Blossoms All Year Around - With Shrubs

At this time of year, especially with the very mild winter (so far), it's important for our BEEs to have a source of food. I was out at a local bee farm and was surprised at how much activity there was. Of course, it's early in the year, but there are bees and other pollinators that could use a bit of food. It was nice to see a couple of bees on her Viburnum.

If you can, consider planting some shrubs that provide blossom at different times of the year.  Adrian Doble, our resident bumble BEE expert, has provided a nice list of some shrubs you can consider. The shrubs are relatively easy to find and easy to care for. 

For Blossom In	Consider These Shrubs
January	Salix caprea pendula - Kilmarnock Willow Clematis cirrhosa - Winter Flowering Clematis Ulex europeaus - Gorse Corylus avellane - Common Hazel
February	Erica Darleyensis -  Winter Heather
March	Daphne odora aureomarginata - Winter Daphne
April	Ribes sanguineum - Flowering Currant
May	Chaenomeles japonica, - Japanese Quince Weigelia Rosmarinus officinalis - Rosemary Philadelphus delavayi - Philadelphus
June	Cotoneaster simonsii - Himalayan Cotoneaster Erica darleyensis - Summer Heather Ceanothus  burkwoodii - Californian Lilac
July	Rosa canina - Dog Rose Lonicera Americana - Summer honeysuckle) Syringa vulgaris - Purple Lilac
August	Lavendula Hidcote - English Lavender Potentilla fruticose - Shrubby Cinquefoil
September	Buddleja davidii - Butterfly Bush
October	Salvia fulgens -   Cardinal Sage Hebe - in particular,“E A Bowles”
November	Abelia grandiflora - Glossy Abelia
December	Mahonia japonica - Japanese Mahonia Lonicera fragrantissima  - Winter Honeysuckle Viburnum bodnantense - Viburnum ‘Dawn"

In this list, I have included both the Latin name and a common name. 

Voucher Signup Has Begun

You can now signup for the Let's BEE Friendly in Cookham Rise project!

If you live in Cookham Rise and want to sign up for a £5.00 voucher for some specially selected bee-friendly plants, read about the scheme here: https://lbfcookhamrise.blogspot.com/2020/01/details-of-lbf-offer.html.

To get your vouchers: Click here and fill in our online form.

And for some small print, please read: https://lbfcookhamrise.blogspot.com/2020/01/lets-bee-friendly-more-details.html

And please tell your friends and neighbours!

Getting Your BEE Friendly Vouchers

We have made some small changes to how you can apply for your Let's BEE Friendly in Cookham Rise voucher. If you are a resident of Cookham Rise and you want to apply, please go to http://bit.ly/LBFVoucher2020

APPLICATIONS OPEN SATURDAY 1 FEBRUARY!  ARE OPEN NOW!!!

Did You Know...

A bumblebee can only fly for about 40 minutes between feeding. But we've lost 97% of our wiłdflower meadows.

So please plant at least one nectar-rich flower in your garden or community this year. Your one flower could be the pit stop that saves a bee.

And if you are in Cookham Rise, please, please, please take part in the Wild Cooham Let's BEE Friendly in Cookham Rise scheme.

Thanks to Little Green Space 🐝 for the quote. Please follow @LGSpace on Twitter (https://twitter.com/LGSpace).

Let's BEE Friendly Project - Call For Volunteers

Running Cookham-Rise wide schemes like this is a bit of work. And that work relies on volunteers who do it for the love of the area.

We'd love to have a couple of folks who can help us out with the organization.  We need someone to manage the applications and deliver the vouchers. And we'd love to have you with us on Jan 31st at Wild Cookham's 2020 Kick-Off meeting.

The pay is nil, but the odd cup of Costas Coffee might be possible.  Please email us at LBFCookhamRise@Gmail.Com. We'd love to hear from you!

Let's Bee Friendly - More Details

We have now kicked this project off formally with announcements on various social media sites. Interest and enthusiasm are growing which is wonderful to see.

The Small Print

To provide some clarity over the scheme - here are the details of the scheme in no particular order.

1. Each Cookham Rise resident is welcome to request ONE £5.00 off voucher to be applied to selected collections of Bee Friendly Plants (each collection to cost £11.00 - or £6.00 with the voucher).
2. The scheme is limited to individual households in Cookham Rise.
3. There are 100 vouchers available. As they say, when they are gone, they are gone.
4. Each voucher can only be applied on the specially selected collections of plants which will be specially marked at the plant sale. We' love you to buy other bee-friendly plants and you are welcome to buy more sets of our collections at the bargain price of £11.00.
5. Application for vouchers is via an online form on our Facebook page. We'll post this more widely in Feb.
6. We prefer to see the plants planted in front of your houses so everyone can join the bees in enjoying the plantings.
7. The vouchers are to be delivered starting on the 9th of March.
8. The vouchers are to be used at the plant sales on Sunday 21/22 March and Sunday 28/29 March only.
9. You must present the voucher to claim your discount.
10. Applications for vouchers closes as of 23 March 2020 - or whenever we reach our target of 100 vouchers. 
11. When you apply, we need you to allow us to hold your contact information and whether we are allowed to pass this information on to other Wild Cookham projects.  We'll need your permission for the former in order to issue and deliver the vouchers. We'd like to let other Wild Cookham projects contact you and invite you to Wild Cookham events. 

We'd love to do more but have limited funds. If this is successful and if we can find more benefactors, we'd love to expand this scheme next year to encompass ALL of Cookham.

Most Innovative Planting Award
For a bit of added fun - We're offering a prize for the most innovative planting of these plants. We'll ask you to submit a couple of pictures and details. We'll award the prize in the autumn, as part of the Wild About Gardens award event. More details on the prize are to be posted soon.

Details of the LBF Offer

The idea of the Let's BEE Friendly project is that we create an offer of a wide variety of great bee-friendly plants for your garden. Plants which can help the bees and all the other pollinators - and look good too. Every Cookham Rise resident can apply for one voucher which entitles you to buy a special collection of plants with money off.

Vernon Brown, who run the weekend plant sales at Pinder Hall, have come up with a fantastic offer for us. With our voucher you get:

• TWO 1 litre plants which include: winter heather, cowslip, lungwort, lavender, rosemary, allium, hollyhock or foxgloves (based on what is looking best at the time)
• FOUR 9cm pots of different Bee-friendly British wildflowers.

And, as an added bonus Vernon Brown is providing a pot of spring-flowering bulbs. These will include Daffodil, Crocus, Muscari or Bluebell based on what is looking best at the nursery.

Each plant collection in this scheme sells for £11.00 or £6.00 with the voucher. Given the quality of the plants, this is a fantastic deal (even at full price). Feel free to buy more and make your garden even more bee-friendly.

Please tell your friends and neighbours in Cookham Rise!! 

Fuller details on the vouchers and how to apply will get posted on this site as soon as we can. For any more questions, please email. lbfcookhamrise@gmail.com.