Emily Erickson – Gardening for Pollinators – Using Ecology to guide Plant Selection and Design

Everybody wants to help support pollinators but it is hard to find hard evidence about just what benefits they actually get from which garden flowers; for example are cultivars as good as species, are annuals better than perennials?

Emily is a researcher in the US who studies pollinators and the flowers they feed on – “I’ve spent two years sitting on a bucket watching insects” she says. Amongst a wide range of issues and questions, she looks what floral traits act as cues for pollinators and how these are affected by cultivar selection.

Her account of her meticulous research is fascinating, and important. It’s also rather beautifully illustrated.