About Pollinator Seeds

We're an Irish business on a simple mission: make it easy and affordable for everyone in Ireland to help our struggling pollinators.

The Crisis Nobody Talks About

When people hear "save the bees," most think of honeybees. But honeybees aren't the ones in trouble. It's Ireland's wild bees — 101 species of bumblebees and solitary bees — that are in crisis. One-third are threatened with extinction. Bumblebee populations are declining by 3.5% every single year. Over half of our 19 bumblebee species are in decline, and 3 rare species face extinction.

As Paul Handrick of the World Bee Sanctuary in Co. Wicklow puts it: "Honeybees are not in trouble. It is wild bees that are in trouble." He compares keeping honeybees to save bees to buying a pug and claiming you're saving the wolves.

The root cause? We've pushed nature to the edges. Ireland has lost an estimated 97% of its semi-natural grasslands since the 1970s. The wildflower meadows that once sustained these vital insects have been replaced by ryegrass monocultures.

The Fix Is Simple

Handrick calculates that if just 2% of Irish farmland were converted to wildflower meadows, wild bee populations could recover within five years. Two percent. That's a strip along a hedgerow, a field margin left to flower, a corner of a farm that's too wet to graze anyway.

That's where we come in. We make it easy for anyone — home gardeners, Tidy Towns groups, farmers, schools, councils, businesses — to create pollinator habitat, affordably and without fuss.

Wildflower Corridors: Connecting Habitats

A single wildflower garden is good. But a connected network of wildflower habitats is transformative. That's the idea behind pollinator corridors — strips of wildflowers along hedgerows, field margins, and laneways that link isolated patches of habitat into a living network.

For farmers, this means:

• Hedgerow margins — sow a 2-3 metre strip of wildflowers along existing hedgerows. The hedgerow provides shelter and nesting sites; the flowers provide forage. Together, they create a corridor that pollinators can follow across the landscape.
• Field margins — leave a headland unsown or sow with wildflower mix. These strips cost little in lost production but provide enormous ecological value.
• Wet corners and awkward patches — every farm has them. Instead of fighting them with drainage and reseeding, let them flower. They're often the most biodiverse areas on a farm.
• ACRES compatibility — many of these actions qualify under the ACRES agri-environment scheme, meaning farmers can be paid to create pollinator habitat.

The World Bee Sanctuary in Wicklow maintains hedgerows 40 metres wide — thick with nettles, brambles, and wildflowers — that function as wildlife corridors running through their 55-acre sanctuary. The result? Barn owls, red squirrels, great spotted woodpeckers, and thriving populations of native wild bees have returned to land that was once ordinary farmland.

Not every farm can dedicate 40 metres. But even a 2-metre strip makes a difference. And when your strip connects to your neighbour's strip, and theirs to the next, you create a corridor that can sustain wildlife across entire parishes.

What We Sell

We sell 12 wildflower seed mixes — from a 6g pocket garden to 5kg bulk restoration packs — plus specialist blends for bees, butterflies, shade, clover lawns, bogland, and cover crops. Every mix is designed for Irish conditions with species that provide season-long forage for pollinators.

But we're more than wildflower seed. Our Heritage Kitchen range includes forgotten Irish vegetables (skirret, sea kale, good king henry, scorzonera), heritage grains (einkorn, emmer, rye), and stone hand mills for grinding your own flour. We also carry individual species packs, wedding favours, school kits, and gift vouchers.

By sourcing directly and keeping our operation lean, we offer these seeds at prices 10-56% below other Irish suppliers — because helping pollinators shouldn't cost the earth.

Who We Serve

• Home gardeners — from window boxes to back gardens, every patch counts
• Farmers — hedgerow margins, field edges, and wildlife corridors
• Tidy Towns committees — community pollinator gardens and public spaces
• Schools — pollinator education projects and outdoor classrooms
• Local authorities — roadside verges, parks, and public land
• Businesses — corporate biodiversity projects and ESG commitments

Food Resilience: Why Heritage Crops Matter Now

Ireland imports 83% of its fruit and vegetables. Just 74 commercial growers remain. Our food supply chain is long, fragile, and almost entirely dependent on imports. That's a vulnerability, not a strength.

The heritage crops we sell — skirret, scorzonera, good king henry, sea kale, lovage, Welsh onion — are perennials that produce food year after year from a single planting. They survive frost and poor soil. They need no fertilisers or pesticides. They've been feeding people on this island for centuries. They are food resilience infrastructure for your garden.

Our heritage grains — einkorn, emmer, and rye — take this further. A small plot of 4-5 square metres produces enough grain for regular bread baking. Mill it yourself with a stone hand mill and you have the complete seed-to-loaf cycle, independent of supply chains. This isn't nostalgia. It's practical self-reliance, proven over millennia.

Supporting Those Who Lead the Way

We're proud supporters of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, now entering its third phase (2026-2030) with €1.8 million in government funding. Every product we sell contributes directly to the Plan's goals of creating pollinator-friendly habitats across the island.

We also want to highlight the extraordinary work of people like Paul Handrick and Clare-Louise Donelan at the World Bee Sanctuary in Co. Wicklow — Ireland's only certified vegan organic land and the world's first native wild bee sanctuary. Their work proves that when you stop fighting nature and start working with it, wildlife returns remarkably quickly. If you can, support their work at worldbeesanctuary.org.

Our Promise

• Quality seeds — EU-certified, high germination rates
• Honest pricing — transparent, competitive, no hidden costs
• Irish expertise — growing guides written for Ireland, not imported generic advice
• Fast delivery — shipped with An Post, typically 3-5 business days
• Real impact — every packet sown creates habitat. Together, we're building a network of wildflower corridors across Ireland.