Create your own wildflower meadow

Late summer to autumn is the time to collect seed from wildflowers. The Seed Book presents approximately 50 different wildflowers that all play an important role for pollinators.

The Seed Book gives a fascinating insight into the plants’ biology, when they bloom and produce seeds, how they spread and which insects pollinate them. You can read about semi-natural grasslands and how to collect and dry different seeds. You will also get to know our most important groups of pollinators: bumblebees, wasps, flies, butterflies and bees. In addition, the book provides practical advice on how to establish and maintain your own wildflower meadow.

“In order to protect biodiversity, we must encourage denser networks of living and feeding stations for bumblebees and other insects that perform the important work of pollination,” says researcher and editor Ellen Johanne Svalheim.

For the past three years, NIBIO Landvik has been selling wildflower seeds from southeastern Norway. The seeds are collected from various hayfields in the region, and later propagated at the research station in Grimstad. Now, seed blends from other regions have come onto the market or are on their way. However, demand for regional flower seeds is far greater than what NIBIO Landvik can provide. Thus, the idea was born for the Seed Book, which will allow people to create their own wildflower meadows.

Establishing a wildflower meadow is a long-term project that must be allowed to develop over time. You can transplant roadside wildflowers into the meadow, or find seeds from new species that you sow or grow plug plants from. Soon enough, butterflies, bumblebees and many other insects will appear.

“It is exciting, and everyone can contribute,” Svalheim says.