2 November 2023

In partnership with the London Borough of Newham, we have created a Wild Bee Garden to benefit local wild pollinators and the local community. Senior Conservation Officer Bex Cartwright explains how this thriving habitat was created.

Back in January 2023, we were approached by the Parks and Green Spaces team at Newham Council, inviting us to help with the creation of a feature garden to showcase wild bees. The garden was one of four feature areas to be created as part of a wider project to create a pollinator trail along the length of Newham Greenway, a public footpath and cycleway which extends 7km from Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets to Royal London Docks. The Greenway is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). We were delighted to be part of the project!

The plot for the wild bee garden is approximately 10 x 10m and started out as an area of rough grass and bramble with few flowers. The plot is connected by grassland and flowering trees and scrub that joins a local community orchard. We wanted to add as many features for wild bees as possible to the garden including nesting habitat alongside abundant sources of pollen and nectar that would provide food for a range of wild bees throughout the year.

The final design and planting includes a native mixed species hedgerow, flowering shrubs such as flowering currant and honeysuckle. A herbaceous border and ‘brownfield’ style planting where drought-tolerant plants have been planted and seeded into recycled, crushed aggregate material. A perennial wildflower meadow area is also in development which complements the meadow species that run the length of the 7km greenway. We have also included specimen trees such as a pussy willow and wildflowers such as primroses to provide spring forage. The aggregate mounds also act as nesting habitat for ground-nesting bees and wooden totems have been installed to provide homes for cavity nesting bees. The hedgerow base, meadow and surrounding grasslands will provide nesting sites for bumblebees.

A wonderful local community artist who is also a London National Park City Ranger designed a series of engaging interpretation panels for the garden which illustrate a range of solitary bees and bumblebees and explain their lifecycles as well as their nesting and feeding needs.

Surveys of the garden have taken place throughout the process and the bees were very quick to start using the new range of resources provided! Exciting sightings include species of bumblebee including the scarce Brown-banded carder bumblebee (Bombus humilis) and solitary bees such as the Black mining bee and Wool carder bee.

The Greenway Pollinator Trail and Wild Bee Garden were generously funded by the Mayor of London’s Rewild London Fund.

Thanks to Anna Yusuf and the Newham Council Parks and Green Spaces Grounds Maintenance team who put in all of the hard work landscaping and planting the garden and invited us to be part of this project. Thanks also to Trust volunteer George for his design and drawing skills, and community artist Matt Ponting for the amazing interpretation work.

You can read more about the Newham Greenway Pollinator Trail Project.

In spring, when meadows and grasslands are yet to fully flower, bumblebees will seek out flowering trees for their pollen. Jamie Buxton-Gould, Project Officer West Country Buzz, tells us more about the importance of flowering trees in spring.

Bumblebees can be pretty easy to watch. Busily feeding on a flower in a park or garden, we can get a close look at their furry bodies, big eyes and whirring wings. But it’s common to hear bumblebees without seeing them, particularly as they feed on some of their favourite spring forage, metres overhead in the branches of trees.

Flowering trees

When thinking of a bumblebee’s favourite plants, trees rarely come to mind. But some of our flowering trees can be popular dishes on the bumblebee menu early in the year.

Some of our hedgerow favourites are among these flowering trees. If they are managed well and not cut every year, they can provide for a multitude of pollinators, including bumblebees:

• The beautiful white flowers of blackthorn can transform a dense, spiny hedge into a gleaming cloud of blossom in early spring
• Hawthorn follows later, once it has unfurled some leaves alongside its flowers
• Field maple and sycamore also attract lots of bumblebees with their sweet nectar

Goat willow

As spring unfolds, goat willow (also known as pussy willow) is one of the top providers of nectar and pollen for bumblebees. Growing more than ten metres high, this tree can spread its branches wide, creating a candelabra of catkins. Starting as soft, furry buds of silver, the catkins have evolved to keep the flowers inside to protect them from harsh winter weather. The warmth of spring encourages them to burst open, revealing their gender.

Trees with golden, fluffy catkins are male. They hold pollen-dusted stamens and a little bit of nectar. The female trees hold a heart-shaped stigma atop a sweet supply of nectar. They will be buzzing with bumblebees on a fine spring day.

Willows, along with oak trees, also support some of the highest diversity of invertebrate, meaning they are essential to encourage in the landscape to support our wildlife.

Queen bumblebees in spring

Spring is a crucial time of year for queen bumblebees. They need to refuel on sugary nectar to top up their energy levels and find protein-rich pollen. This pollen is important to help the queen’s ovaries to develop so she is ready for laying eggs. A queen needs to collect enough pollen for herself and to make a food-store for the next generation of young bumblebees.

Cosy and warm in her new nest, the queen lays her eggs on top of a ball of pollen and broods them to keep them warm – as warm as 25°C. When the eggs hatch, the larvae, which resemble small grubs, feasts on the pollen for ten to twenty days. Afterwards, they spin a cocoon and pupate, like a butterfly.

