seasons, or take a look at the RHS 'Plants for Pollinators' download below.

RHS Plants for Pollinators

Plants by season

Choose a mixture of seasonal flowering plants, shrubs and trees to ensure a year round food source in your garden.

Early season

Aubaretia
English bluebell
Flowering currant
Grape hyacinth
Lungwort
Primrose
Sweet violet
Winter aconite
Wood anemone
Yellow alyssum

Mid season

Buddleia
Heather
Lady’s bedstraw
Lavender
Mallow
Purple toadflax
Rock cress
Sea holly
Verbena
Wallflower

Late season

Coneflower
French marigold
Golden rod
Honeysuckle
Ice plant
Ivy
Meadow saffron
Michaelmas daisies
Perennial sunflower
Red valerian

Plants for butterflies

Growing host plants in the garden is not necessarily guaranteed to attract the relevant butterflies, but it's worth experimenting to see which species find your garden most suitable.

Breeding butterfly host plants

Species	Host plant
Comma	Common nettle, hop, currant, gooseberry
Common blue	Common bird’s foot trefoil, other small legumes
Dingy skipper	Common bird’s foot trefoil, horseshoe vetch
Green-veined white	Cabbage family, cuckoo flower, charlock, nasturtium
Holly blue	Holly, ivy
Large skipper	Cock’s foot, false brome
Large white	Cabbage family, nasturtium, wild mignonette
Meadow brown	Grasses: Fescue species, meadow-grass, bents
Orange tip	Cuckoo flower, garlic mustard
Painted lady	Thistles, common nettle
Peacock	Common nettle
Red admiral	Common nettle
Ringlet Cock’s foot	False brome, tufted hair-grass, common couch
Small copper	Common sorrel, sheep’s sorrel
Small skipper	Yorkshire fog
Small tortoiseshell	Common nettle
Small white	Cabbage family, nasturtium, hedge mustard, garlic mustard
Wall	False brome, cock’s foot, Yorkshire fog, wavy hair grass

More actions for wildlife

There's lots of small things you can do in your garden, courtyard of windowsill that will benefit wildlife. Take a look at some simple ideas below to see how you can take action for wildlife.