The common herb that could bring bees buzzing to your garden

Header image: *Psyche Delia*/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Karin Alton, University of Sussex and Francis Ratnieks, University of Sussex

Unlike parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, wild marjoram missed out on a role in the classic song Scarborough Fair, made popular in the 1960s by Paul Simon. But it does have a key additional advantage over most herbs. People know it best under its widely-used alternate name of oregano, which is also the scientific name – origanum vulgare. It is a common feature of Italian cooking and a native around Europe and in the UK. More importantly, though, it is one of the best of all plants for attracting bees, butterflies and other pollinators to your garden.

The most widely grown and appreciated garden favourites, of course, are those with attractive flowers. And there is a common assumption that those plants which delight human eyes will also be the most attractive for bees and other flower-visiting insects. Research at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex can give a more empirical take.

One project carried out in 2011-2012 saw 32 varieties of summer flowering garden plants grown in beds and counted the insects visiting them – 87% of which were bees. The plants selected were all summer-flowering varieties often grown in gardens.

All were attractive to the human eye. However, they were very different as far as the insects were concerned. The most attractive to them were marjoram and agastache, a herbaceous perennial with simple, aromatic leaves and small flowers in dense spikes. These two had 100 times as many insects as the least popular, the pelargonium, which belongs to a large group of frost-sensitive plants used for summer bedding.

It is a simple lesson. By choosing