Saving the Bees

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I think we should be promoting the people, organizations, and websites who are trying to save the honey bees. Here are a few I've found.

Burts Bees is giving out free packets of wildflower seeds, just sign up. I'm curious to see what comes in the wild flower packet when it's made by a beekeeper but I'm sure it's different for each region of the country.
http://www.burtsbees.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051

The Arbor Day Foundation gives out free flowering trees (in groups of 10!) and most are beneficial to honey bees. They also sell a good number of them as well. However the free ones are maybe a foot high and somewhat dead when they arrive but replace for free. They're also unlikely to flower for their first or second year.
http://www.arborday.org/
Handing the extras out as gifts or prizes might be a good way to distribute these around the neighborhood.

[Bennettoid]

Kewl!!

[Shawn]

Thanks for the info. I already signed up and have been passing it around. I asked people to sign up and send me the seeds. I want a yard with as many flowers as I can.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Shawn: I don't think everything in these seeds will be beneficial (or esthetically pleasing) to have in your yard. We'll have to wait and see though. Usually mixes of wildflowers come with all sorts of flowering plants that have grow in all sorts of heights. A butterfly and hummingbird mixture I had included several verities of what I think are Cosmo which grew to be 6 feet tall.
Packets of seeds are actually kind of cheap and it might be better off to buy packets of Lavender, Blanket Flower, Sunflower, California Poppies, Borage, any sort of Melon apparently, all seem to be pretty easy to grow right from the packets. I've even seen Purple Cone Flowers sold in this way.

This is a good resource to send out to people and bring awareness to get them planting.

[Shawn]

I already have a lot of plants to include: catnip, 3 different honeysuckle, bee balms, salvia, daisy, three different types of clover, peach trees, raspberries, apple trees, thousnads of thousands of sunflowers within a four block distance and looking at expanding. The packets are going to take over my old strawberry patch because strawberries ruin the soil for most other things.

[qa33010]

  Thanks!  I signed up and ordered the seeds.  We're trying for zero grass, except monkey grass, and nothing but nectar and pollen plants along with a health dose of dutch clover throughout this tiny thing we call a yard.   Holly for the hedges, to get around the fencing codes, and herbs and what not.  This way he will not have more than five minutes of mowing, property lines, through the summer ;) and all pollinators will have something.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Bump!

Also a friend in California said his seeds arrived. The fine print read "Wildflower mix -- Calendula, Shasta Daisy, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Plains Coreoppsis, Purple Coneflower, and Sweet William Catchfly."
I imagen it will be a different mix depending on what part of the country you're from.

[Shawn]

Yea I still have not received my seeds yet. I asked everyone else and they have not got thiers either.

[Moonshae]

I requested seeds on behalf of a bunch of people, still waiting. I'll post here when they come.

[Shawn]

Just got the package of seeds today.

[tig]

i'm glad we still have a lot of plants that are bee friendly all over the country.  i'm encouraging the propagation of certain plants that are very bee friendly.  for trees it's acacia, narra, aratiles, tamarind and cconut.  acacia blooms year round here and gives a lot of pollen but no nectar.  narra is once a year, gives no pollen but lots of nectar.  aratiles blooms year round and gives both pollen and nectar same as coconut.

for ground plants we have a lot of wild sunflowers, mimosas, colopogonium and cadena de amors.  lately some people have asked me advice on what to plant in their gardens.  i always give out the names of trees and plants that are bee friendly.

we can all do our little share to help by getting our friends and family members to plant something that will help the bees.  imagine what a difference it would make if you lived in an urban area and each of your neighbors would have several plants that would help any kind of bee!

[Shawn]

Well I as wondering if the people that got the frre seds if they planted them and the turn out. I planted three packages and nothing came up as of yet.

[qa33010]

   I actually forgot about them until now, since the seeds never arrived.  I guess I'll go back and see if they are still doing it.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Well the seeds arrived for me, I spread them out in the garden. The trouble is I have no idea what most of these plants look like. Not that I've seen any of them come up anyhow. I believe a few did come up but watering or something else killed them. Since then I've filled it with things the bees love.