Besides honey, bees have another important job in nature…

Learn more about Gypsophila or ‘Baby’s breath’

More than 4,000 years ago, human beings discovered beekeeping, fascination for bees and their pollen collection from flowers is not in vain, they are in charge of building their hive, but beyond providing honey, they determine the growth and quality of the planet's vegetation.

The Gypsophila or Gypsophila species is a species that flowers annually and grows between 5 and 120 cm tall. With 355 native species from Europe, Asia, North Africa and Mexico and 155 registered. The best known being the Paniculata, its name given by the round panicle that perches at the end of the ramification of its firm stem.

Pollination occurs when the bee feeds on the pollen that the flower produces but at the same time transports it from a donor plant to a recipient mother plant. There are other insects that pollinate, "but the job that the bees do is almost perfect," says Omar Ávila, beekeeper at Ball SB. The Gypsophila flower is a tiny flower, so the size of the bees facilitates their work and makes them the true breeders of this beautiful little flower.

The work that beekeepers do with bees is largely contemplative, because pollinating this or any type of species, the bees are the ones that teach us the best process.

Agrochemicals and pesticides used intensively for pest control are affecting bees. Ball SB's mission, which it has been carrying out for 15 years on its farms and production fields, is to continuously reduce the use of chemicals and the reliance on different types of pesticides. “In addition, introducing species that are attractive to pollinators and becoming a 'happy place' for bees around the world,” says Susanah Ball Co-Lead of Sustainability, Ball Hort. In this way, hybridization and production are optimized.