Native Wildflowers - beneficial to vegetable plants and wildlife

[Samuel1988]

Evening,

I was just wondering if any of you know of any native beneficial wild flower plants which make good vegetable companion plants and are beneficial to our native wildlife? Added bonus for any species which may be impressive to young children!

If you do I would be interested to know how each species is beneficial (attract pollinators/repel pests etc) to have in my vegetable garden so I can make a note of this when I plan my vegetable garden.

Thank you for your time and help,


Samuel

[veggiechicken]

You'll find some information here Plants for pollinators / RHS Gardening with downloadable lists of suitable plants.

[Two_Sheds]

Don't restrict yourself to native plants.

Lots of imported ones are supremely good for our insects. My hoverflies LOVE Stargazer lily (Californian)

[Leif]

Mallow, sweet pea, corn chamomile, fleabane, lavender, teasel and rosemary are very good for attracting insects. In fact any wildflower should be good, although you need to be careful as some such as teasel can be a pain i.e. invasive. I suggest you visit a nature reserve in late spring and summer, and you'll get a good idea of which plants attract insects.

[Verinda]

Plant rosmary with your cabbages as it's supposed to repell cabbage fly, I'm going try that this year.

[rustylady]

Plant rosmary with your cabbages as it's supposed to repell cabbage fly, I'm going try that this year.

Never heard of that one Verinda.

[Madasafish]

I plant borage and phacelia - lots of flowers and bees love them. Also I heartily recommend papaver somniferum -opium poppies- . Great displays and a massive source of pollen.

A perennial poppy is also as good..

[Verinda]

Allow some radishes to go to seed, the flowers are hugely popular with the wildlife, very pretty too.

[Verinda]

Never heard of that one Verinda.

New to me too, but I'm willing to give it a go!

[Two_Sheds]

Plant rosmary with your cabbages as it's supposed to repell cabbage fly,

Can you provide a link please?

[bearded bloke]

As Cabbage & Broccoli are the same family see under Broccoli here TS ....... Companion Planting - Vegetable Gardening Plant Companions and Combining

[Two_Sheds]

I wanted some scientific-type "evidence" that rosemary repels the cabbage root fly, really.

All I could find was hearsay aka old wives' tale:

"Rosemary and members of the onion family - garlic, shallots and chives - are useful in deterring the carrot fly" I've tried this repeatedly, and found onion family to be utterly useless against carrot root fly
EarthWood - Companion Planting Guide

Broad beans and the dwarf and climbing peas do not flourish next to onions" well I grow them all close to each other, and they do fine

[Aberdeenplotter]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I agree. Rosemary US. Onions v carrot fly only one winner and it isn't the onion.

Never had any issues with broad beans and peas but I never grow them in succession. That doesn't work for me.

[Verinda]

Hmmm, perhaps I won't bother trying it then! I think horticultural fleece is the best thing for carrot fly. Did you know that carrot flies can smell carrots up to a mile away! Or so my mum used to say.

[hellybore]

Broad beans and the dwarf and climbing peas do not flourish next to onions" well I grow them all close to each other, and they do fine

I read somewhere that beans and peas shouldn't be grown with chives, which is what I'm just about to do - you have put my mind at rest TS!