In This Issue
Wyevale "Sale of the Century" enters the second stage
Neudorff take top prize as GIMA Award winners announced
Woodlodge voted Supplier of the Year
Picture Special of the glitzy GIMA Awards evening
Cheques for £4,000 presented to Greenfingers and Acorns charities
Tong Garden Centre awarded Job Creator of the Year title
Stax expands its own-brand offering by acquiring Groundsman Premium Brush range
Squire’s managers go back to the floor
GIMA judges award category win to Deco-Pak for ‘whimsical and charming’ birdboxes
Plant area managers and buyers reminded to sign up for Plant Area Forum
Glee workshop - How to be a successful exhibitor and identify the buying signs
LOFA make £10,000 donation to Greenfingers Charity
Hayes Garden World and Silverbirch Garden Centre set the gold standards in The Greatest Outdoor Leisure Sales Team Awards presented at Solex 2018
Supremo wins Best New Product Award at SOLEX
Bramblecrest win Best Stand at SOLEX
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
GARDENA unveils new Ambassador Stores in four locations across the UK
Best plants to attract bees revealed, after gardeners’ app survey
RHS endorses The Posh Shed Company’s entire product line
RHS Annual Photographic Competition debuts winning photographs at the RHS London Plant and Art Fair
Gardeners see increase in invasive weeds and plants in spring 2018
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news. 

Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700



GTN's Greatest Awards 2108 will launch with the presentation of the Outdoor Leisure Awards sponsored by:






Best plants to attract bees revealed, after gardeners’ app survey

 

The best plants to grow to attract bumblebees have been revealed, after gardeners across the country used an app to record bee sightings.

The three flowers most visited by bees were viper’s-bugloss, teasel and toadflax, according to data from the Blooms for Bees app, created by Coventry University scientists.

Blooms for Bees is the only bumblebee surveying app to record the flower being foraged as well as the insect.

Its unique focus on gardens and allotments aims to improve recommendations of which flowers to grow more of to help support dwindling bumblebee populations by increasing important sources of nectar and pollen.

There has been a well-documented decline of certain bumblebee species within the UK – with two becoming extinct in the last 70 years.

The free app, developed by experts at the university’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience was launched last year.

More than 500 people, from as far afield as the Orkneys to the Isles of Scilly, submitted 3,011 bumblebee photographs and 2,218 plant surveys during the year.

Results from the app also found the top three bumblebees spotted by gardeners were the buff-tailed bumblebee, the common carder bee and the red-tailed bumblebee.

A total of 15 different bumblebee species were photographed by gardeners, including the ruderal bumblebee and moss carder bee which are listed as national conservation priorities.

The citizen science project encourages people to use the app to carry out five minute surveys to identify the bumblebees they see in their gardens and record which flowers they visit.

It features a detailed identification guide which includes all 25 UK bumblebee species, and makes it easy for the user to submit photos and data.

The £100k project was co-funded by the university and the Heritage Lottery Fund in partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Garden Organic and the Royal Horticultural Society.

Judith Conroy, a researcher with CAWR, said: “This has given us a fascinating and vital insight into the flowers that are most popular with bumblebees.

“Our results are really important to us because they have come from gardeners themselves recording and photographing what they see. Before, most of the information we had was anecdotal evidence.

“The species of plants that came out top were not necessarily those which are most widely recommended. The information from gardeners has opened new doors for us and helped improve our knowledge of how to make gardens and allotments more bumblebee friendly.”

The Blooms for Bees team will be talking about their research findings and handing out information and free seeds with partners the RHS at Defra’s “Carnabee” takeover of Carnaby Street, London, this week to mark Bees' Needs week, which runs from July 9 until July 15.

The app is free to download on Apple and Android platforms.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Comment
Name:*

Email Address:*

Comment:*