Bee swarm in Highcliffe? Help is a minute away.

Highcliffe is a clifftop village east of Christchurch, dominated by the Grade I listed Highcliffe Castle — a Gothic revival mansion set in wooded grounds above Highcliffe Beach — and the Chewton Bunny chine cutting through the sandstone cliffs to the shore. The castle gardens and the wooded clifftop carry mature lime, sycamore and sheltered coastal shrubs that provide reliable early-summer forage. Chewton Bunny has bramble, elder and hawthorn in the chine descent, and the residential roads on the clifftop carry mature ornamental gardens.

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.