Planting for Pollinators – The RHS Chelsea 2022 Feature Garden

Chelsea Flower Show is back to its regular May slot for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic took hold and I shall once again be volunteering on an RHS Feature Garden. I’m particularly excited this year because the garden concerned is the ‘BBC Studios #OurGreenPlanet & RHS Bee Garden’. Designed by Joe Swift and situated at the bottom of Main Avenue, the garden is the product of a partnership between the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and BBC Earth.

Like all RHS flower show ‘Feature Gardens’, the RHS Bee Garden won’t be judged, its purpose is solely to encourage and inspire visitors to choose year-round pollinator friendly plants, at a time when insect numbers are declining worldwide. As a volunteer on this publicly accessible garden, I am very much looking forward to being part of the environmental message, describing the background and importance of wild pollinators to the public rather than just offering plant ID help (and toilet directions).

I can’t emphasise enough how pleased I am NOT to see a traditional beehive incorporated into the design of this garden. Why? Well there’s a vast difference between the intensive pollination role that honey bees play in commercial agriculture and the more natural task undertaken by other species of bees and pollinators such as butterflies and hoverflies. In reality honey bees are competing with native pollinators for nectar and this is contributing to the general decline in native insect numbers.

Despite the challenges that beekeepers face with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Varroa mites, over the past decade the number of British honey bee colonies has risen 50% from 80,000 to 120,000. There has also been a 25% increase in Canada and a fairly static number of around 3