The fully formed adult bumblebees emerge after two weeks. They help the queen raise the next batch of eggs until the nest reaches a few hundred workers by summer.

Why flowering trees are important in spring

Bumblebee species like the Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris), White-tailed (Bombus lucorum) and Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) have the highest number of queens active in spring. It is often too early in the season for our meadows and grasslands to have many flowers, so flowering trees have an important role to play from March to May.

Apples, cherries, pears and plums provide beautiful blossoms beloved by bumblebees. There are an array of varieties in bloom throughout the spring. Many different species of solitary bee, including Ashy mining bees and Red mason bees, are also important pollinators of fruit trees.

How you can help

If you have space, why not help the bumblebees in your local area by planting a fruit tree and encouraging your friends and neighbours to do the same? If you have a small garden or patio, it is possible to buy dwarf varieties that are happy in a pot and will still produce big, juicy fruits to feed your local bumblebees.

by Zeus Mateos Fierro

The full bloom of cherry blossoms is a beautiful and yet ephemeral event that lasts about three weeks (typically from mid-April to early May). Numerous blossoms are available to pollinators, but resources are scarce for them in orchards after the blossom period. Cherry orchards have evolved in the last decades from the traditional open orchards with large trees to modern protected orchards with a smaller but greater number of trees.

However, pollinators are still needed to pollinate cherry blossoms and underpin yields, particularly since most of the varieties are self-incompatible and cross-pollination is required. Consequently, growers are highly reliant on managed pollinators. For the last three years, I have been researching pollination and pest regulation in commercial sweet cherry orchards in the West Midlands for my PhD at the University of Worcester. I have investigated the enhancement of wild pollinating insects, including bees, hoverflies, and butterflies through wildflowers.

Newly created wildflower habitats, with native perennial plant species, were established in the alleyways between rows of cherry trees to increase sustainable and resilient pollination. This is the first time that such an approach has been investigated under protective cropping, and could involve important benefits for the sweet cherry industry. A key aim of my project was to investigate what pollinators visited cherry blossoms and how effective they were delivering pollination services. I also investigated what pollinating insects used the wildflowers after the blossom period until late September. The study was funded by the University of Worcester, Waitrose & Partners, and Berry Gardens, in partnership with the University of Reading and NIAB EMR.

As with many fruit crops, cherries are typically pollinated by the western honeybee (Apis mellifera), but increasingly buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) have been used. Honeybee hives are hired and bumblebee nest boxes are bought, so that there are enough pollinators to support production. However, wild pollinators might be more efficient at pollinating cherry blossoms compared to managed pollinators. During our transect surveys in cherry orchards across the three-year study, we recorded a total of 19,738 pollinating insects, of which14,724 were recorded during the blossom period and 5,014 after. Managed pollinators were the most abundant with 6,502 honeybees, and 5,296 buff-tailed bumblebees recorded. Hoverflies were the most abundant wild pollinator guild, which accounted for 4,760 individuals, followed by 1,879 bumblebees, 1069 solitary bees, and 232 butterflies.

In total, 104 different pollinator species were recorded! This included one species of honeybee, ten bumblebee species, 33 species of solitary bee, 48 species of hoverfly, and 12 butterfly species. These figures show how reliant growers are on managed pollinators. However, despite the greater abundance of these, wild bumblebees (queens during the cherry blossom period) and solitary bees were more effective pollinating cherry blossoms, since they frequently contacted cherry stigmas and flew often between rows, enhancing cross-pollination.

Throughout my study, I found that wildflower strips increased the abundance and richness of pollinating insects, and therefore pollinator diversity, compared to unsown conventional alleyways. This led to an increase in fruit set. Although it takes time for benefits for growers to materialize, our approach has created a range of possibilities for growers to produce sweet cherries more sustainably. For example, wildflower habitats also provide resources to other beneficial insects (e.g. natural enemies), which can deliver pest regulation services throughout the growing season. The inclusion of wildflowers in the orchards also means the orchards can support pollinators throughout the year and not just during the cherry blossom period. The wildflower habitats are also an important tool for conservation, given that many pollinator species continue to decline.

23 July 2019

by Katy Malone, Bumblebee Conservation Trust Conservation Officer for Scotland

Being a fully paid-up member of the bumblebee fan club, no-one will be surprised to learn that when I finally got offered an allotment in my village three years ago, I set out to make it as bee-friendly as possible. After all, growing veg and attracting crop pollinators with nectar and pollen-rich flowers – well, it’s just a no-brainer.

That said, my fellow allotmenteers and I each have our own distinctive style of growing, which probably reflect our personalities. The gentleman with the plot next door to mine grows very traditionally in very neat, die-straight rows. Potatoes are earthed up in immaculate V-shaped furrows, all the same height and distance apart. He plots out carrots in a millimetre-accurate grid. Every scratch of ground is used for crops of some sort. One a sunny day in May, he spotted the packets of bulbs I brought for planting in the pre-prepared ground and was intrigued.

