Pollinators

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Pollination: wonder, beauty and services. That the topic in Athayde's blog this morning. Blog @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com

Thanks for sharing this Steven.

As farmers and policy makers look for more benign forms of crop production, clover is undergoing a revival. This is excellent news for bees, as red and white clovers are some of the best providers of nectar in the British landscape. Athayde blog @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/tog…

May is here. I'm told today is known in Gaelic as Là Buidhe Bealltainn – the ‘yellow day of Beltane’. One thing's for sure this is a time of year when yellow flowers are usually plentiful. scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/2022/05/16/of-…

Dandelions are one of the favourite foods for pollinators at this time of year. These often-overlooked plants are proving very popular around Battleby attracting bees, flies and butterflies. Let them bloom and help feed our pollinators.

A trip to @RBGE in Edinburgh makes a trip to our wonderful capital city that bit more special. As well as meadows, and adapted mowing regimes, their winter garden management practices for established beds are being modified to provide standing stems for overwintering insects.

A bumble bee out and about in a garden near you flies thanks to complex evolutive adaptations that allow her to keep her temperature under control, so that she may carry on with her pollination work. See Athayde's latest blog @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com

The 2026 FIT Count season is underway. The Flower-Insect Timed Count survey asks you to spend 10 minutes counting all insects that land on a patch of flowers, to help monitor abundance of #pollinators. 🪰🦋🌻🪲🐝 More info at ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

It's a dreich day here today. Let's escape to summer, and visit some Thyme. When it comes to fragrance and the ability to attract bees you have to hand it to Thyme.  One of our most popular herbs, it is both easy to grow and undemanding of space.

I recently joined the British-Irish Council Invasive Species webinar titled ‘Combatting the threat of Asian hornets across these islands’.  A subject that is increasingly on the minds of those who work with pollinators. Blog @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/2026/03/30/les…

Join a new citizen science project and help us to uncover the hidden lives of Europe’s ground-nesting #bees - please share with your networks: jeffollerton.co.uk/2026/04/02/hel…

Orchids & pollinators association = 'lock & key' strategy: the right 'key' (pollen on a pollinator's exact spot) & the right 'lock' (flower's exact spot) are required, otherwise the fertilisation mechanism will not be unlocked. Example = Bucket orchids. @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com

Currently on BBC iplayer 'My Garden of a Thousand Bees' by Bristol-based film-maker Martin Dohrn. Utterly brilliant. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…

Love(ing) a cold climate. No, nothing to do with Nancy Mitford's novel or a mini t.v. series, but rather a look at purple saxifrage. scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/2024/03/26/lov…

Planting flowers that bloom at different stages of raspberry development enhance the pollination service that is so important for crop quality, at the same time reducing the pressure from herbivores and pathogen vectors. More in Athayde's blog @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/pur…