Many many years ago we tried to dig out and plant a wildflower herb garden for pollinators at the entrance to our work campus.
It failed. The soil is terrible, we weren't given time to maintain it, and anything we have tried to plant in it recently has died, with two main exceptions.
One is a rather nice smelling sage plant. The other is a rampant curry plant, that is currently in full flower with its little bright yellow flowers, and also smells - to my poor nose - awful, especially in hot weather.
Plants are not supposed to smell like curry! It's just plain wrong.
It does attract pollinators, but more flies, than bees and butterflies. However, today, it did have some very fast moving tiny bees that never settled, and I captured entirely by accident on the wing. A possible clover blunthorn bee, a species utterly unknown to me until today. I'm going on the pale patch on the face, and, er, what iNaturalist says.
Most of the other denizens are beetles, hoverflies. flies and various less glamorous, but still important, little pollinators.
They all have their uses.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.06.25
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