Field notes · Bombus
Grow the gardenthe loud onesneed.
Bumble bees are built for flowers nobody else can open — deep trumpets, hooded spurs, sealed lips. Plant accordingly and your border becomes a private dining room for the garden's most important pollinator.
- 8
- bumble-only flowers
- 3
- field games
- 1
- code per packet
Specimen 01
Bombus terrestris, pollen-laden
250+
species worldwide
Roughly 250 species of Bombus exist, in every habitat from alpine meadows to city parks.
1 year
colony lifespan
A colony rises and dies within a single season. Only mated queens overwinter, alone, underground.
10°C
still flying
They shiver their flight muscles to warm up, foraging on cold mornings when other bees stay in.
1 in 3
bites of food
About a third of what we eat depends on animal pollination. Bumble bees do a heavy share of it.
Proboscis
Long tongue
Anatomy of a specialist
Built for flowers others give up on.
Five adaptations explain why bumble bees can work a garden that honey bees and hoverflies simply cannot. Tap each part.
A folded tongue longer than the bee's own body in some species. It is the reason deep, trumpet-shaped flowers are effectively bumble bee private property.
The nectar index
Flowers that keep their nectar for bumble bees.
The meadow-verse
Learn the garden by playing in it.
The Great Pollen Run
Fly a forager through a drifting meadow. Load pollen at the blooms, then carry it home to the nest to bank it — and dodge pesticide haze on the way.
Bloom Match
Sixteen botanical plates, a memorise-the-meadow peek and a running clock. Miss a pair and you lose seconds; every match reveals why bumble bees choose that flower.
Worker Bee: Hive Life
You are a worker in a growing nest, shown inside and out. Forage nectar and pollen, fan it into honey, draw wax comb, and feed brood that takes three weeks to become workers. Every raider you mistime costs a sting, and the run ends when they are gone.
Hive Quiz
Fifteen timed questions on bee biology, pollination and gardening. Fast answers build streaks worth more points — and every answer explains itself.
Bee Race
Sprint the garden track against bots or a friend on the same keyboard. Boost to gain ground, brake to thread the gaps — clip a spider web and the lead changes hands.
Planting order
A month-by-month garden, not a bag of seeds.
Start with spring
Founding queens emerge in early spring and have no stored food. Comfrey, borage and flowering fruit trees are survival.
Overlap the season
Aim for three or more flowers in bloom at every point from March to October. Gaps starve a colony faster than shortage.
Pick the deep ones
Tubular, hooded and spurred flowers reward bumble bees specifically — and they are the flowers other pollinators skip.
Leave a corner wild
A sunny, undisturbed patch of bare soil is a nursery. Log piles and long grass are winter shelter for queens.
The nectar economy
Coins come from play. Boosts come from coins.
There are no codes and nothing to buy. Every arcade run pays out a little nectar — deliberately stingy, and capped at 30 coins a session — and every coin you save buys a pollen shield or a field hint in your garden.
- Coins earned only in the arcade
- Spent on pollen shields and field hints
- Balances saved to your garden account