Ivy Leads Flower-Visit Counts in UK Pollinator Report, With Important Limits

Published October 25, 2026.

United Kingdom — June 2026. Common ivy had the highest average insect-visit count among target flowers in the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme's 2025 annual report. The result describes observations collected from 2017 through 2025; it does not establish that ivy is the best planting choice for every garden or every pollinator.

What the ranking actually measures

Table 3 reports an average of 22 visits per 10-minute count on ivy and 20 on hogweed. Bramble, buddleja, knapweeds and thistles each averaged 14. The report labels these raw counts, unadjusted for the number of flowers in the patch. They are comparisons of recorded visits, not a controlled trial of equal numbers of flowers.

The report also includes population trends for 2017–2024, a different period from the flower table. UKCEH's June 25 announcement reported hoverfly declines of 26% to 37% across survey methods. A flower can receive many recorded visits while wider insect populations decline; the flower table alone does not identify the cause of that decline.

Beyond the Headlines

Why the method changes the meaning

JNCC explains that public Flower-Insect Timed Counts use a chosen flower species in a 50-by-50-centimeter patch. On a warm, dry day, volunteers count insects landing during ten minutes and assign them to broad groups. Separate surveys operate on a network of one-kilometer squares selected to represent different land uses. These are complementary sampling approaches rather than identical samples of every UK garden.

The practical lesson is to ask what was standardized before treating a ranking as a recommendation. The observation time and patch size are specified, but the published flower comparison has not adjusted for the number of blooms. The table can show which flowers attracted visitors in the submitted observations without isolating the effect of plant species from every other difference between the patches.

For readers interested in contributing, JNCC links to the monitoring scheme's methods and resources. Following the actual survey protocol makes an observation more comparable with other submissions. An informal glance at a busy flower can be enjoyable, but it cannot stand in for a standardized count or show a national population trend.

Pet safety is a separate planting consideration

ASPCA identifies English ivy, Hedera helix, as toxic to dogs, cats and horses. Listed signs include vomiting, abdominal pain, excess saliva and diarrhea; foliage is more toxic than berries. The UK monitoring result should not be turned into an unqualified recommendation to plant it where animals may chew it.

The evidence answers two different questions: insects visited flowering ivy in the survey, and ivy can harm animals that ingest it. Neither fact cancels the other. A household planning a garden needs to consider access by its animals and local growing conditions, rather than import a UK flower ranking as a universal planting list for the United States.

Sources & further reading

• UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme — 2025 annual report: Table 3 flower-visit counts, data periods and methodological limits.
• UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology — June 25 announcement: pollinator population trends through 2024; same monitoring program, not independent corroboration.
• ASPCA — English ivy plant record: toxicity to dogs, cats and horses.
• JNCC — Pollinator Monitoring Scheme: survey design, public FIT Counts and one-kilometer surveys.