Please read the introductory page in the Real Botany of Desire for the background to why I’m listing the observed insect favourite flowers that bloom during this month, and which seem to be the most popular with the groups of insects which frequent our garden. Very few insect friendly flowers are open in December. The Hamamelis cultivars we used to grow when I first wrote these pages in 2012 certainly attracted a few of the flies which might be active on milder days. This is H. ‘Robert’.

If reading the introductory page is a click too far, then briefly, there’s a huge issue with loss of wild flowers as agriculture intensifies and mono-cultures prevail. This impacts on all the insects which rely on flowers as food sources. But all flowers aren’t equal in their appeal to insects, or particular groups of insects, (e.g. honey bees, bumblebees, hover flies, moths, butterflies) and many nursery-bred plants have been designed to be attractive to our senses, not insects. Some flowers are useful as both pollen and nectar sources (P, N) whereas others just seem to provide one of these insect foodstuffs, and I’ll try to include this information with the images. So this simple record is to help gardeners think about this issue, and maybe plant more flowers to help our very diverse native insect groups. I’ve found that many of the best plants seem to be some of our native wildflowers which can in other respects have real garden merit. Equally, there are many plants from the other side of the globe which are preferentially favoured over native flowers at certain times of the year – there is no simple easy guide to their relative appeal. The positive spin-offs from incorporating more insect friendly flowers in our gardens apart from the appeal of seeing the insects themselves will be better pollination of our crops, and more varied wildlife in our gardens, since insects are at the bottom of many animal food chains.

It’s certainly not exhaustive, and if you know other flowers which have equal appeal, which aren’t listed here, do please let me know, and I’ll try them up here as well. This work started a couple of years before my blog began in March 2011, but previous to that I’d produced the UK’s first DVD-ROM guide to Garden Moths ” In A Different Light”. This project attempts to widen that work in a more general way.

Of course in December in a normal year, there are very few insects around other than on the odd rare mild and sunny day. But we still have a few flowers open, and these are the ones which seem to attract what few insects are on the wing.

Finally, as I mention elsewhere, the actual number of flowers of a single plant type growing together, and their position in the garden (e.g. sun or shade), can also impact on how favoured the flowers are by your garden’s insect population – probably because sun and warmth can affect nectar and pollen production and release.

Our first Hamamelis flowers usually open by the end of December, this is H. intermedia ‘Vesna’, and it often seems to have the odd fly around its flowers. These are sufficient to produce viable seeds to be set. I’ve never seen a moth attracted to its flowers though.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’. The flowers of Camellia sasanqua which open in late autumn/early winter clearly have some appeal to our flies, even though the plants originate from SE Asia. Again no other insects have been recorded visiting them. 28/12/11. Sadly all our Hamamelis died of a fungal disease many years ago, and we removed the Camellia sasanqua because of very poor flowering.

In a mild year, there may still be some flowers of the common native Ivy, Hedera helix. If so, they will be a preferred nectar source for any late-season moths, active flies or possibly honey bees. One of the best nectar sources to have in a garden for late in the year.