Free Cheerios Wildflower Seeds — How To Get Your Seeds And #BringBackTheBees

It may be their popular honey nut flavor or maybe Cheerios just knows that the environment needs protecting but the General Mills-owned company is doing nature a solid by giving away 100 million wildflower seeds in an effort to save the bees. According to USA Today, the Cheerios mascot, a honeybee named Buzz, is the inspiration behind their new campaign called #BringBackTheBees. No matter what inspired the cereal company to take notice and try to improve the plight of honeybees, it is definitely buzzworthy and deserving of some attention.

There is no denying that bees play a huge role in our food supply and scientists have warned for years that the bee population has been dying off at a growing rate. The extinction of bees would be catastrophic for humans and pretty much everything else that depends on them to pollinate the plants that grow our food.

Cheerios launched their #BringBackTheBees campaign in an effort not only to provide more wildflowers for the bees as a means to help grow bee populations but also to bring awareness to the seriousness of what will happen to Earth if the honeybee population is allowed to die out. Several species of bee have been struggling to maintain and grow in numbers with the bumblebee landing on the endangered species list for the first time this year.

According to Food & Wine, 42 percent of the bee colonies in the United States disappeared in 2015 alone. They also reported that one in three bites of food that humans eat were the result of bees doing their job. To further illustrate just how important the plight of bees is to human food consumption, they also wrote that 70 of the top 100 food crops rely on bees for pollination. Those are some seriously alarming statistics.

Now, Honey Nut Cheerios boxes are missing their mascot, Buzz, and are emblazoned with the new campaign #SaveTheBees in order to send a message to cereal eaters and hopefully do just what they are campaigning for and save the bees. Part of the #SaveTheBees campaign has gained popularity rather quickly because it’s fun and free. Cheerios has partnered with Veseys Seeds and has pledged to give away 100 million wildflower seeds, asking those to receive them to plant them in a “bee friendly” area.

So far, Cheerios and Veseys Seeds have accomplished 90 percent of their goal and have roughly 10 million more wildflower seeds to give away. They are hoping to accomplish that task this spring with your help. Cheerios has said they will send wildflower seeds to anyone who is willing to support the #BringBackTheBees campaign. In order to receive your free wildflower seeds, just go to the #BringBackToTheBees page on the Cheerios website and tell them where to send your seeds.

After giving the necessary amount of personal information and then either opting in or out of receiving promotions via email from Cheerios and Veseys Seeds, the #BringBackTheBees campaign will send you 100 seeds to plant in your area to promote the growth of bee colonies in the United States. After signing up, it would take four to six weeks to receive your free wildflower seeds meaning an early May arrival if you order now.

In case you lack a green thumb, here are some simple tips for planting your free wildflower seeds. Keep in mind that wildflowers are very easy to grow but depending on your climate, there are different times of year when planting wildflowers will yield the best results. They will grow in most areas in the spring, summer, or fall with no problem. As long as the soil isn’t sterile, wildflowers will grow there. Look for areas that already contain grass or weeds, as those areas are also great places for wildflowers to grow.

Pick an area that gets a good amount of sun and that has good drainage so that puddles don’t form and drown the young plants. You can just throw the wildflower seeds and let the wind take them where they land or you can opt for optimal flowers by clearing out your planting area the best you can with a rake. Removing any debris and other plants will give the seeds a better chance to take root.

Wildflowers don’t take much care or special attention and don’t require fertilizer to grow. Watching otherwise boring areas sprout up beautiful flowers can be rewarding. Be sure to buzz on over to the Cheerios website (link above) and order your free wildflower seeds so you can help #BringBackTheBees because it’s free, fun, and it’s for a good cause.

[Featured Image by Dancestrokes/Shutterstock]