Tag Archives: Review of 2022

Review in pictures and numbers of Urban Bees’ 2022

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100s of Bees to See in 2022 and 2023 calendars sold

100s of year-round bee-friendly flowers planted across London including:

Rosemary (Salvia rosemarinus) Wallflowers (Erysimum ‘Apricot Delight’) – pictured middle left with a Buff-tailed bumblebee arriving minutes after it had been planted – Lambs’ Ear (Stachys byzantina); Salvia ‘hot lips’; Hedge germanda (Teucrium x lucidrys); Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile)

50 bee hotels made in 3 workshops for pupils and community gardening groups

30 bee hotels maintained

15 different species of bees spotted on roof top bee gardens in London including:

  • Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
  • Hairy-footed flower bee (Anthiphora plumipes)
  • Davies’ plasterer bee (Davies’ colletes)
  • Leafcutter bee (Megachile centuncularis)
  • Furrow bee (Lasioglossum)

10 bee talks given – reaching more than 500 people (in person and online): including

  • CityWire’s Impact Retreat 2022 – where I explained to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investors why the companies they invest in need to have a pollinator strategy to safeguard bee populations for food security and to mitigate climate change
  • On UN World Bee Day, I spoke online to more than 100 staff at Bouygues construction company about why bees and biodiversity are good for business
  • More than 150 KPMG staff learned about the nature-positive steps they can take to help bees and other pollinators and why they are so important for our eco-system
  • Local Hackney residents learned about bees and how to spot them at Dalston Eastern Curve garden
  • Alison kicked off the Wild World of Bees 2022 Master Academy online class run by Canadian-based ABC Bees (middle right photo)

7 new bee-friendly terraces created at:

  • Take 2 in Fitzrovia (pictured above top right, planting an Amelanchier lamarckii)
  • Price Waterhouse Coopers in the Embankment and More London

5 articles written: including

5 roof-top bee gardens maintained at:

  • Lush London HQ in Soho (bottom right photo)
  • Bread Street and Carter Lane offices managed by Savills in the City
  • Adam & Eve Advertising agency in Paddington
  • Amazon office, near the Barbican

5 bee observation boxes installed at:

  • Adam & Eve (painted yellow, with bee hotels, pictured middle bottom row)
  • Weil law firm
  • Belgrave House, managed by BNP Paris Real Estate
  • Amazon office

5 mature, large bee-friendly shrubs destroyed by the drought

  • Rosemary bushes and Salvia ‘hot lips’ on Bread Street rooftop in the City (top left photos before and after the summer drought, without an irrigation system)

4 bee tours of Regent’s Park (

3 new clients for Urban Bees including:

  • Take 2
  • PWC

1 roof-top bee garden tripled in size from 5 to 15 planters on:

  • Adam & Eve rooftop in Paddington, west London (new planters pictured bottom left)

1 corner of a housing estate improved for biodiversity in:

  • St George Chelsea Creek housing development in south west London (thistles pictured middle)

1 All-Party Parliamentary Group for Bees and Pollinators Advisory Board joined, which advises MPs