"For bees, the flower is the fountain of life;
For flowers, the bee is the messenger of love."
SOUL wants to be the solution to help protect and increase bees on Centennial Campus. And in return, the bees will pollinate our flowers, provide a bountiful harvest of fruits, seeds and vegetables as well as the joy of watching them up close.
Believe it or not, you have a bee to thank for every one in three bites of food you eat.
Honey bees — wild and domestic — perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but fruits, nuts and vegetables are pollinated by bees. Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees.
SOUL Garden has a pollinator garden with daisies, bee balm, lambs ear, coreopsis,and many more pollinator friendly plants. The pollinator garden is a very important factor in the SOUL garden. The bees transfer pollen from plant to plant, which stimulates the growth of our fruits and vegetables. The pollinator garden promotes collaboration through its own example of pollinating insects working together with flowers to create something spectacular.
In partnership with Bee Downtown, SOUL has a beehive on Centennial Campus right on Main Campus drive. Bee Downtown is a Durham-based startup focused on developing a healthy and sustainable honey bee population across the United States.
NCSU offers classes of entomology where students can learn about the importance of bees, and how to care for hives of their own. There is also a beekeeping club, where students can get even more hands on experience.
Tours have already been scheduled. Be sure to sign up for them by visiting the events page. Some of the pollinator garden tours will be in conjunction with tours of the SOUL bee hive.
Location of Pollinator Garden and Bee Hive
With 75 corporate, government and nonprofit partners employing more than 3,500 people, Centennial Campus is one of the leading university research campuses in North America and beyond. This award-winning campus is a national and global model for fostering research and development partnerships with industry leaders. This mixed-use development boasts residential development, two public schools, a championship golf course, world-renowned Hunt Library, a new conference center/hotel opening in October, 2017 and the SOUL Garden.
Have questions about the pollinator garden and the bee hive, send us a message using our contact form below.