The BBC announced yesterday that rare butterflies are making a come back. Record-breaking temperatures and dry weather in spring last year led to an increase in the numbers of many species of rare butterfly, which is just fantastic news.

There are many plants apart from the infamous Buddleja which are attractive to butterflies, many herbs are magnets for bees and butterflies and Sedums (left) are just great.

I believe that what is in your garden can make a real difference to wildlife. Growing a mix of flowers which produce nectar all the season provides essential food, from Hellebores to Sedums. For ideas on lovely plants that the bees love too visit the wildlife friendly garden

The garden centres at this time of year are featuring Wisteria plants for sale  and they too are attractive to bees.  This  is a good time in the gardening year to buy Wisteria. A common complaint in relation to growing Wisteria is the problems getting them to flower.It follows that a good starting point is to buy a plant at this time of year which has plenty of flower buds on it and so you start with a plant that you know will flower and the art is to persuade it to flower in following years. For more tips on how to make a Wisteria flower click on the link