A team from the University of Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory has earned a silver-gilt medal at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Their interactive exhibit, called Blooming Numbers, showcased how plants attract bees and how bees perceive flowers.
The display was part of the show’s GreenSTEM section, which highlights science and technology in gardening. Kathy Grube, a member of the laboratory team, said the exhibit revealed “amazing beautiful features” of plants at the microscopic level. She added, “We focus on plants and thought this was a perfect way to share our research.”
The laboratory studies how plant growth affects crop sustainability and pollinator health. When the team arrived to water their plants, they discovered the medal placed by the judges. “We were jumping up and down when we found it,” Grube said.
The exhibit included a special pollinator patch filled with flowers planted since Christmas. These plants were chosen to demonstrate how bees see flowers differently, especially under ultraviolet light. The team worked with a family-run garden centre in Oakington, near Cambridge, to create this part of the display.
Melanie Sadler, the garden centre owner, explained, “Bees see flowers in a way that is invisible to us. We picked plants that highlight what bees really notice.”
The award-winning exhibit successfully combined cutting-edge plant science with hands-on learning, delighting visitors and judges alike.
