Beebomb

jonnreeks

Hi all,

I have tried the Beebomb mix and have had no success. I followed all the instructions and planted some last year. Nothing has grown this year and I wonder what wnt wrong?

Anyone else tried same and care to share their experience, advice or suggestions!

Disappointing!

looksee

The bomb type methods of growing flowers are not very reliable, and in a garden not very useful. You would be better off with packets of seeds. Chucking seeds on a patch of earth only works well for a very few flowers, unless they are naturalised in your garden you really need to give the individual types a bit of individual attention, even if you have to prepare little beds to plant them in situ and let them naturalise.

jonnreeks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120700857#Comment_120700857

Thanks, great advice.

RainInSummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058300340/beebomb

Same. I planted 500 of them. Gave a couple hundred of them to friends and not one single flower from them.

I opened a few and couldn't find a single seed in any of them.

That was a good few years ago. Looks like they haven't improved.

Tefral

Yep, can concur with the rest, any I tried absoutely useless and this is even in great fertile soil.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703802#Comment_120703802

Pretty sure wildflowers actively dislike fertile soil, you need really marginal, scrubby soil for them.

jonnreeks

Beebomb are a bit of a con job so, by all accounts!

What about the boxes of wildflower seed boxes sold in Lidl & Aldi and the like, are they worth a try?

Tefral

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703811#Comment_120703811

I have tried in all sorts to see would they work and this is coming from someone who has a half acre wildflower meadow growing!

Tefral

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703822#Comment_120703822

The few I have tried worked anyway. They are great for filling up patches of no colour.

magicbastarder

AFAIK bee bombs were invented as a way of guerilla gardening; for lobbing seeds into (presumably derelict) property you didn't have access to, and that's why people think they've very few seeds in them, they should be primarily soil as you're throwing in the growing medium as well as the seeds. and some seeds would be pretty much invisible to the human eye in soil.

anyway, as mentioned, they're not something of practical use in your own garden.

jonnreeks

Anyone care to recommend what they consider the best wildflower seed box used from their experience!

magicbastarder

it depends on the conditions! you can see in the irish wildflowers website, they sell many different varieties for different conditions (check the main page for the reseller list)

http://www.wildflowers.ie/all-trade/a0-all-pricelists.htm

looksee

It depends on what you are looking for. Those boxes in the supermarkets etc are not wild flowers particularly, and they are mostly not Irish native, a lot of them would be sourced in England or where-ever else they can get the easy annuals that are used. So while they may be pretty and fill a gap they are not part of the Irish environment. They are no worse than the multitude of perennials and annuals you buy in a garden centre though so they may serve your purpose.

If you want actual Irish wildflowers you generally have to go on line and buy specifically 'harvested from Irish stock in Ireland' seeds. Wildflowers.ie is probably the best known, their eccentric website is a bit of a challenge initially, but they are very helpful. There are other suppliers, just be sure and look for Irish seeds.

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703945#Comment_120703945

They do sell to the public, no problem, if you can navigate the website!

ttnov77

here is some good read how to sow: https://www.gardensforwildlife.ie/post/irish-native-wildflowers-area-preparation-sowing-and-maintenance

ttnov77

Bee bombs are gimmix, you really better off with some good quality native wildflower mix like https://www.gardensforwildlife.ie/irish-native-wildflowers without the clay

Bellie1

I was at a talk about biodiversity recently and they were recommending that people don't buy lidl seeds etc, as there's a risk they could introduce invasive species. You don't know where the seeds were sourced from and what could be mixed in/how careful the suppliers were etc . As far as I know, wildflowers.ie and connectingtonature.ie are the only reputable places to buy wildflower seeds in Ireland . Annuals are the business for lots of colour- cornflowers,poppies and corn cockles are gorgeous. Need very poor unfertile soil .

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703822#Comment_120703822

Full of non native seeds and bulked up with 'fertilisers'.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703822#Comment_120703822

Best avoid supermarket boxes of ‘wildflower’ seeds. Certified native seeds from specialist suppliers are a truer support for pollinators. Try http://www.wildflowers.ie/ not a great website to navigate around but good product.

coillsaille

After having a digger in doing some non garden related work in the early

20220728_132934_optimized_optimized.jpg

spring there was a patch of ground on the site left cleared of growth which we had no immediate plan for. I bought two boxes of mixed wildflower seeds from the irishgardener.ie and just scattered them on it. Quite happy with the result.

Just came across this https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/insect-loss-and-biodiversity-6090619-Jun2023/ this morning. If there was ever a need for wildflowers it now! Hard to read.

Bellie1

I had to stop reading it, too upsetting. The government should really be having ads about this, laying out the stark facts and the impact. But I guess they don't really care so why would they inform. I've been afraid to delve too deep myself as I get upset, but for when I try to gently convert others(while screaming at them internally), are we saying that there will be catastrophic effects affecting food supply in 20/30/40 years or when? Most people are so selfish and unless they know it will impact them directly then they won't give a damn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120712680#Comment_120712680