Bees, Butterflies and Blooms
Get Britain Buzzing
Sarah is on a mission to halt what she considers the rapid decline in essential honey bees and pollinating insects by bringing flower power to our towns, cities and countryside. In her new BBC2 TV series Bees, Butterflies and Blooms she explores this issue and discovers ways we can help reverse the trend.
Bee populations and other pollinating insects are in crisis. It’s a complex problem that scientists the world over are trying to fathom. The prognosis is grim - without healthy populations of insect pollinators across the world, Sarah believes our food security could be under threat as pollinating insects are vital to the production of the vast majority of fruits and vegetables.
Backed by recent research, she believes that central to the problem is a lack of food and habitat, leading to the poor health and nutrition of pollinators. A lack of a rich and varied supply of pollen and nectar throughout the year to feed the insect pollination workforce and keep them strong and healthy, could be leaving them vulnerable to the effects of pesticides, pathogens and parasites.
As governments and scientists debate colony collapse, and species extinctions of Butterflies and Bumblebees, Sarah wants to show that it is possible to make a difference right now, she wants to inspire and inform everyone, no matter where they live – village, town, city or countryside – to plant insect friendly plants.
She believes with small changes in local areas like embracing more wildflowers and insect-friendly plants, then populations of bees, butterflies and pollinating bugs, could help reverse the trend, perhaps stopping extinctions and securing a future for threatened pollinating insects.
Synopsis of Bees, Butterflies and Blooms
PROGRAMME 1 – VILLAGES, FARMS & COUNTRYSIDE
Sarah wants to take her mission out into the great British Countryside and encourage British famers and rural village communities to help re-create a network of crucial habitats for wild pollinators.
But with the loss of wildflower meadows and grasslands estimated at around 98%, has the connection with the wildflowers and habitats that were once so common and which supported the pollinators and countless other wildlife, been lost forever?
Sarah tries to change the attitude of just one small Northamptonshire Village to embrace wildflowers where today tidiness rules and where the village green has become a close mown carpet of green.
PROGRAMME 2 – TOWNS, GARDENS & BRITAIN IN BLOOM
Britain’s army of passionate gardeners are perfectly placed to support bees and pollinators, but in Sarah's view some traditional bedding plant displays can contain highly hybridised and horticulturally modified bedding plants that in the main can be pretty redundant to struggling bees and pollinating insects. She meets Harrogate In Bloom to try and persuade them to trial insect friendly flowers in some of their champion winning floral displays. Can she get them to change years of floral tradition and their perceptions of wildlife-friendly flowers, and prove to them that a formal flower display can be a ‘win win’ for pollinating insects, visitors to the area and the Britain In Bloom judges?
Sarah sends a group of Harrogate in Bloom members to The Chelsea Flower Show to see insect friendly and nectar rich flowers themes in the show gardens. The gardens are nectar and pollen rich and she believes they show that planting does not need to be limited to the stereotypical messy or naturalistic ‘wildlife-garden’ look, but even so, are the members convinced it will work in traditional Harrogate?
PROGRAMME 3 – CITIES & THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
The final episode in the series looks at the issues of planting and managing city landscapes. Sarah wants to bust the myth that cities are no place for bees, butterflies and insect friendly blooms.
Sarah meets Birmingham city council, and inspires them to sow colourful urban flower meadows, plant vibrant nectar rich flower displays and prove that colourful floral planting can be good for the health and well being of bees and butterflies as well as city dwellers too. Can modern flower meadows even help to build a sense of community spirit in areas of our Urban Jungles?
The next Bees, Butterflies and Blooms airs Wednesday, 22nd February at 8pm on BBC2
