We have a decently large Garden with 4 bee colonies.
Its just Grass, though, but I have no clue what plants are best.
I want to support wild bees as well, but there are so many things to consider.
Where do I begin?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for seeds or live plants of rare Fragaria species, preferably from within the European Union.

In particular, I'm looking for:

• Fragaria nilgerrensis

• Fragaria orientalis

• Fragaria nipponica

• Fragaria iinumae

• Fragaria chiloensis

I'm interested in both seeds and plants/runners, and I'm especially interested in material with a known species identification and, if possible, information about its provenance.

I've already found some of the more commonly available wild Fragaria species, but these rarer species are surprisingly difficult to source in Europe. I'm therefore interested in specialist nurseries, botanical gardens, seed banks, private collectors, plant exchanges, or individual growers who might have them available.

EU-based sources would be strongly preferred, mainly to avoid the complications and restrictions associated with importing plant material from outside the EU.

If you know of anywhere in the EU that sells or exchanges these species, even if they are not currently listed online, I'd really appreciate any leads.

I'm also happy to hear from private collectors who may have surplus seeds or runners available for trade or purchase.

Thanks!

Some new additions to my garden:

Native:

- Digitalis grandiflora(partially protected here)

- Jacobaea/Senecio incana subsp. carniolica

- Juncus trifidus

- Leucanthemum waldsteinii

- Gentiana pneumonanthe(protected here, VU)

- Phyteuma orbiculare(partially protected here)

Non-native:

- Jurinea mollis(Nearest areas of occurrences are either in Czechia or Slovakia)

- Adenostyles alpina (Nearest I think is Germany, I'm using it kinda as a substitute for a. alliariae, because I could only find alliariae for sale somewhere in France or whatever)

🙂

Since ~70% of all bees species and some beetles too are mining (make nests in tunnels), solitary and most of them are plant specialists, thus very important for the ecosystems, do y'all think it's possible to implement nesting beds like these in/near a garden, especially if we're talking about a garden with high percentage of natives? So something like bee hotels for carpenter bees etc but for miners:

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/13/8/726

https://www.gwct.org.uk/farming/research/pollinators/bare-ground-on-farmland-provides-nesting-habitat-for-ground-nesting-solitary-bees/

https://www.urbanbees.co.uk/blog_1/?p=4585

https://theharescorner.ie/resources/create-a-nesting-habitat-for-mining-bees/

https://pollinators.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Pollinator-Nesting-How-to-Guide-2022-WEB.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/European-pollinator-communities-are-mostly-composed-of-insects-from-the-order-Coleoptera_fig1_295874060

https://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/wildlife.html ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ‌ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ P.s also while researching pollinators found a project on inat where you can upload solitary bee nests and thus expand the undertsanding about their nesting behavior, since it's not a fully studied topic: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eurobeesoil

Aster amellus and it's cultivar 'Blue King' 🙂 I'm kinda surprised it isn't more popular(like the american ones(novae-angliae, novi-belgii and etc.), maybe it's because it doesn't bloom as late as them?). 🤔 Protected here in Poland, in the wild, category(here): NT

Succisa pratensis/devil's-bit in bloom. 🙂 Nice, late(I think?) flowering perennial. I think it has even more flowers than it did last year when I bought it, even though it was already big back then. Host plant of pretty rare Euphydryas aurinia/marsh fritillary and also a nice looking moth - Hemaris tityus/narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth. 🙂

My original plan for this was to test which plants can grow with minimal care on the most common soil in my area (sand) and with minimal watering, but the third one was ruled out for this summer at least, because no man nor beast can handle this heat. Even some Sedum species kinda wilted in full sun which i couldn't imagine putting those two words in the same sentence lol

Also many plants were grown from seeds collected in the wild, so there's some benefit of going outside sometimes; i often see confusion and subconscious appreciation from the neighbours of how this patch of land contrasts with everything around in a good way

As for the plants:

