Solved Am l nurturing a weed?

@Nikolaos, I think the hoverflies I get in my garden must be the Marmalade hoverflies, as shown in your RSPB link. They are small and slender, and last year when I had a lot of Alyssum there were many of them all the time. At the moment I have some Alyssum, but I think some of it is old and lost its nectar and some only just beginning to flower. In one area there is a sizeable amount and the hoverflies seem to prefer it to anything else in my garden. I am noticing the occasional hoverfly, but they seem to dart among various flowers without settling to take their nectar. Very recently, in the past week or two, I have noticed more bees in my plentiful Nasturtium flowers, and the rounder bumblebees whereas earlier I was only noticing the very occasional slender shaped honey bee that looks a bit like a wasp. I don't think Nasturtiums are any use to hoverflies though.

I looked up Balloon Flowers, and they are in the same family as Campanulas, which I do have a lot of but they are only just beginning to flower and only in one area of my garden. Balloon Flowers look like a small enough plant to fit in, and well worth growing if they attract hoverflies.

I am not very good at identifying different species of hoverfly, and the ones I get in my garden are probably all the Marmalade hoverflies. I will try to find out more about them.

It is early in the season and flowers are only beginning to get going, but I have been surprised that both hoverflies and bees seem to fly in, look around at the flowers without settling, and fly off again. I noticed a hoverfly doing that this morning (it looked like the Marmalade type of hoverfly). In the past few days I have had a lot of rose flowers open on my rose Jacqueline du Pre, which are single to semi double, huge, with huge pink anthers and a nice scent, but they don't seem to be attracting either bees or hoverflies. And I have some Angel Wings roses, miniature multiflora type, which have been flowering for about a month now, and are flowering vigorously, but don't seem to attract bees or hoverflies. The bees just come for the Nasturtiums and the hoverflies just come for the Alyssum (both did quite like the Aubrieta). I will experiment with more different flowers, and have made a note of your suggestions.

 

AKA Tansy ?, which I believe is grown as an insect repellent. What is your experience with it?

 

@Nikolaos Is this a Marmalade Hoverfly?

I get a lot of these in my garden. This year they don't seem to be collecting nectar from flowers as much as last year, but last year I grew absolutely loads of Alyssum (Carpet of Snow and Magic Circle Mixed), and this year I tried to keep it in just a few areas. I have recently planted more Alyssum seeds (Purple, "Oriental Nights", for a change) and other flowers I hope they will like, and my Feverfew are starting to flower