As urban development reduces nature’s footprint, home gardens can step into the gap by providing food, water, and shelter for all forms of insect and small animal life.
The Garden Media Group’s trend report for 2026 notes that gardeners are not just gardening for personal pleasure, but to ‘heal the world.’ Remember the slogan, Think global, act local ?
Gardening for biodiversity and for a healthy environment, ‘offers a way to take tangible visible action,’ says the 2026 trends report.
Pollinators like butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects are most at risk, being vulnerable to garden poisons and low-maintenance landscapes that are devoid of nectar rich flowers.
Planting a pollinator garden or just dedicating a portion of the garden to pollinators, needn’t be complicated, time consuming or expensive. Besides, butterflies are a joy to watch, bringing beauty and grace into the garden while bees add a special energy.
Good to know:
- Many nectar rich flowers are easy to grow, low maintenance perennials that are heat and drought tolerant. Perennials require far less effort than annuals and are ideal for bringing diversity into low maintenance gardens.
- There’s no need to re-do the garden. Introduce plant clumps of flowering perennials into existing sunny beds or spaces.
- You don’t need a huge space. Grow nectar plants in pots, even on a balcony or in a pocket-sized garden.
- Cutting out garden poisons is safer for your family and pets too.
Variety is the spice of life
It has been found that butterflies and bees are more strongly attracted to gardens with a greater diversity of pollen-rich flowers. Blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow flowers are the most attractive to bees and butterflies.
Group the same flowers together, which makes it easier for pollinators to harvest the pollen or nectar, and they use less energy. If space allows, try to plant at least one square meter of the same type of flower together.
What to plant
It is not necessary to just have indigenous plants. There are many non-indigenous plants that are just as nectar rich.
Even if your priority is to have an indigenous garden, it can be an advantage to have a couple exotic plants on the basis of their bee or butterfly attractiveness. The pollinating activity will help the indigenous varieties to thrive.
Artisanal Echinacea
Echinacea purpurea hybrids offer the gardener an array of brightly coloured flowers on compact, well branched plants from summer to autumn.
The Echinacea Artisan Collection comprises strong individual colours, that soften as they age. There is ‘Red Ombre’ (crimson red), ‘Soft Orange’ and ‘Yellow Ombre’.
Echinacea ‘PowWow’ is the most compact Echinacea with white or wild berry (deep rose) flowers and it produces more flowers per plant than other echinacea.
For landscapes and prairie style planting, Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ offers a swathe of colour, with a mix of flowers in different sizes and colours; red, orange, purple, scarlet, cream yellow and white. Plants are somewhat taller and bushier, growing up to 76 cm and 51 cm wide when mature.
Sensational salvia
Salvia are the go-to flower for pollinator gardens, especially perennial salvia with their profusion of flower spikes that attracts butterflies, bees and even nectar seeking birds. They stand strong during periods of intense heat and drought. Even if the leaves wilt after a long dry spell, they quickly revive when watered.
Salvia ‘Salmia’ delivers an impressive performance with endless spikes of large dark purple, pink, or orange red blooms from spring onwards. Plants need only moderate watering and are a good bed filler or as a feature in a large container. For strong growth, cut back in spring, fertilise and water well.
True blues
Perovskia (Russian sage) ‘Bluesette’ carries clouds of small lavender-blue flowers above aromatic, silvery foliage. It sails through the midsummer heat.
Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ or ‘Flutter’ White does best planted in full sun but can take partial shade. Plants can be divided and replanted in fresh soil every 3 years.
Mellow yellows
Rudbeckia ‘Toto’ is a dwarf perennial that attracts bees and butterflies in summer and when flowering is over, the birds go for the seed heads. It is drought tolerant once established.
Coreopsis ‘Uptick’ is a real toughie and has larger than normal flowers for coreopsis with a deep bronze eye. The neat, mounded plants need very little care. Divide after 2 to 3 years
Bracteantha (Straw Flower) ‘Mohave Yellow’ attracts both bees and butterflies. The compact plants look good paired with ornamental grasses, and other spiky, upright growing plants. They need moist soil, but not over-watering and do best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade. For more information: www.ballstraathof.co.za
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