Exit Pursued by a Bee (with apologies to Shakespeare)

Inspired by Shakespeare’s famous stage direction, Exit Pursued by a Bear, this charming piece recounts a Dr Cath Price's journey into supporting pollinators through a simple yet effective idea: the “Bee Café.”

In 2013 the Royal Horticultural Society and Wildlife Trusts collaborated to launch the first Wild About Gardens scheme encouraging gardeners to take action for wild bees. I was working for Shropshire Wildlife Trust at The Boathouse in Ellesmere at the time, and had great fun installing a ‘Bee Café’ to demonstrate to customers how easy it is to provide pollen and nectar rich flowering plants through the year. The original café was in a large terracotta pot, and very popular with the bees.

Since then, things have changed and I now find myself presenting events round the county, so when I’m doing a pollinators display I need something a bit more portable. Enter the oval metal planter with a handle on each side. Originally I thought it could double as a mini-pond for other events but soon realised the impracticality of transporting a pond! Now it’s a permanent bee facility.

I planted it up for the ‘Go Wild in Worthen’ event. Salvia, catnip, lavender, heliotrope, chive and Nemesia provided the bees’ food and a shallow dish containing marbles and water their drink. The marbles allow the bees to perch safely whilst sipping the water from between them. Everything settled down nicely, people admired the café, the event was lovely, and I started to pack up.

Carrying the planter through the sunshine from the hall to the car, I found myself pursued by a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, which settled on the Salvia when I set the café down in the back of the car. Not wanting to transport her to far-flung Ellesmere I evicted the slightly grumpy bee and headed home.

The bee café is now standing under the kitchen window at home, surrounded by wild bush vetch and rosemary which has just finished flowering. The afternoon sun catches it perfectly and it has been alive with bees, filling the kitchen with their humming.

The vetch is hugely popular, as is the Salvia (variety Dark Matter for those of a horticultural bent). The single-flowered fuchsia is there in case a humming bird hawkmoth puts in an appearance – they love them! As well as at least six species of bees,

I’ve seen painted lady and holly blue butterflies taking their afternoon tea at the café, and hoverflies indulging in a little heliotrope. The whole thing gives me enormous pleasure. As the season progresses and the plants finish flowering they’ll be replaced by later flowering specimens which are waiting in the wings for their time to shine – scabious, thyme and ice plant – with the original plants transplanted to the garden to grow on.

Such a small thing, benefiting the pollinators and me too. Even if you only have a balcony or windowbox in the centre of town, you too can provide a wonderful resource for our beleaguered pollinators and give yourself a close encounter of the natural kind!