River of Flowers wins Silver Medal at Chelsea

River of Flowers exhibited the Honeycomb Meadow Bee Garden at this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show, The Garden was designed by Kathryn Lwin and Kerrie McKinnon. Upon being contacted by Kathryn and upon hearing of what she was designing and explaining what she hopes to achieve, I was delighted to support River of Flowers when asked to donate a Nurturing Nature solitary bee nest box and give advice about its management. Congratulations to Rivers of Flowers, the garden was awarded the Silver Medal!

Nurturing Nature nest box at the River of Flowers exhibit Chelsea, winning a Silver Medal

The garden was created as a showcase whereby bees could find shelter, food by way of pollen and nectar-rich flowers and nesting sites. It was also designed to make the most of the space available and included planting at least 30 different species of flowers.

Kerrie McKinnon co-designer of the garden with the Silver Medal certificate

Behind Kerrie, who produced the design and drawings, you can see the Nurturing Nature Solitary bee nest box with resident Red Masons bees who all got a free ticket to the show!!

Alison Benjamin of Urban Bees, working alongside River of Flowers, helped to create the garden. Here she is explaining to Alys Fowler as to what is going on inside the nest box.

‘River Of Flowers is passionate about finding creative solutions to feed and shelter pollinators in challenging city environments, where there’s so much competition for space and survival’ says River of Flowers co-founder, Kathryn Lwin. ‘We’ve designed the Honeycomb Meadow Bee Garden for wild, solitary bees, which are important to us but are often overlooked. It is by feeding the bees that we feed us’.

The Living Wall comprising 30 different early spring to late autumn flowers providing forage for solitary bees and linking into the Hexagon designed planters at the show.

Martha Carney at Nurturing Nature bee observation box

After the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, part of the garden will go to the newly opened River Of Flowers Growing Health Roof Garden at the NHS Royal Free Hospital, the Middlesex University’s Campus in North London and to other community spaces in Bristol, Ipswich, Leeds and Leicester as part of the Urban Buzz campaign by charity Buglife. You can find the garden in the Discovery Zone at RHS Chelsea Flower Show from the 22nd – 26th May and tickets are available here.

For more information about Urban Bees visit www.urbanbees.co.uk where you can find lots of information about forage for all bees.