Pollinator-Friendly Gardening Practices and Plant Diversity

Pollinator-friendly gardening practices encompass a suite of design and management strategies that bolster the diversity, abundance and stability of flower-visiting insects, including bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths. Central to these approaches is the deliberate selection of plant species and cultivars that provide continuous and complementary floral resources—nectar and pollen—throughout the growing season. Incorporating a mix of native and non-native ornamentals can extend bloom periods and fill resource gaps, while structural diversity in planting schemes offers nesting substrates and refuge. Minimising chemical inputs, creating unmown refuges, installing deadwood piles and providing artificial nesting aids further enhance habitat suitability. Contemporary research underscores the critical role of plant–pollinator network architecture in governing ecosystem resilience: gardens that support complex, well-connected networks are more resistant to disturbance. At landscape scales, urban and peri-urban gardens have emerged as vital reservoirs of floral resources, complementing agricultural and semi-natural habitats. These practices have global significance for sustaining pollination services, conserving specialist taxa and contributing to urban biodiversity targets.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Investigations of commercially important herbaceous perennial ornamental cultivars have revealed pronounced differences in their attractiveness to pollinators. Experimental trials across multiple genera demonstrated that planting schemes composed of the most attractive cultivars can quintuple the number of bee species supported and strengthen pollinator network complexity. Analyses of plant–pollinator interactions showed that combining high-performing cultivars with diverse floral phenologies and ample floral area yields more robust and stable ecological communities in urban and garden settings. These findings highlight the importance of cultivar selection, landscape context and temporal resource continuity for reinforcing network stability and supporting specialist pollinators.

Pollinator-Friendly Gardening Practices and Plant Diversity publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in pollinator-friendly gardening practices and plant diversity across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Floral resources: The nectar and pollen provided by flowering plants that serve as food for pollinators.

Floral phenology: The timing and sequence of flowering events within and across plant species.

Plant–pollinator network: The complex web of interactions between plant species and their pollinating insects.

Nestedness: A network property in which specialist species interact with subsets of the partners of generalist species.

Cultivar: A plant variety produced and maintained through cultivation for specific horticultural traits.

References

1. From cities to refuges for pollinators: Urban practices for enhancing pollinator habitats in changing landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology (2025).
2. Herbaceous perennial ornamental plants can support complex pollinator communities. Scientific Reports (2021).
3. Exotic garden plants partly substitute for native plants as resources for pollinators when native plants become seasonally scarce. Oecologia (2020).
4. Native and exotic plants play different roles in urban pollination networks across seasons. Oecologia (2023).
5. Quantifying nectar production by flowering plants in urban and rural landscapes. Journal of Ecology (2021).