Bee swarm collection in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

The season opens on gorse at Turbary Common and Canford Heath from February; blackthorn in the chine hedgerows follows. Lime in Bournemouth's public gardens — the Central, Upper and Lower Gardens along the Bourne chine — delivers a fine late-June flow. The Hengistbury Head headland and Stanpit Marsh carry sea-lavender, sea-aster and coastal scrub into August. Bramble is dense in the chines and on the heath edges. Bell heather and ling on Canford Heath and Turbary Common give a late-July to September supplement that few coastal UA areas in southern England can match. Coastal ivy on cliff-face gardens and older bungalow walls closes the year.

Bournemouth and Dorset South BKA (bads-bka.org) is the principal BBKA-affiliated association for the conurbation, with members across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. East Dorset BKA also covers the Canford Heath and Wimborne fringe. Collectors here are skilled with promenade hotel eaves, Victorian terrace chimneys, detached pine-woodland garden plots in Branksome and Canford Cliffs, and heathland hive sites on the nature reserve margins.