Moth.

UK Horticulturists Call For More Moth-Friendly Gardens

Tatton Park flower show features garden of flowering plants whose heady scents at night attract crucial but ‘invisible’ pollinators

July 20, 2023 | Source: The Guardian | by Helena Horton

Gardens should be as attractive to pollinators at night as they are in the day, horticulturists have said, as they present a moth-friendly version at a flower show in Cheshire.

The RHS nocturnal pollinators experience garden at Tatton Park flower show, which began on Wednesday, showcases flowering plants that produce heady scents at night to attract moths, which a 2020 study found were crucial but “invisible” pollinators.

Many gardeners are optimising their backyards for bees and butterflies, which is also very important, but many do not think about how attractive their gardens are to nocturnal visitors.

The garden designer Sharon Hockenhull has filled her Tatton Park entrywith night-scented flowers. She said: “I’ve planted a lot of jasmine. That’s very, very heady. We’ve also got things like evening primrose, and scented stocks because that just smells so heavenly.”