[Closed] PSA: Save our Honey Bees - Free seeds from Soil Association

Done, thanks

Thanks for the link.

cheers, done.

got some of these last year, really did make a difference to the number of bees around our garden. And it looks nicer too

Thanks for that!

If you're only planting that 1 species then try sowing a batch every 4-6 weeks to keep the flowers going, or just go the whole hog and plant up a decent range of bee friendly perennials to give a longer flowering period with a bit of variety.

Ace, thanks! I have a bee garden which I like to sit in, so I may extend that with these.

lovely, done. two beekeepers i know, one in west yorks and one in lincs, both suffered hive losses last year....

Done. Look forward to the buzzing!

Done

BBBBbzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Done. hopefully they will flower better than my "wild flower meadow" seeds did.

Thanks for the link, looking forward to the buzz in the backgarden(is it more like a Hope buzz or Chris King or..?)

Great idea but I suspect too little, too late, sadly.

Gotta keep tryin', tho... 🙂

buzzzzzzzzzzzz

Buzzed over and have done it as well, great idea

Hive done it.

Done.. now if spring would appear...!

Done..nice idea .

I must get those bits for the bumble bee nests now.

Done 🙂

done, cheers

weirdly I quite fancy bee keeping in retirement

Yay! Done! Thanks for the link 😀

ta

Mine just arrived today!

Can I bee the nec(s)tar sign up?

mine arrived today 🙂

Planted mine out at the back of the workshop along with a couple of climbing roses:

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8629026958_318dfe0d7d.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8629026958_318dfe0d7d.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/8629026958/ ]Climbing roses and a bed of Phacelia[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Also, put in a Bee friendly English Lavender Hedge:

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8406/8629028868_57c64806d8.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8406/8629028868_57c64806d8.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/8629028868/ ]Lavender Hedge[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Just planted my seeds.

Fingers crossed some bees find them.

Mine arrived this week. Have been passed over to my gardening correspondent, aka the missus, who will decide where to put them. I don't even like bees, although I can see the point of them.

We did this last year with what was previously the spud patch. We ended up with a lovely meadow of wild flowers, butterflies, bees and beetles. I saw meadow - it was more a 1m square patch. Still, it flowered all summer - when one plant died another popped up. Lovely.

Seeds have germinated and starting to show:

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8245/8661563676_ea2205c257.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8245/8661563676_ea2205c257.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/8661563676/ ]Phacelia seedlings[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Is this some kind of scam? I'm not clicking that link. I'm no biologist, but i'm preety sure you cannot grow bees from seed.

Well, unless you are a lady bee.

but i'm preety sure you cannot grow bees from seed.

Course you can. All sorts - Runner Bees, Baked Bees, Mushy Bees. Bees on Toast. Cheesy Bees.

Course you can. All sorts - Runner Bees, Baked Bees, Mushy Bees. Bees on Toast. Cheesy Bees.

Well it certainly has worked, loads of Bees on it this evening, although they weren't staying still long enough for any good iPhone photos!

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7341/9135884879_ec6d968cc3.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7341/9135884879_ec6d968cc3.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/9135884879/ ]Phacelia[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3754/9138101176_5a3df311c4.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3754/9138101176_5a3df311c4.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/9138101176/ ]Bee on Phacelia[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Planted mine in a tub.

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Did wonder what they would flower like, now I know 😉

Bees in my garden seem to be up this year, I have added 4 large wood stores, which I am not sure might have helped too?

Been told Lavender is also good for bees? Does anyone know if that is correct?

Yours are a bit ahead of mine. Our bees are massively down this year, I assume due to very cold spring. Hoping they recover.

Wildlife in general seems down this year. I also planted a Lavender hedge, for the Bees, which will flower August-ish.

Yay mine are flowering. However I'm beeing (boom!) asked what they are, did anyone keep the packet???

Facilia

Just placed a Bumble Bee nesting box next to the Phacelia, hoping to get some bees to move in:

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7324/9302764120_3bd5027b31.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7324/9302764120_3bd5027b31.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/9302764120/ ]Bumble Bee House[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Also put a Solitary Bee box in the garden near the Lavender Hedge:

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/9299972009_5c85cbaaa3.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/9299972009_5c85cbaaa3.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/9299972009/ ]Solitary Bee House[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

there was a bee on my soil association Phaceliae earlier..

which is quite impressive on our little estate, especially when you consider that the little row of hippies a bit further down the road have more flowers of bewildering diversity than the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in their tiny front yards

Planted mine a little while ago on a spare bit of allotment, they were covered in bees today 😀

Already planning the bee garden for next year.

[IMG] [/IMG]

I never did get my seeds 🙁

I never did get my seeds

If you drop me an email. (Should be able to find it in one of my for sale threads, inbred rolling chassis still for sale 😆 ) I have some spare free National garden scheme seeds I was given by my mum, I'll stick a pack in the post to you.

[url= http://www.greenmanure.co.uk/seeds/phacelia-green-manure-seeds/ ]Sorted[/url]

We've had some this year but TBH the bees seemed to prefer lots of other things that were already there