The Enemy - Himalayan Balsam

Himalayan Balsam -Impatiens Glandulifera- is an invasive plant originally brought to the UK in 1839 as an ornamental plant.

It is fast growing and tall and out competes native plants for space, light , moisture and nutrients. It is also a prolific producer of nectar possibly the most prolific per flower in Europe.

Our original plan was to call our Honey "Tansy Honey" but we realised that would be a false description because only a small portion of the nectar collected by our bees comes form Tansy.

In fact the widespread invasion of the Tansy habitat by Himalayan Balsam means that at certain times of year (July and August) we could fairly described the honey as Himalayan Balsam Honey.

Pure Himalayan Balsam Honey is a straw coloured sweet fragrant floral Honey.

So in the short term this plant is great for our Honey but in the long term we would like to eliminate it so that we can make Tansy Honey and boost the Beetle population.