Gardeners are being told not to cut ivy and other creeping plants back this month for a really important reason.
With weeks of miserable drizzle followed by almost a fortnight of blazing sunshine now, gardens have been handed perfect conditions to explode into life, with many hedges, climbing plants, flowers and crops suddenly experiencing a growth spurt in the summer sun and nourished soil.
And ivy plants certainly need no invitation to grow, with many types of ivy and climber growing rapidly up house walls, along sheds, over garages and along fences.
In fact ivy, as well as clematis and other creepers, can very quickly go out of control and choke out other plants as well as take up valuable room in your garden.
And many gardeners as a result have been whipping out hedge trimmers and secateurs to trim back ivy plants – but now are being told not to.
That’s because ivy plants have huge value to wildlife and in late summer, provide a really important source of nectar and pollen for bees, wasps and hoverflies.
As summer flowers dwindle, the blooms of ivy plants can be a really important source of pollen for bees that they may not find anywhere else.
And with bee and bumblebee numbers being so threatened due to climate change, anything gardeners can do to protect them is going to be vital.
The Royal Horticultural Society explains: “Ivies have enormous value to wildlife, providing all-important year-round shelter for huge numbers of creatures including birds, small mammals and invertebrates.
“If allowed to reach their adult phase and flower, they provide an invaluable late source of nectar and pollen for bees, hoverflies and many other insect pollinators.”
Not only that, but the berries ivy produce can also feed birds into the winter.
The RHS continues: “Ivy berries are much appreciated by birds in midwinter when other food sources are scarce.”
So keeping your ivy as thick and bushy as possible, rather than cutting flowers back now, is going to help wildlife in two ways over the next few months.
