Children Explore Honey Bees

The Memphis Botanic Garden serves a number of functions in the city. It provides a relaxing and beautiful park-like atmosphere for groups and individuals to meet. The area includes a number of gardens including a rose garden, a sensory garden, a butterfly garden, a Japanese garden, several water gardens, an urban orchard, and even a prehistoric garden Trails course through exotic and native plantings as well as through daffodils, herbs, conifers, and a cactus collection. Horticulturalists tend to plants in a variety of ecosystems and designed gardens. They propagate plants in greenhouses. Peace Bee Farm maintains a bee yard on the grounds of the Memphis Botanic Garden for pollination and for education. The Memphis Botanic Garden’s web site is: http://www.memphisbotanicgarden.com/. They conduct educational programs that address people of all ages.

Along with others, we participated in an imaginative educational program for small children. As the children and their parents passed along the Memphis Botanic Garden trails, they stopped at various stations for exploration. At our station, located near a bronze statue wearing a beekeeper’s veil, the children got an opportunity to don a beekeeper’s suit and look into a bee hive. No, there were not bees in it. The parents and grandparents accompanying the children had many question about the bees. Many were quite knowledgeable of the shortage of honey bees. They know of the importance of honey bees and native pollinators. Botanic gardens are important; they enhance our lives and help protect the plants. We should visit and support botanic gardens.
--Richard