Bee swarm in Throop? Help is a minute away.

Throop is a village within the Bournemouth urban area, set on the River Stour where it passes between the Bournemouth conurbation to the north and Hurn Airport to the east. The Stour valley here retains a largely unbuilt corridor of water meadow, willow-lined banks and scrub that gives a rural feel despite its suburban surroundings. The Throop Mill and its weir, the Stour Valley Way riverside path and the meadows managed by the Bournemouth local wildlife sites programme give beekeepers in the surrounding streets access to water mint, meadowsweet and willowherb through summer.

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.