The roof has never looked better, never contained as much diverse planting, and never fed as many bees – showing what other companies could achieve if they handed their rooftops over to a bee-friendly gardener to work with nature to create a pollinator oasis.

Much of the success this summer is down to:

• a comprehensive drip irrigation system that comes on every evening for an hour during the heatwave we’ve been having since mid June.
• allowing self-seeded flowers (weeds) like Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum), Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) and thistles to flower freely. I do draw the line at Fleabane as it completely dominates, and only honeybees seems to like it
• flowers I planted self-seeding such as the tall, yellow flowered Mullen (Verbascum thapsus)
• flowers I’ve experimented with doing well such as Comfrey
• reducing the number of Kniphofia (Red hot pokers) and keeping a check on the seedlings (again only honeybees seem to forage on them)
• having a pollinator ecologist survey the rooftop in spring/summer to record the species and the plants for Pollinating London Together. The rooftop was found to be the third best rooftop in the City for pollinators in 2024. Read the full report by PLT here. I look forward to seeing what the 2025 surveys reveal.

Furrow bee on Hawkbit Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)

Calamint Centaura montana Dr Konstantinos Tsliosis surveying

We now have two types of nesting structures for ground-nesting mining and furrow bees as well as the for cavity nesting bees. The bee hotels have been on site for a few years and the cardboard tubes have proved popular nesting sites for Red mason bees. We created the sand mound for ground-nesters in May, with the help of the PLT ecologist, Konstantinos. We are awaiting our first occupant.

Secrets of the Bees Filming – in June, wildlife filmmaker, Bertie Gregory, and the crew at Silverback Films (pictured below) were on the roof filming for a two-part National Geographic documentary about bees. They chose the roof because I could guarantee them great footage of wild bees foraging high up in the City. At the end of the trailer for the documentary, which is screened on Disney+ from March 31, you can see Wool Carder bees fighting for territory on the Lamb’s ear plant. This is shot on the roof.

Watch the official trailer here