Showy natives

Hello GC,
Often native flowers can be dissapointingly green or sparse in their colours and displays, which can offput gardeners looking for more showy displays in their garden. There are, however, some native flowers with displays that are more akin to our cultivated garden plants, being visible at a good distance and showing more colour than green.

I thought I would highlight some of these with images as some inspiration for gardeners looking to add insect friendly plants. Images provided by East Anglia Flora, a great source for indentifying flowers in any part of the uk. Flora of East Anglia

Most of our native flowers are either purple or yellow, but there are exceptions and there are cultivars and hybrids made that offer other colours. I have included some ancient introductions as they will have had time for related insects to appear, but true natives to your area will usually host more species.

Campanulas
We have 4 native campanula species, 3 of which are very showy. All are perrenial and spread slowly as clumps.

Clustered Bellflower

Giant Bellflower

available in white or purple
There is also nettle-Leaved Bellflower
These all prefer chalky soils but are adaptable.
They also have edible flowers if you are into that.

Monkshood/Wolfsbane
Related to Delphiniums, these poisonous perrenial plant grows from a rhizome. These come in shades from dark purple to blue to white. Dont touch them with your bare skin.

Related, Common Larkspur is a similar plant that is an ancient introduction.
Despite their toxicity, aconites still host many insects, such as the specialist Golden Plusia moth (source: suffolk moths):


Common Colombine, Aquilegia Vulgaris:
This dainty plant has many cultivars in every colour imagineable including double flowers. It is perrenial and easy to grow from seed.


Common Viper's-bugloss, Echium vulgare:
Photos dont do this plant justice as in person it is very intensely, almost luminescent blue.

This plant, as well as other members of the borage family, host quite a few insects, there is even a group of bees who feed for pollen exclusively on echium vulgare. It is also the food plant of many butterflies and hosts specialist moths that feed only on this plant, such as Ethmia Terminella (source; wikipedia)

Campions
We host a bunch of campion species and they generally have dainty white or pink flowers. I like the dried seedheads for displays, which have little bladders. These are more dainty than showy, the showeist I think is the sea campion.

Soapwort is an ancient introduction which hosts many of the same insects. Ive been told it makes very good soap in an emergency

Mallows
Mallows are common here and vary from weedy to quite showy with large purple flowers. They were eaten as a famine food and in the middle east they use it to thicken soup.
The largest flowers ive seen are on marsh mallow.

Betony
Ive seen this mint family relative on an ancient woodland site I volunteer at and butterflies and bees go absolutely nuts for it. Its quite short but colourful.


Common toadflax or "eggs and butter"
Common along fields here, has quite distinct bright flowers. Related to snapdragons. Hosts many specialist moths.


Foxgloves
This poisonous biennial prefers acid soil but it grows just fine in our neutral clay. Suprisingly easy to grow from seed despite its tiny seeds. Available from purple to white with red specks, there are also related species from mainland europe in oranges and yellows which probably host the same insects, but idk.


Knappweeds
These low-medium flowers, from annual to perrenial, host huge numbers of insects and are like cocaine to some butterflies.
Greater Knappweed is my favourite and has big white open seed heads which persist in winter.


There is even a very rare parasitic broomrape species that grows only on these, but ive never seen it.
Blue Cornflower is an annual knappweed that has intense blue flowers.


Sea thrift and field scabious
These are two related plants that look quite similar. Nice big pink flowers. Not for everyone but nice if you like pink.

Two similar spikey plants:
Spiked speedwell

Bugle is more shade tolerant.

Gentians
We have a few native gentians.
Centaury is one I have seen in dry areas here, which is quite pretty.

Marsh gentian. Ive never seen this but it looks very very blue. This plant needs wet, ideally acidic soil.

Another water lover is purple loosestrife. Big purple cones.

For dry areas, rosebay willowherb is similar with a nice cross.
Greater willowherb has a very distinct cross in the middle, perhaps for a christian themed garden?

Mulleins
This group hosts a few moths and butterflies. It prefers chalky soil. I think hoary and dark mullein look better than greater mullein which can be a bit scrappy. The mainland european ones are a bit prettier, I must admit, I wouldnt worry as they should host similar insects.


from norfolk flora

Burnets
Greater burnet is quite pretty with dense dark red flowers. Salad burnet has similar but smaller flowers, and is edible. Not sure about the others.


For a climbing plant, bittersweet nightshade is very pretty in the right circumstance, having glowing red berries and cute purple flowers.

Dont worry about it being poisonous unless you have hungry kids, it isnt particularly dangerous.
Black nightshade has edible fruit, otherwise it isnt showy but does have nice white flowers that go on the whole year. It is annual.

Primroses
You can get primroses and other hybrids of our native one in every colour and a big display of these looks fantastic in spring. You know what these look like!

Stinking and green hellebore
These are both lovely splashes of light green in deep winter and provide nectar for waking bumblebees. My photo of stinking hellebore.



So this is a list of the ones I can think of with big displays.
What is your experience with these, do you know any others worth adding to this list?
Adam I

 

some images failed but you can see them on the east anglia site.

 

What about dactylorhiza? I have seen them nearly a metre tall (the natural hybrid ones) and covering large areas with purple.
The toadflax is a great plant.

 

Thank you @Adam I for introducing these native wonders. I must grow some! There is only one that I grow at present which is a variety of purple loosestrife. It always amazes me how adaptable it is, although preferring a waterside location, it does well in my dry, sandy soil, once established. It’s a magnet for bees, the most visited in my garden.

 

Orchids are such a lovely treat! They grow well at Odiham Common, but i dont know how easy it is to grow them at home.
A meter tall is incredible.

Purple toadflax is quite common here and supports some insects but it is also somewhat invasive, many of our natives are very weedy themselves though. I prefer our native yellow one.

Good to know! If it can grow there maybe it can tolerate my clay soil.

 

It evidently grows well in clay soil too @Adam I, enabled by its deep tap root.