Honeybee Wildflower meadows & Flower Gardens -
We all know that our Honeybees, and our other essential cross-pollinators, are under threat from modern Agricultural "inputs" and urban development. We want to physically help you turn your non productive turfed areas into a Bio-Diverse safe haven and food resource for Honeybees by establishing Honeybee Wildflower meadows and Flower gardens.
Today, good quality Organic honey rich in minerals, B vitamins, antioxidants and anti-inflammatorys has a hefty, but arguably relative price tag and you get what you pay for! For example, the well known Manuka honey rich in an active ingredient methylglyoxal, is a honey native to New Zealand. It’s produced by bees that pollinate the flower Leptospermum scoparium (L.scoparium), commonly known as the Manuka bush. This bush has been successfully grown in the UK since at least the 1880s, and although neither a meadow flower or native, it is just one of many flowering plants that, wherever suitable, we will include in honey bee gardens or meadow fringes or hedgerows. There are so many flowering plants more suited to Honeybees than other bees and knowing what to plant with your soil type is a beguiling subject. Heather, for example, may be a suitable and low maintenance option in parts of your garden.
One of our speciality services; we discerningly select Wildflower seeds, according to your soil and landscape, with which we then establish meadows specific for Honey bees. Please see below some photos from projects that we have undertaken and feel free to reach out to us if you are interested. We can also help you find a local bee keeper to help you setup your own Apiary.
Oxeye Daisy, tend to become one of the most prolific and successful of the wildflower mix, which is fortunate as it is one of the most rich sources of pollen and nectar for Honeybees, with a large flower head.
A cattle grazing field over-seeded with Chicory, below:
An unintentional bonus of terracing one garden, was the uprising of various poppies, below, then swarming with Honeybees.
Chicory
Cichorium intybus:
Below, seeding a Honeybee Wildflower seed mix suitable for Clay soil.
Below, appreciating Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), with its marvellous outer and inner flowers.
Cosmos, above and below, is one of the many flowers preferential to Honeybees, as its example of large single open flower head allowing for ease of access. The flowers are edible for us too!
Below, we are managing a Sussex Bluebell wood by removing any invasive Spanish bluebells and increasing the English variant. Surprisingly, these early spring bulbs, along with Snowdrops, are an early food source for Honeybees. We can establish English Bluebells (Hyancinthoides non-scripta) in shaded areas of your garden or farm.
Some Winter flowering Crocus species, below, are another early source of pollen and nectar for the Honeybee.
