250g BUMBLE BEE FORAGE SEEDS
£22.00
For a complete list of the flower species in this 250g mixture, please open the MIX tab below.
Buy 2 with 5% discount each
Buy 4 with 10% discount each
Buy 10 with 15% discount each
Buy 20 with 20% discount each
Buy 40 with 25% discount each
All seed mixtures containing wildflower seeds include 20% VAT.
Out of stock
Before the introduction of intensive farming, the use of heavy machinery and herbicide, our farmland was a more diverse landscape with many summer flowering weeds, legumes and specialised local crops.
Sainfoin for example was only grown on the Cotswold Hills and Hampshire Downs providing a high protein feed for hard working horses. The flower of Sainfoin (pictured) attracted the Bumble bee ‘with great excitement’. Borage is another crop long gone from our working countryside and although white (and to a lesser extent red) clover has made a certain resurgence in use over recent years, it rarely has the opportunity to flower before being cut for silage or grazed by intensively farmed animals.
Again, cornfield annuals have all but disappeared from the sterile cereal crops cultivated for the ultimate yields of commercial production. So these bygone flowers are of our great grandfathers days, our mostly forgotten heritage and maybe the overlooked source of pollen and nectar our struggling bee and butterfly populations are really missing from their modern habitats.
Sow Bumble Bee Forage Seeds into open, sparce grassland in spring to late summer.
SOWING RATE
1 to 5 grams per square metre
BEST SOWING TIMES
Mid spring to Early autumn
COVERAGE
250 grams covers a minimum of 50 square metres
SOWING INSTRUCTIONS
- Rake or harrow the area hard to break up the surface and expose the soil.
- Split the total quantity of wildflower seeds to be applied into two equal amounts. If necessary, add dry sharp sand or sterile topsoil to bulk the mixture up a little.
- Apply the first half over the entire area either by hand or by using a broadcast spreader.
- Apply the remaining seed in the same way.
- Finally, lightly tread over or roll the surface to squeeze the seeds and tilth down into the seedbed. This ensures the seeds are evenly spread and in good contact with the soil which not only helps to anchor the seeds into position (so as not to float away during heavy or persistant rainfall) but to also maintain the correct moisture level for more reliable germination.
- Wildflower meadow seeds may also be surface sown however, germination may be uneven and significantly slower particularly during periods of prolonged sunny, dry or windy weather even with regular irrigation.
Vetch (vicia sativa)
Sainfoin (onobrychis viciifolia)
Borage (borago officinalis)
Corn Cockle (agrostemma githago)
Crimson Clover (trifolium incarnatum)
Field Poppy (papervar rhoeas)
Birdsfoot Trefoil (lotus corniculatus)
Yellow Trefoil (medicago lupulina)
Alfalfa (medicago sativia)
Corn Marigold (chrysanthemum segetum)
Alsike Clover (trifolium hybridum)
Phacelia (phacelia tanacetifolia)
Corn Chamomile (anthemis arvensis)
Cornflower (centaurea cyanus)
Red Clover (trifolium pratensis)
White Clover (trifolium repens)
Chicory (cicorium intybus)
Yarrow (achillea millefolium)
Burnet (sanguisorba minor)
Parsley (petroselium crispum)
Ox-eye Daisy (leucanthemum vulgare)
Rough Hawkbit (leontodon hispidus)
Knapweed (centaurea nigra)
White Campion (silene alba)
Red Campion (silene dioica)
Ladies Bedstraw (galium verum)
Self Heal (prunella vugaris)
Meadow Buttercup (ranunculus acris)
Common Sorrel (rumex acetosa)
Yellow Rattle (rhinanthus minor)
Wild Carrot (daucus carota)
Ribwort Plantain (plantago lanceolata)
Cowslip (primula veris)
Salad Burnet (sanuisorba minor)