Plants for life, Next time you decide to buy plants for the garden, take time out to check whether these will assist the biodiversity of the garden. Try not to get swept away by the bright colours and the fancy flower shapes of the heavily cultivated plant varieties.

Perhaps this is a legacy from the garden competitions that occur all over the UK each year, where bright, big and convoluted usually wins an award. But times are slowly changing and many people are starting to realise that many of these sterile planting schemes are such a waste of valuable space. We all know that flowers are designed to attract insects (and birds and bats), the reward for these animals is the sweet nectar that the plants produce and In return for this food, the flowers are pollinated.

The life of plants is heavily entwined with many insects, and this symbiotic relationship has helped evolution Over millions of years. Many plants have been cultivated for so long that the ability to produce nectar is virtually non existent, or the double flower shape may make it impossible for the insects to reach the nectar, and they can only reproduce with mans assistance.

The bee problems over the last few years have shown us just how important it is to have insects around that can pollinate plants that are our food sources. So is it really wise to give these little critters a hard time by planting the equivalent of plastic flowers over vast tracks of the UK. ?

Planting nectar rich plants will not cost anymore, so all it takes is a bit of thought and a willingness to change, some garden centres are now adding the nectar content to the plant labels. Choosing plants for all the seasons is important, the longer the nectar season the greater the biodiversity.

Without these insects none of us would be here, so just maybe we owe it to them provide habitats and nectar rich flowers in our gardens. A list of suitable high nectar plants will be added in the next few days.

www.acegardenservices.co.uk