Bumbles on Blooms

Why do we need your help in monitoring bumblebees on flowers? Bumblebees are a key group of wild pollinators, helping to pollinate our garden plants as well as crops such as tomatoes and fruit trees. Like many pollinating insects, bumblebees face the challenges of habitat loss and climate change.

The availability of flowers in spring is especially critical for helping them to establish successful colonies at the start of the season. Bumblebees mostly overwinter in the UK as queens, which emerge from sheltered places such as underground burrows as the weather warms. Flowers are needed to provide nectar; a sugary fuel for powering bees’ flight. Meanwhile, the protein-rich pollen from flowers is fed to the developing larvae of the worker bumblebees.

What are we doing? So we know that spring flowers are important, but which flowers do bumblebees use?

To help us find the answer, we are inviting gardeners across the UK to become community scientists and help spot bumblebees on flowers this spring.

We know that plants in gardens and parks can complement flowers from the wider countryside for bees, often offering a longer season and wider range than wild flowers alone.

So now let's get the GoodGym Community involved and log as many sessions as we can to help out the survey!

All the info you need to get set up can be found here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/help-our-research/bumbles-on-blooms?utm_source=affiliate%20window&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=deep%20link&awc=2273_1708804573_49b03142c10e12f6145d3cb7c528f0dd