[mixofsam]

I have roughly 1/3 acre that has one hive but hopefully will move up to 4 this spring. I'm planning on planting bee friendly flowers in this area. I found a company called Applewood Seed Co, that seems to have an impressive mixture of wildflowers specifically for bees. Thought I'd toss it out for others if they are interested. I have never ordered from them as of yet, so can't provide an opinion negative or positive.

http://www.applewoodseed.com/pollinator/#HoneyBees


Chris

 

[mixofsam]

Forgot to mention the actual list of flowers in this package is about halfway down on the previous link I provided.

Chris

 

[NDnewbeek]

I don't know about Applewood seed Co., but I used seed from www.wildseedfarms.com (Northerncentral regional mix) last year and I had bees all over them.

 

[janvanhamont]

The Trinity Valley Bee Club in Dallas sells about 20 different packages of flower seeds for bees as a fund raiser.
janvanhamont

 

[USCBeeMan]

I have purchased wildflower seeds from a lady on ebay who a very sick husband and supplements her income with seeds from her flowers.

 

[Bud Dingler]

could just go with a dutch clover or sweet clover mix with some prairie grass. some wild flowers don't really produce much nectar.

or plant it all in borage. borage will bloom as long as sweet clover and produce a lot of honey. hard to find the seed in quantity but try richters seed in canada

 

[jmgi]

>or plant it all in borage. borage will bloom as long as sweet clover and produce a lot of honey. hard to find the seed in quantity but try richters seed in canada

I'd go with borage too, my bees worked that stuff starting a little before dawn till dark, all day, day after day. Those flowers must produce nectar continuously in abundance because different bees would work the same flower over and over only minutes apart. Great stuff.

 

[dcross]

I'm very happy with the service at Everwilde.com, 1# of borage seeds for $24.

 

[jmgi]

>I'm very happy with the service at Everwilde.com, 1# of borage seeds for $24.

I just checked out their site, they have alot of great native perennial seeds that bees love. I gathered various seeds from the wild this last fall myself to plant in my backyard, I'm getting rid of about 1/3 acre of lawn and letting it go back to nature, been sowing perennial seeds of plants bees are drawn to like asters, goldenrods, boneset, milkweeds(3 types), ironweed, joe pye weed, wild bergamot, also put down a bunch of clovers, dutch, alsike, yellow and white sweet. Will take 2-3 years for it all to come in good, but should provide good forage for my bees.

 

[mixofsam]

Thanks for all the ideas and information...very useful!

Chris:thumbsup:

 

[Oldbee]

Just in case you didn't know about this place in Westfield, WI., I thought I would add it to the thread anyway. They deal mostly in prairie plants and seeds but have a lot of information. You could also visit them!
>> http://www.prairienursery.com/store/

In some [or many?] cases, depending on how large an area one wants to plant wildflowers, it does take some careful planning and site/soil preparation to prevent them from being overtaken [or smothered out] by both native and non-native unwanted grasses and weeds before they have a chance to establish themseleves. This may mean not planting the first spring/summer but simply cultivating every 2-3 weeks, using a covering like black plastic or using herbicides. Any amount of seeds over a couple of ounces can be quite expensive, so good preparation may prevent some disappointment. The other seed sources listed are good too and the idea of adding more plants/seeds [like borage] specifically for honey bees is also good. Just thoughts.