The BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden were buzzing with take-home ideas to help balance our ecosystem
Throughout the month of May, the RHS and BBC Studios #OurGreenPlanet empowered people with practical ideas on how everyone can help bees and other pollinators thrive, culminating in the BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 (24 – 28 May).
A vibrant habitat brimming with nectar- and pollen-rich plants
Featuring a bee wing silhouette as the centrepiece, the garden was created by leading designer Joe Swift, becoming a standout environmentally-themed attraction at the show.
The garden hummed with pollinators drawn in to its colourful matrix of flowers, with plants from the RHS Plants for Pollinators list including Hesperis (sweet rocket), salvias, hardy geraniums, euphorbias and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose). Spring stars such as alliums and foxgloves rubbed shoulders with long-blooming plants such as geums and Knautia macedonica.
See the full plant list for the garden (123kB pdf)
Shallow water made an ideal drinking-spot for insects, mud aplenty helped bees make nests and a dismantable bee hotel was featured.
The garden was in development for more than two years and will live on after RHS Chelsea at a local school for students, teachers and the pollinators to enjoy.
Explaining the inspiration behind the design, Joe said:
“The RHS has used scientific evidence, extensive experience and the records of gardeners to create year-round flowering plants for its Plants for Pollinators list to help tackle the decline in pollinator numbers. It is one of the best resources for gardeners today to support pollinators and collectively if we all grew more of these plants in our gardens, community spaces, window boxes, allotments and schools we can make a huge difference.”
“I hope this garden both inspires and shows everyone just how easy it is to consider pollinators whilst making your garden a more beautiful space too, a win-win!”
Global digital impact with #OurGreenPlanet
Many of us have been inspired to make a positive difference to our environment by the ground-breaking TV series The Green Planet, narrated by David Attenborough and created by BBC Studios Natural History Unit. The conservation principles highlighted in the series have since become the heart of BBC Earth’s global digital impact campaign #OurGreenPlanet – and it’s these principles which are shared with the BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden.
Mike Gunton, Creative Director of BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Executive Producer of #OurGreenPlanet said: “The garden brings to life the #OurGreenPlanet belief that we should all push for plants, pollinators and people to work together.
“Alongside the beauty and spectacle of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the bee garden has an important message at its heart, that pollinator decline will have a serious impact on biodiversity, food production and our precious gardens globally but the good news is, we can all do something to help.”
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