For insects, the now-blooming ivy is superfood number one! Pruning is therefore not an option. Now that winter is approaching, many insects are eagerly looking for the last flowers to gain some extra weight before winter or to build up a food supply. They flock to the ivy flowers.
Typically, ivy is a somewhat dull, evergreen plant that covers walls, even in shade. But at the end of the year, the leaves change shape: they become rounder and move a little further from the wall. Balls with projections that turn subtly yellow at this time are formed: the flowers! If you stand close to it you can smell the nectar. That attracts a lot of insects.
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If you stand next to a flowering ivy, you can hear the insects buzzing. You now see a lot of wasps, bees, but also different types of hoverflies. They look a bit like the love baby of a wasp and a fly. They don’t sting!
In addition to being a superfood for insects, ivy is also a favorite snack of blackbirds. In the spring, the current flowers have changed into dark berries. Blackbirds feast on that. It is also a great place for wrens to make a nest and many insects find a hiding place in the winter. And there birds try to pick them out again.
climbing frog
NH’s nature reporter Stephan Roest has a lot of ivy in the garden. And a pond. This results in something special: “When I’m in the garden at the end of summer, I sometimes hear rustling in the ivy. It’s usually a frog clambering up to the top of the ivy. I don’t really know what they’re doing there , looking for a shelter? Or catching insects and flies? They are not special climbing frogs or anything. Just brown frogs from the ditch, but at a height of two meters.”
It can be tempting to prune the somewhat chaotic ivy. But wait until after the blackbird has feasted on the berries in the spring. Stephan: “I usually cut the ivy back a bit in March, April or so. But not everywhere, I leave some pieces messy on purpose. They are next year’s turn. Insects and birds love that variety. And I think they are. It’s nice to see myself again when I’m in the garden.”