🪴HOW TO & TIPS
It's National Pollinators Month, so let me start with an uncomfortable truth.
Your houseplants are freeloaders.
There. I said it.
While bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and moths are out there doing the unglamorous, unpaid work that keeps roughly a third of our food on the table, your Monstera is sitting in the corner looking gorgeous and contributing absolutely nothing to the cause. It doesn't flower indoors. Nothing's pollinating it. It's the houseguest who eats your snacks and never offers to wash up.
But here's the thing: it doesn't have to be this way.
A surprising number of our indoor favourites do flower beautifully, and given a summer outside, they can actually pull their weight and feed the pollinators that need all the help they can get right now.
So this week, let's turn some of your freeloaders into contributors.
The houseplants that actually flower (and feed bees)
1. Pelargoniums (a.k.a. "geraniums")
The classic windowsill bloomer. Pop them outside for summer and the bees and hoverflies will find them fast. They're tough, they flower for months, and they're happy to come back indoors before the first frost. A genuine pollinator workhorse hiding in plain sight as a windowsill plant.
2. Hoya
You might already grow one for the foliage, but a Hoya in full bloom is a different beast entirely. Those star-shaped flower clusters produce actual nectar (sometimes so much it drips), and pollinators go wild for them outdoors.
Bonus: the scent in the evening is something else.
3. Succulents and cacti in bloom
We tend to grow these for the shapes, but when a cactus or an echeveria throws out a flower, it's a pollinator magnet. Move them outside for the warm months and let them do their thing. Just bring the tender ones back well before the cold returns.
4. Herbs you've "let go"
This one's my favourite cheat. That basil, mint, or coriander that bolted and started flowering? Most people panic and chop it back. Instead, let a couple of plants flower fully. Bees adore flowering herbs, and you get to feel virtuous about the basil you forgot to harvest.
5. Begonias
Many begonias flower happily and, outdoors in a sheltered spot, give pollinators an easy landing pad. They're a little fussier than the others on this list, but if you've already got one, summer is its moment to shine.
The catch (because there's always one)
Moving plants outside to support pollinators only works if you do it kindly. Quick rules:
- Harden them off, no cold-turkey sunbathing.
- Pick a sheltered spot so wind doesn't wreck the foliage.
- Don't use systemic pesticides on anything you're putting out to feed bees. That rather defeats the point, and it's genuinely harmful to them.
- Watch the watering. Outdoor plants in summer drink far more than they do inside. A pot in the sun can dry out in a single afternoon.
Do this, and your once-freeloading houseplants spend the summer as genuinely useful members of the ecosystem. Then they come back indoors in autumn, smug and well-fed, ready to go back to contributing nothing until next year.
We can't all be productive year-round. I get it.