“Oh, what’s that you’ve got?”

“Gladioli blubs – a lovely mixture of…”

…but he had already turned away in pretend disgust. Of course, I was letting the side down! We joked about it, but I know he’d really prefer me to be grow swedes rather than ‘wasting’ the available space with flowers. He still borrows my rake when I’m not around though.

The plot opposite has lots of flowers as well as crops, in higgledy piggledy rows. She’s a child minder, and her young charges often come down to help her in the allotment.  She grows lovely sweet peas, lilies and cosmos, the veg and the flowers being mostly separate from each other.

My own plot is something of a potager style, with blocks of edible crops interspersed with colourful flowers which attract pollinating insects like bumblebees (of course!) as well as honeybees, wasps, and hoverflies. I get a great sense of satisfaction by growing from seed, and this year almost all my crops are grown this way (except potatoes from sets, and garlic which I grew from cloves saved from last year’s crop).

Cornflowers, self-sown foxgloves and cosmos all attract a variety of beneficial insects. The cornflowers are part of my plan to grow flowers for cutting, but if an insect happens to be feeding on the freshly emerged flower, I leave it alone. I would feel so guilty for depriving any bee of its lunch! If a few crops start bolting, and I don’t need the space immediately, I’ll let them flower. The hoverflies are particularly keen on the towering blooms of Swiss chard, which bloom profusely before flopping over in the wind and need to be propped up or cut back.

Some ‘weeds’ are particularly beneficial and I let them grow amongst my veggies, as long as they don’t start to take over. Red dead-nettle is a favourite with long-tongued bumblebees, which in turn are brilliant pollinators of my runners and broad beans. The shorter-tongued honeybees and hoverflies can’t reach the nectar in these long-flowered crops, and so cannot pollinate them. Encouraging longer tongued species like garden bumblebee and common carder bumblebees by providing a greater diversity of long flowers is good for a quality crop set. I know there are modern F1 crop varieties which are self-setting, but I prefer to grow open-pollinated heritage varieties. For me, it goes against the grain to do anything else.

It would be great to think that all this results in better pollination of my crops – and really, I have no first-hand evidence that supports that. However, a research paper1 published in Nature earlier this year revealed that allotment sites are very valuable spaces in an urban context. The researchers showed that residential gardens and allotments in four different cities across the UK were major hotspots for pollinators, highlighting the value of these places for supporting vital pollinator conservation. In his regular summary of recent science papers ‘Bombus Review’ (Bombus review – Spring 2019) my colleague Darryl Cox wrote of this paper:

“The authors end their report with some really useful and practical suggestions for maximising the pollinator potential of urban areas. They suggest that town planners try to add more allotments to towns and cities as even a small area increase could make a big impact on the robustness of plant-pollinator communities.”

Watching bees work those multi-coloured cornflowers, benefitting from the abundant nectar and pollen from the red dead-nettle and enjoying the late boost of forage from the gladioli and self-sown foxgloves gives me satisfaction beyond words. When I’m enjoying freshly-podded broad beans, lightly steamed with butter and parsley and a squeeze of lemon, I am even more glad to be supporting the bees in my little corner of paradise.

1. A systems approach reveals urban pollinator hotspots and conservation opportunities. Baldock, KCR et al, Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, pages 363–373 (2019)

Managing your bee hotel

Periodic maintenance and cleaning will result in a more successful nest box and a healthier population of bees in your garden. With no cleaning, fungi, debris and parasites tend to build up which can be damaging to the bees.

• Bring your nest box into an unheated shed or garage during the autumn and winter to protect it from damp and wet weather. If you don’t have either then a porch or any covered area will do. It is damp not cold that destroys larvae. Not only will this protect the larvae and adult bees waiting to emerge in the spring but it will mean that your nest box will last longer. You can place the box outdoors in the spring, from March onwards.
• If you notice birds predating your nest box or removing nest tubes (woodpeckers and tits often do this) then you can place a piece of mesh or chicken wire across the front. This does not appear to deter the bees.
• If your nest box is built of stacked & routed wooden sheets or you use paper nest tube liners you can clean it out in winter, remove the cocoons (image left) and store them until spring.
• At least every couple of years replace all of the tubes and blocks in the nest box with fresh ones. In spring leave the old tubes in an upturned box or bucket on the ground with a hole at the top (bees naturally orientate towards light) so that the previous year’s bees can emerge but so that they won’t reoccupy the old tubes.

For further information on all of the above Marc Carlton of ‘The Pollinator Garden’ has produced an excellent guide to ‘Making and Managing a Bee Hotel’. A pdf. version can be downloaded from www.foxleas.com

George Pilkington also has a fantastic website and blog ‘Nuturing Nature’ www.nurturing-nature.co.uk which has a wealth of information on managing bee houses.

For photos and more information about the bees and wasps that are attracted to nest boxes the website of The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society ‘BWARS’ is very helpful  www.bwars.com