June's Garden

Like any other garden, the University's Botanic Garden in Cambridge would be nothing without the tireless efforts of an army of workers.

No, not the human workers, though they are certainly busy at this time of year too, but the countless thousands of bees who slave away from dawn till dusk, collecting nectar and pollinating the plants.

And they were certainly out in force yesterday - making honey while the sun shines, I suppose.

All along in front of the Glasshouse Range, in one of the most prominent positions on the site, are the specially created Bee Borders, full of the plants that are most attractive to the busy insects.

And there are hives full of honey bees right in among the flowers; accommodation on the job, so as to speak.

The borders are not only ideal for the bees, they look very pretty too, and the hope is that visitors will be inspired to plant up their own gardens with similar flowers. There's even a list of suitable plants which you can pick up on your way out.

The flowers you'll see here vary throughout the summer, but there is a constant supply of nectar for the bees. At present the borders have a strong vertical emphasis created mainly by the towering spikes of foxgloves and delphiniums.

As well as the important research carried out by the University, the gardens also provide information boards to enlighten less knowledgeable visitors.

Although many of these boards are clearly designed with children in mind, grown-up explorers can learn a lot too. Well, did you know that plants like foxgloves have a lower lip specially designed as a landing-pad for bees? Not only is it a convenient perch, but it has cone-shaped cells which give the bee a better grip as it alights on the plant.

Yes, there are lots of other plants too; I just got rather carried away with photographing foxgloves.

All in all it's a paradise where bees and other pollinating insects can live out their brief but important lives - and it's an extremely pleasant place for us less industrious individuals to while away an hour or two.

Human visitors come here from all over the world and yesterday there was also an insect that had made quite an impressive journey on beautiful but delicate wings...

It's a Painted Lady butterfly, the first I've seen this year, looking rather washed out and tatty after flying over from mainland Europe. Apparently there's been quite an influx of them along the coast in the last week or two. Maybe we'll have another bumper year for them during 2019.


Take care.