Plant labels and encouraging pollinators

Walking through the garden centre today, I realised that there are lots of logos on the plant labels. This got me wondering what they all meant. I've known about the RHS AGM logo for a while and learnt about the RHS Perfect for Pollinators after watching Sarah Raven's Bees, Butterflies and Blooms on iPlayer. But today I noticed some logos on the plant labels that I hadn't seen before and thought I'd write a quick post about what I found out.

The fine looking logo on the left is from a company called Farplants based in West Sussex and the largest wholesale supplier of outdoor plants  to garden centres in the UK. The logo was introduced in 2010 and while they don't have a list available online, they do point us in the direction of the RHS. More on that below.



The two logos to the left were introduced by Bransford Webbs. The Union flag plant pot logo is to show their pride in plants that have been grown in Britain and it always at the foot of their labels. The Plant for wildlife logo was introduced in October 2011, what I didn't know at the time I took the photo is that on the back of the label Bransford Webbs also include a bullet point that outlines the benefits to wildlife that this plant provides.

Finally there are the RHS logos for the Award for Garden Merit and the Perfect for Pollinators. The Award for Garden Merit (AGM) is awarded to plants trialled by the RHS that are shown to provide outstanding excellence in ordinary gardens with no highly specialist care required, not particularaly susceptible to diseases or pests, and of good constitution along with some other criteria.

The Perfect for Pollinators designation means that the plant will provide pollen and nectars for many types of pollinating insects including some of the 25 British bumblebees.


To conclude I wanted to pass on some good advice that Sarah Raven gave on growing plants encourage pollinators on the BBC programme:

• choose single rather than double blooms,  
• choose different shaped flowers, 
• choose a range of plants that flower at different heights to provide for different types of insects, and 
• choose a range of plants to ensure that you have flowers throughout the season. 

For more advice see the Perfect for Pollinators see the dedicated RHS page. It's also worth checking the RHS pollinators plant list, that's also recommended by Farplants, which is ideal because it splits the plants into months and seasons.

So check the labels and try to get some great pollinators to go with your garden design. Most of all, let's have fun getting those pollinators into our gardens and feeding on the plants rather than our fizzy drinks and BBQ food!