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Best outdoor pot plants for biodiversity

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  • 28-04-2011 12:36pm
    #1
    emarfrog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭


    Hi All,
    Looking for a little help. I live in an apartment that has a small balcony. It gets sunlight in the morning up until about 2pm. I want to plant a few pots (small ones and one is a window box thingy!) with flowers that will be visually appealing to the human residents of our apartment, but would also be useful to bees, butterflies etc. It would also be nice if they were native plants. Any suggestions please? :D


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    #2
    Ophiopogon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,189 ✭✭✭Ophiopogon


    Well they do like most herbs so thyme, marjoram, fennel, rosemary.

    For colour, things like snapdragons, heathers, lavenders, thistles and for next year daff's. That's all I can think of for now...


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    #3
    emarfrog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭emarfrog


    Love the herb idea! I'll be getting onto that straight away! Thanks :D


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    #4
    bamboozle
    Registered Users Posts: 3,699 ✭✭✭bamboozle


    you should get a buddleia for one of your pots, more commonly known as the butterfly bush. (every home should have one!)
    Lavender, Oregano, Fennel are all great for butterflies and bees, you could also try growing sunflowers in pots or maybe even globe artichoke - bees go mad for both of these.


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    #5
    gwjones42
    Registered Users Posts: 174 ✭✭gwjones42


    Scabious (nice name!) is also great for butterflys and stays quite small with relatively tall flowers for its size. It looks cool too!


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    #6
    emarfrog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭emarfrog


    I had never thought of putting budlia in a pot! That's a great one and my mother in law has a fabulous one, could I just take a cutting and plant it straight in?


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    #7
    Ophiopogon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,189 ✭✭✭Ophiopogon


    Buddleias are great for bees but personally I would steer clear of them in pots.They do like alot of root space so would require a very large pot to even stand a chance I think.

    But apart from that if it did grow well (as you said your balcony is small) it would completey take over. Having said all that, I have heard there is a dwarf variety so if you do want a buddleia I would use that.


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