The Bee Walk

A wakeup call about a well loved garden visitor

On the 20th of August six of us from MHS were lucky to be taken on a Bee Walk in Marden Meadow by Jessica Holdway from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

If you were like me, you might have thought there is only one species of bumblebee: big and fluffy with clear yellow and black stripes, like the one pictured. Not so! The UK is home to 24 species of bumblebee, of different sizes, hairiness and patterning. In common with most insect life, numbers are falling and 8 of our 24 species are endangered, with 2 further species having become extinct since the 1940’s.

We all know that bees are vital pollinators, and we might be forgiven for thinking that it is the honey bees who do this work, but it is the bumblebee with its longer proboscis, that can access a much wider range of flowers, who is the more important pollinator and many essential commercial crops are dependent on bumblebee pollination, for example tomatoes and peas.

We are hoping that we can have Jessica come to give us a talk in 2025, but what can we plant this autumn in our own gardens to encourage bumblebees and protect their populations?

Alys Holdway (professional gardener, MHS member and Jessica’s mum) has sent some ideas, and photographs of their garden in Marden, of flowers which are bumblebee friendly: Scabious, Geum, Allium, Iris hollandica, Lithodora, Salvia - all types, Veronicastrum virginicum, Papaver, Monarda, Eryngium, Echinops, Nepeta, Geranium Rozanne, Sedum, Echinacea, Cirsium, Helianthus annuus.