Bristol Bee and Pollination Festival

The University of Bristol Botanical Gardens hosted their annual bee and pollination festival at the weekend. The event was a roaring success attended by hundreds of people from both the local community and further afield.  Staff and students from both the Urban Pollinator Project and the UoB Ecology Group had a great time working on our 'Forgotten Pollinators' stand where we explained the roles of the many different pollinator groups to the public.

The University of Bristol Botanical Gardens 

Jane and Talya getting ready for the start of the event on Saturday

Plants from around the world pollinated by a wide range of species
from hummingbirds to beetles

A very popular part of our stand was the crocheted bumblebees 

Kath entering the 'guess the honey' competition

A live honeybee colony

The 'Make a Bee' stand proved a hit with the kids

All of the different bees drawn by the children

Our neighbours Eric and Bernie with the Bristol City Council allotment owners.
Eric is the allotment rep for St Giles allotment which is one of our urban survey sites. 

One of our favourite stands!  Bramble Farm and their 'exceedingly'
good cakes

Bramble Farm is a fantastic community based project based in the Knowle West area of Bristol. The project was started in 2008 with the help of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage) and has been going strong ever since. The farm is run by local families who reclaimed an area of wasteland and now grow their own produce as well as keeping chickens, ducks and pigs.

On Saturday The Mad Apple Cider Company click here provided everyone with free samples of their finest ciders made from traditional Somerset apples.  While on Sunday Mike Feingold, a tutor on the Bristol Permaculture Design Course, gave a demonstration of apple pressing and mashing.

The apple masher in action

Writhlington Orchid Project click here displayed a wonderful array of orchids all grown by the students from seed using special sterile techniques.  The project was started as an after-school gardening club and has now been running for over 20 years.  The award winning project has generated a lot of publicity and has featured on programmes such as Gardeners World as well as winning two gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show.

A selection of the orchids displayed by
 the project

Just one of the many orchids on show