Did you know that behind every LIV by Neher insect catcher sold, a specific flowering area in Germany can be created? With 40 cents per insect catcher, we support the Network Blühende Landschaft (NBL) – an organization that is passionately committed, with expertise and a close-knit network of land partners, to counteracting insect decline in Germany.
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We sat down with Sabrina Von der Heide from the BienenBlütenReich team and gained exciting insights into their work: What is behind regionally adapted seeds? Why is a single square meter of flowering area not enough – and what can each and every one of us still do? And what does it actually mean, concretely, when a donation creates habitat for wild bees, butterflies, and beetles?
Sabrina: We, the Blühende Landschaft Network, have set ourselves the goal of bringing the entire landscape throughout Germany back to bloom in order to counteract the dramatic decline in insects. With our regionally adapted seed mixtures, we – together with our land partners – create habitat for bees, bumblebees, butterflies & co.Sabrina: My colleague Linda (Dr. Trein) called me in the summer of 2024 and asked if I could imagine substituting for a colleague during her parental leave. I didn't have to think long and agreed. Since then, I've been part of the BienenBlütenReich team and I'm involved in corporate collaborations, advising our land partners, and increasingly in public relations. Our team consists of professionally competent biodiversity consultants. We are, of course, driven by the meaning behind all our actions. We are highly motivated to sustainably support our insects. And at the same time, we complement each other very well on a human level. It's simply fun to work together towards a common goal, and when we are on our annual flowering area tour, where we visit some of our land partners and their areas, we see bees on flowers, so to speak, in black and white, what we have already created. That confirms our work.Sabrina: It's important to me to finally establish the knowledge and self-understanding in society that our insects are neither bothersome nor are the blooming areas we create just nice to have and pretty to look at. On the contrary, they represent an enormously important part of our livelihood.
Every small contribution counts. And what motivates me is precisely this knowledge that every small contribution counts and that it is possible, through good communication, to make people reflect and rethink. Where does our jam on the breakfast table come from, how is our coffee, our chamomile or thyme tea or our marigold-based hand cream and the delicious strawberries that can be harvested from our regions during the season produced? They don't just magically appear out of thin air and then stand on the supermarket shelf. They have to be grown in good soil and, above all, pollinated so that fruits can even develop. It is the pollination performance of our six-legged friends that makes this enjoyment and the economy with these products possible in the first place.Sabrina: We work with over 200 land partners across Germany. These are farmers or private individuals, church communities and municipalities who have approached us with intrinsic motivation and want to work for more biodiversity. Through the donations we receive from private individuals and companies, we finance the seeds, hedges, flowering trees and shrubs, which the land partners then receive from us free of charge. The donations also finance our consulting services. Because simply scattering a few seeds on the field and waiting for rain, unfortunately, does not work. We look at which seeds fit the respective area and provide the land partners with detailed instructions for implementation and care. There are regionally adapted seeds for insects that are also adapted to specific wildflowers. The viper's-bugloss mason bee, for example, can only occur and reproduce where its host plant, the viper's-bugloss, also blooms. And at the right time. Therefore, a viper's-bugloss from southern Germany may not help the viper's-bugloss mason bees in the north, because its flowering time differs too much from their activity period.Sabrina: We work with about 10 different seed mixtures, which differ regionally in their species composition and usually contain between 30 and 40 different species. We primarily work with native wild plants that used to be much more common in our landscape than they are today. Examples of sown plant species include: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), Chicory (Cichorium intybus), Wild Carrot (Daucus carota), Viper's-bugloss (Echium vulgare), Marjoram (Origanum vulgare), Meadow Sage (Salvia pratensis), Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). Marguerite, various bellflower species, grasses like sheep's fescue, crested dog's-tail or tall oat-grass.
We have a specific composition of seeds of different plants for each region, because "somehow native" is not enough – it's also about genetics and adaptation. Plant populations differ regionally, e.g., in terms of sprouting time, flowering time, frost tolerance, and drought resistance. Furthermore, plants and local insect populations are coordinated over long periods (coevolution). If plants of the same species from unsuitable regions are introduced, this can endanger or "mix" intraspecific (genetic) diversity. Protection is most easily achieved when autochthonous (local) plant material is used (from the same region or nearby natural area).
Therefore, be careful when buying seeds; because much commercial seed from cultivated varieties or foreign species, while visually attractive, only helps a few insects – partly because many native insects have adapted to native wild plants, and specialists even require specific groups or species.Sabrina: This question cannot be answered in relation to a single square meter, because it's easy to imagine that a square meter of wildflower meadow can host the plant species inventory of a wildflower meadow, but cannot fulfill the overall ecological function. For that, the size of the meadow plays a decisive role. The same applies to flowering areas on arable land. One square meter is pretty to look at, but only as a strip of at least 10 meters wide and as long as possible does the flowering area develop real ecological functions such as habitat, food supply, overwintering quarters, migration corridor.
What we can, however, prove with figures, because there are numerous studies on it: Over 300 wild bee species and numerous other insects, birds, and small mammals benefit from flowering areas on arable land.Sabrina: In seeds, signage, and in consulting for our land partners who create these flowering areas for us and our donors.Sabrina: We often pre-finance the creation of flowering areas. However, if no more donations come in, our hands are unfortunately tied, then we cannot finance seeds for our land partners and they cannot create areas for wild bees, beetles and butterflies. A donation makes exactly that possible: the creation of food and habitat for our six-legged friends.
In 2025, flower sponsorships have enabled the creation and planting of 387,000 square meters of flowering area, 45 flowering trees, 1130 meters of hedges, 192,000 square meters of true wildflower meadows and verges.Sabrina: These collaborations are very valuable to us because we "speak the same language." Sustainable brands, by their very corporate DNA, are already in the same bubble, and there's not much need to explain why, for example, it's important to protect insects and enable their reproduction.Sabrina: By taking out a flower sponsorship with us. It's very easy to do at: www.bluehpate.de
However, there are also other ways to cooperate with us. Here companies can find our portfolio, for example.Sabrina: In a long-term partnership, reliability plays a major role. The "promise" to nature, to insects, and ultimately to us, that we will continuously – depending on the corporate partnership – create new habitats again and again, thus creating a nationwide mosaic for bees, bumblebees, butterflies & co.Every LIV by Neher insect catcher sold directly contributes 40 cents – thereby making a piece of blooming landscape possible for bees, bumblebees, and butterflies. Would you like to do even more? At www.bluehpate.de, you can easily take out your own flower sponsorship – and thus, together with us, create a colorful mosaic for our insects