THE NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN OF WALES will be buzzing with exciting things to do this weekend with the return of its Pollinator Festival.
Join some of the UK’s top experts to celebrate World Bee Day on May 20, and May 21, and find out how to put the buzz back into your gardens too.
The Garden is the perfect place to learn about the vital role pollinators play in our lives, take special meadow tours, see demonstrations, have a go at beekeeping and hear some of the leading experts take you inside the secret lives of our precious pollinators.
Top-notch naturalists from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and PlantLife will be taking part alongside the Botanic Garden’s own conservation experts in a fun-filled family event for all ages.
Youngsters can dress as their favourite pollinator and take part in the Pollinator Festival’s very own Fancy Dress competition – The Lovely Bug Ball. Dress-up as a bee, a hoverfly, a butterfly, moth, wasp, hornet or even a beetle. Prizes for three different categories; A mask, a hat or full fancy dress.
Plus, there’s a special screening of the award-winning film – My Garden of a Thousand Bees. It’s a story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife filmmaker spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in the bee-world.
Award-winning garden writer and author Jean Vernon, who will be leading a series of Festival bee walks, said: “The Botanic Garden is a great place to learn about, and really experience, the natural world. Plants and pollinators go hand in hand. They evolved together and need each other to exist, so the Botanic Garden is the perfect place to continue my mission to unravel and demystify the secret world of our garden pollinators – especially our bees.”
In addition to the wildlife walks, talks, tours and demonstrations, you can try your hand at Jean’s ‘bee bingo’ and have a go at spotting some of the many species of native bees. You can have your face painted and find out which pollinator-friendly plants you should really be planting in your own back yard – you will be able to buy them, too.
The Garden’s science officer, Dr Laura Jones said: “Protecting pollinators is so important and this event will show you how. If you create the right peat-free environment, choose the best plants – and we have a plant for all seasons! – you will get nature to bloom, whether that’s in a window box, a conservatory, a small patio garden or a more sizeable piece of land – even if you have a meadow you want to restore to its former wildflower glory!”
The Botanic Garden’s Pollinator Festival is on Saturday May 20 (World Bee Day) and Sunday May 21.
Normal Garden admission applies.
