As Melbourne’s gardens burst into life after a wet spring, native insects are out looking for flowers and pollen.

City gardeners rely on bees, butterflies and other insects to pollinate their plants, which is how flowering plants reproduce and grow fruit or seeds.

But city gardens often don’t have the right types of food and homes for these helpful native bees and flies, with knock-on effects for our gardens and for biodiversity.

Urban ecologist Katherine Berthon from RMIT University found that only 43 per cent of flowers in the Melbourne city gardens she studied were being used by bees and other pollinating insects.

“Native bees, wasps, butterflies and other insects need food and shelter to make a life for themselves in the city but, just like us, they have preferences,” she said.

“Some are really picky while others are more open-minded, so we have to provide the right flower buffet and nesting materials to encourage them to move in.”

For home gardeners, the key is to plant flowers with a variety of shapes and colours, and to work with neighbours to create your own bee-friendly neighbourhood.

Native insects prefer native flowers, especially local ones: native blue bells, daisies, and even trees like eucalypts are favourites.

“From the perspective of a little insect that doesn’t travel very far, an urban garden can be like a whole city. Even small garden spaces can offer really important homes and habitat, but good connections between gardens will really help our native insects thrive.”

Do you have a lot of bees in your garden? I have a lavender plant which the local bees love? What plants do the bees flock to in your garden?