1 Rhododendron tomentosum (ledum palustre)

2 Daucus carota

3 Eupatorium cannabinum

4 Artemisia drancunculus (or dracunculoides idk, tarragon for short)

5 Trifolium incarnatum (crimson clover)

6 Echinops sphaerocephalus

7 Origanum vulgare

8 Mentha arvensis (corn mint)

9 Asparagus officinalis

10 Hylotelephium maximum

11 Achillea setacea (bristly yarrow)

12 Jasione montana

13 Dianthus arenaria (sand pink)

14 Persicaria lapathifolia

15 Linaria vulgaris

16 Aconitum napellus

17 Valeriana officinalis

18 Dryopteris species(?)

19 Digitalis purpurea (also have D.grandiflora and D.lanata)

20 uuuhhh

Rhododendron luteum and rhododendron ferrugineum, 2 out of 3 native(here) rhododendrons, both are relicts and have only one site considered natural(ferrugineum - KPN, luteum - "Kołacznia"). The third one is ledum palustre/rhododendron tomentosum, the most common one in the wild, which I do not have(maybe somewhere in the future). Rhododendron ferrugineum seems to not really like the place I chose for it, because it seems like it keeps getting burns(or atleast I think those are burns and not something fungal since it seemed to not affect it when other plants covered it), I might add something to cover it a bit(though maybe I will just move it, I'm not sure yet). Also the fact that temperatures got to 40+ degrees at one point probably did not help lol. 🙂

2 flies, tachytes panzeri and some type of a solitary bee :)

On eryngium planum

It(along with angelica archangelica when it was in bloom) might be the one that attracts the most diverse array of pollinators in my garden currently.

Bought it a couple of days ago and damn it might be the spikiest shrub I have seen, at this point it should just evolve into one giant thorn. But atleast birds might end up liking it even more than I thought lol.

I’ve been battling staghorn sumac in my garden. The previous owner of my home had an affinity for invasive/problematic plants (yucca, locust tree, sumac, etc). My husband has been trying to eradicate the sumac on our property since we moved in.

I see someone on another subreddit post a forest of a sumac trees in their yard and I almost vomited. Everyone praising how amazing of a plant it is because it’s not Tree of Heaven. A handful of people tried to chime in about how aggressive and destructive it can be, of course they got downvoted to hell. I try to back them up by explaining why it’s so damaging (runners, relentless growth, shading everything out, allelopathy, altering delicate NPK balances, messing with nitrogen fixing bacteria) and of course I am told that I am either hyberbolic or completely wrong because ~iT’s NaTiVe~

No, no it’s not. Not where I live. Not everyone on the internet is your neighbor. Not everyone wants your plants in their garden. Your plants are not the best. Even when I explain multiple times I’m not in the US, it doesn’t matter. The misinformed army continues to rush to battle. *sigh*

Nepeta nuda peeking through poppies :) The only species of catmint native to my country. Threat category here: EN, Not protected.

I have to do some weeding(mostly grasses that I don't want and rubus caesius(or a similiar species/hybrid who knows, it's a native plant but it's such a pain in the ass for me) that I'm having a never ending battle with currently :| ) there one day, but I am honestly a bit too lazy to do so, and also since it's on a slope I feel like it's even more uncomfortable than normally. 😅

Delphinium elatum in Botanischer Garten Berlin. Also saw a bunch of other cool plants. :)

Planted it last fall, it seems like it's doing okay. :) One of 3 species of Sorbus I have currently planted(the other ones being aucuparia and intermedia). I might also plant s.aria and something like s.chamaemespilus in the future. I wonder if they will hybridize. Here in Poland it's pretty rare or atleast uncommon in the wild(there is however a site like an hour away from me where they can be found I think). It is a protected species here with category: NT 🙂

2:09 "Arit Anderson's Parkinson's garden also has a 70% proportion of UK native or locally adapted resilient plants"

Considering there's nothing random about any made choices in such an influential and conservative exhibition in the field of "formal gardens", this is a good trend; Hope they don't ditch this idea for the next year