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BS Bee Wildflower Plant Collection

Wildflower plants for bees. Choose our selection of wildflower plug plants for bees to create a beautiful wildflower area in your garden, landscape or meadow and provide pollen and nectar for our native bees.

Bee wildflower plants - small plug plant species available from our range, an excellent food source.
A minimum of 10 species will be chosen from the species list and used in equal quantities.
Contents of Bee Wildflower Plant Collection.

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Sowing & Establishment

How to plant your wildflower plants

1 - Open up the box
On arrival open the boxes immediately, lightly water and leave them in good sunlight until they are required for planting. This will help them recover from being in transit. Ideally, they are best planted within a few days of arrival but will be ok if kept watered with access to sunlight.

2 - What to expect
These are supplied as plug plants and are a standard 40cc plug, roughly the length of your index finger. Most wildflowers die back in the winter but will still have a good root base.

3 - Planting time
Planting can be done year round providing the soil is moist and you will find the plants generally do better being planted in situ rather than being potted on. The optimum time for sowing is from September – May. Hold off planting if the soil is dry, waterlogged, hard or frozen.

4 - Preparation
Any grass should be close-mown prior to planting and the cuttings removed. It's advisable to clear/ mow the grass to around 10cm from around the plug until they are well established and remove any cuttings.

5 - Planting
To remove the plugs from the tray gently squeeze each one from the base and slowly pull it out.

6 - Depth and Spacing
Using a trowel or dibber, make a hole in the ground as deep as the plug itself. Plant the plugs 5 per square metre. Insert the plug and gently firm the soil around it and water well until established.

7 - Flowering
Sit back, relax and look forward to beautiful spring flowers! They may not always flower in their first year.

8 - Aftercare
Once your flowers have finished flowering, leave them to die back naturally. You can remove any dead foliage once the plant has finished seeding in the Autumn and take it back to around 10cm and remove the cuttings.

FAQs

How to attract bees into your garden?

The best way to attract bees and insects to your garden is to plant bee friendly, pollen rich wildflowers. Opt for wildflowers that are native while rich in nectar and pollen as these will be most attractive to native bees.

Plant a diverse range of wildflowers with different shaped flowers to accommodate the diverse feeding preferences of pollinators like bees and butterflies. Different varieties have different blooming periods, so choosing a variety can ensure a good food source throughout the seasons.

When planting wildflowers, avoid using pesticides which can harm and kill bees and other pollinators. Another great way to attract bees is to add a bee house for solitary bees to lay their eggs in or create nests for bees hibernating during the colder months.

What are some bee friendly plants?

There are many bee friendly wildflowers to choose from, some of our favourites are:

Different species of bee prefer different flowers, so planting a variety is crucial. For example, the common carder bee is particularly attracted to plants like foxglove, which flower throughout the growing seasons. The garden bumblebee also prefers plants such as foxglove and cowslip, which provide essential food sources.

Purple flowers, like lavender, are exceptionally visible to bees, making them ideal for a bee-friendly garden.

To find out more about bee friendly wildflowers, read our guide on wildflowers for bees. Or, choose a bee friendly wildflower plant mixture that has been specifically formulated to contain plants that bees will love.

How to maintain your garden for wild bees?

Our BS bee wildflower plant collection will provide you with the perfect species of wildflower to attract and help bees thrive. Once planted, they will require some maintenance to keep your garden the perfect haven for bees. Below we’ve listed some of our top maintenance tips.

Soil quality - wildflowers tend to thrive better in poor soils, so avoid using fertilisers or compost while your wildflowers are growing.
Weed control - keep an eye on the weeds growing in your meadow and remove any highly competitive weeds that might overpower the wildflowers. Yellow rattle is bee-friendly and can also help prevent grasses from overtaking the wildflowers.
Don’t overwater - most wildflowers are drought tolerant so make sure not to overwater them, only water in periods of long drought.
Add diversity - regularly review the types of wildflowers in your meadow and see which is thriving the best and attracting the most pollinators. Growing a diverse range of plants is best. Tubular-shaped flowers are particularly important for long tongued bees, such as the garden bumblebee.

Plant your wildflowers in the sun - Most types of flowers love the sun, therefore be mindful when planting on how many hours of sunlight they will receive.