As a Bee City USA, we are very excited to celebrate Pollinator Week! Did you know that pollinators like bees, butterflies, and bats, provide 1 out of 3 bites of food we eat? Say thanks by planting native plants, supporting local farmers, and educating others about the importance of pollinators!
Garden at Mountain View Park
Make the Most of Pollinator Week
Spot Pollinators this Week
Our public spaces are abuzz with pollinators, especially in the gardens! Pay a visit to Mill Mountain where you’ll find the Mill Mountain Garden Club’s Wildflower Garden as well as a pollinator garden at the Discovery Center. Here you’ll find a delightful assortment of native plants along the forested paths, and pollinators aplenty wherever things are in bloom. A couple of our parks, Morningside and Mountain View, are also home to LEAP Community Gardens! The garden at Mountain View is one of the most visited, with 53 different raised garden plots rented by community members, plus a native pollinator planting. You’ll also find a beautiful flower garden on the Mountain View property that’s often busy with bees. Throughout our parks, plazas, greenways, and trails, you’ll find endless examples of pollinator habitat from the trees blooming in the springtime, to perennial plantings and no-mow meadows.
Pollination in progress outside the Mill Mountain Discovery Center!
Kids Love Pollinators Too!
Looking for something fun to do with your kiddos that celebrates pollinators? Stop by the Mill Mountain Discovery Center where you’ll find free crafts and activities all year-long. These programs change theme each month, and June is all about butterflies! Learn about how butterflies work as pollinators and create a take home craft. Walk through the Mill Mountain Wildflower Garden for some pollinator observation afterwards! The Discovery Center is open Thursday through Sunday from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
Make it Social
Follow @playroanoke on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss our pollinator fun on social media! We’ll be sharing pollinator-focused tips, activities, and ways to celebrate pollinators this week and beyond! We’re also planning a Pollinator Week Giveaway you definitely won’t want to miss.
Upcoming Events Celebrating Pollinators:
Movie Screening at the Grandin Theater – June 25
Save the Date for a free screening of “My Garden of a Thousand Bees” on June 25 at the Grandin Theater. This PBS Nature Documentary follows wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohn as he records a variety of bee species in his urban garden. See bees like you’ve never seen them before! More info here.
Movie brought to you by the Mill Mountain Garden Club and Roanoke Valley Garden Club.
Pollinator Promenade – August 4-8
Join the Clean Valley Council for free guided visits to local pollinator gardens. Visit a different garden each day from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Programs are for all ages. Pre-registration is required. Sign up here.
- August 4: Mill Mountain Wildflower Garden/Mill Mountain Discovery Center Pollinator Garden
- August 5: Kiwanis Nature Park Pollinator Garden at Horton Park
- August 6: Brown-Robertson Park/Lick Run Farm
- August 7: Mountain View Community Garden
- August 8: Washington Park
Southwest Virginia Bee Festival – August 23
Join the Roanoke Valley Beekeepers Association and Botetourt Beekeepers Association for another year of the SWVA Bee Festival in Elmwood Park! You can expect pollination education, honey tastings, mead tastings, kids zone & scavenger hunt, food trucks, 40+ craft vendors, educational speakers, DJ & live music, club raffles, community outreach, and more! Save the date – August 23 – and find more info here.
