Native & pollinator-aligned trade specification

Why biodiversity criteria are now standard in landscape tenders

Three policy instruments have made pollinator and biodiversity criteria standard in Irish public-realm landscape contracts:

• The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) — a non-statutory framework adopted by every Irish local authority, with a recommended-species list that procurement teams reference directly in spec language.
• The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 — sets binding pollinator-recovery and habitat-connectivity objectives that flow into national procurement criteria via Green Public Procurement guidance.
• The National Biodiversity Action Plan — the statutory Irish framework with local-authority-level biodiversity-action commitments.

The practical effect on tenders: a pollinator-percentage clause now appears in most council, school-grounds and estate biodiversity-aligned contracts. The tender-writing playbook covers the clause format; this page covers the palette that satisfies the clause.

For Irish and Continental temperate climate, the same handful of species do most of the heavy lifting on pollinator-aligned commercial schemes. They share three properties: present on the AIPP recommended list, available at trade-pack format from Irish and EU suppliers, and structurally suitable for council / school / estate maintenance regimes.

• Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote' and 'Munstead' — compact English lavenders. Bee forage, drought tolerance, low informal hedging, formal-edge use. Trade-pack at 40–50 cm spacing.
• Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor' — pollinator-friendly groundcover, dry-shade tolerant, deer and rabbit resistant. Excellent for understorey commercial planting.
• Cotoneaster dammeri — low spreading evergreen, white spring flowers (bee forage), autumn berries (bird food). Embankment and car-park bund use; bee-friendly across the flowering window.
• Geranium 'Rozanne' — long bloom period (June–October), prolific bee and hoverfly forage, mid-height border use. Sterile so spreads only vegetatively — predictable on maintained sites.
• Echium vulgare (Viper's bugloss) — native to Ireland, top-rated bee and bumblebee forage, biennial behaviour suits naturalised verge and meadow conversions.

All available at 9 cm P9 trade-pack format via Irish & EU trade-supply channels. The coverage calculator converts m² targets into trade quantities at AIPP-recommended densities. A representative trade-pack collection is PlantGift's landscaping plants range.

For schemes that need the structural layer scored against native content, the reliable specifying base:

• Crataegus monogyna (Common hawthorn) — Ireland's most important native pollinator shrub, exceptional bee forage, winter berry food source, traditional hedging at 50 cm spacing.
• Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn) — early-spring forage before hawthorn flowers, native hedgerow companion.
• Ilex aquifolium (Holly) — native, evergreen, winter-berry, supports holly blue butterfly.
• Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan / Mountain ash) — native specimen tree, white flowers for bees, red berry for birds.
• Salix caprea (Goat willow) — critically important early-season pollen source; suitable for damp-tolerant perimeter planting.

The Teagasc forestry programme publishes the canonical Irish native species lists for grant-aided schemes; the same lists are increasingly used by local-authority biodiversity officers writing public-realm tenders.

Provenance considerations. Some procurement officers specify "Irish-grown, Irish-provenance" for native species to support local supply-chain resilience and to ensure genetic appropriateness. Where this clause appears, the supplier reference should explicitly cite Irish nursery production rather than imported equivalent — the supplier directory on this site covers Irish-side native suppliers in addition to PlantGift's mixed Irish-and-EU range.

For groundcover-scale pollinator support — the commercially common requirement on motorway, car-park, school and corporate-campus banks — the established pattern is 4–7 plants per m² of pollinator-supporting evergreen or semi-evergreen material:

• Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor' at 7 / m² — already covered above; the workhorse choice for shaded banks.
• Vinca minor at 6 / m² — early-spring blue flowers support emerging queen bumblebees; tolerates sun or partial shade.
• Cotoneaster dammeri at 4 / m² — coarser texture, spring forage, autumn berry interest.
• Hedera helix / Hedera hibernica at 5 / m² — late-autumn flowers are critically important as one of the last forage sources before overwintering.
• Pachysandra terminalis 'Green Sheen' at 7 / m² — shaded-bank specialist; modest pollinator value but high biodiversity-contribution rating as evergreen low-input cover.

The PlantGift groundcover collection is one trade-pack source; alternatives are listed in the supplier directory.

Modern biodiversity-aligned tenders increasingly include a flowering-succession clause requiring the planting palette to cover the active pollinator season (February through October in Irish climate) with at least one nectar / pollen-rich species flowering at any time. The succession that typically satisfies this:

• February–March. Salix caprea (Goat willow catkins) — critical early-season pollen for emerging bumblebees. Mahonia × media 'Charity' supplements on more formal sites.
• April–May. Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn) followed by Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn). Pulmonaria for low-level early forage.
• June–July. Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote', Geranium macrorrhizum, Echium vulgare, Cotoneaster dammeri.
• August–September. Geranium 'Rozanne', second-flush Lavandula, Sedum spectabile 'Autumn Joy'.
• October. Hedera helix / hibernica ivy flowers — the most under-appreciated late-season forage source on commercial sites.

Specifying for year-round-forage compliance is often the easiest way to score full marks against GPP biodiversity award criteria on landscape tenders — three or four well-chosen anchor species from the list above cover the full active window without specialist sourcing.

One palette doesn't fit every site. The common Irish & EU commercial site types and the AIPP-aligned palette adapted to each:

• Council parks & public realm. Native shrub/tree structure (Crataegus, Sorbus, Salix) + Lavandula and Geranium macrorrhizum at perennial scale. Year-round forage emphasis.
• School grounds. Sensory-suitable palette — fragrant Lavandula and Mahonia, robust Geranium 'Rozanne', non-toxic species only. Cotoneaster dammeri preferred over Cotoneaster horizontalis on play-area-adjacent beds.
• Hotel courtyards & hospitality. More formal specification — Lavandula 'Hidcote' edging, Geranium macrorrhizum bed-edges, Olea europaea specimen for Mediterranean visual.
• Estate & heritage gardens. Buxus-replacement parterre using Ilex 'Jenny' (see Buxus replacement guide) + Lavandula border + native hedgerow at boundary scale.
• Motorway & corporate-campus banks. Groundcover at 5–7 plants per m² — Hedera hibernica, Vinca minor, Geranium macrorrhizum. Cotoneaster dammeri for coarser texture.
• Golf courses & sports clubs. Perimeter native hedgerow + Lavandula hedging on club-house beds + Sedum spectabile on car-park bund.

All trade-pack sourceable from Irish & EU suppliers; the landscape trade guide covers the wider tender patterns these palettes integrate into. The Heritage Council also publishes site-specific guidance for heritage estates and walled-garden conversions.