To change bee flower seeds

[Finman]

Are you willing to change bee flower seeds ?  I just like flowers and I have tried to collect plants suitable for bees near 40 years.


1977 we visited in Copenhagen Botanical Garden and I took nearby 50  different seeds from garden. It was late autum and gargen waited for frost. Still I have a couple of plants from there.  One is Viola,  3 feet long stem. One is Tagetes  3 feet wide and 3 feet high, hundreds of flowers.

From England I have got some plants. Perhaps the best is Verbascum nigrum from Jugoslavia Lipwitche mountains 1983.  It has good frowers and it gives pollen three weeks. Thousands of little flowers.

The new plant is Cephalaria gigantea from Siberia, 10 feets high.  Never sawn that.
http://home.tiscali.be/carine.bloemmen/cephalariagigantea.jpg

If you want to change seeds, post contact to me.

[Lesli]

Hi Finman,
I don't have any seeds to exchange, but as it happens, I was reading gardening catalogs and web sites yesterday, looking for bee friendly herbs to plant next year. I had some large spruce trees cut down last year, and built a new garage this fall, so I have some planting to do next spring.

I like herbs--they're hearty, don't require special fertilizer, and they smell wonderful. I have an herb book that lists bee-friendly herbs, including anise-hyssop, bee balm, borage, catnip, chamomile, foxglove, lavender, lemon balm, mints, sage, and thyme (along with many others).

Last year, I saw the girls working catnip and other mints pretty heavily, in numbers similar to goldenrod. I didn't see them working thyme or lavender, but I have less of that, so they may have exhausted it quickly.