"Nature Garden" concept"
Selecta one contributes further to biodiversity protection
The determined result was information about which varieties mostly attract insects and contribute to their nutrition. The purpose of the project is to develop and implement a biodiversity breeding program to increase the urban green for insects to strengthen the assortment of Selecta even more with insect-friendly plants.
Another enriching activity as part of the project was the cooperation with a beekeeper from Franconia: Matthias Habicht lives in Wassertrüdingen near Nördlingen. Together with Alfons Dietrich, his future father-in-law, he pursues his greatest hobby with big fascination – bee-keeping and apiculture. He owns 50 bee colonies. A bee colony consists of several hundred members. The queen bee is the head of the bee colony and is mother of up to 40,000 worker bees and of 500 to 1,000 pollinating drones.
“The working bees are attracted by the scent and the colour of the flowers. By gathering pollen and nectar, which are the food resources for the bee colony, pollen stick on the hair of the bee workers and thereby caught from blossom to blossom. This process is called pollination which is the basis for ecology (biodiversity: conservation of plant species diversity) and for economics in agriculture (quality of fruits)”, says Habicht.
Selecta one provided varieties from different plant genera for the hobby beekeeper. The aim was to offer an additional source of nutrition for his more than two million honey bees in late summer. Among the plants were different varieties of Bidens, Gaura, Bracteantha, Heliotrope, Echinacea, Lobelias and Dahlias.
According to the observations of the beekeeper especially the dahlia varieties Dalaya‚ Shari and Dalaya‚ Bali attracted the bees. "As soon as the sun shined, many working bees sat on those two Dahlia varieties and used them as food source.", says Matthias Habicht. Until the last warm days of autumn 2017 the bee colonies of Matthias Habicht could use the plants of Selecta one as food source. The pollen and nectar of the Selecta varieties are now ingredients of the blossom honey mixture of the hobby beekeeper.
The results generated from the cooperation with the beekeeper and the results of the trial are used by Selecta one to develop its assortment. The corresponding concept is called “Nature Garden” and Selecta one actively approaches and informs the retail and assists concerning the marketing of insect-friendly plants with supply of POS materials such as posters, trolley banners, pots and labels.
For more information:
Selecta One
www.selecta-one.com