“I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.” —Andrew Weill
QCPP was born in 2019 out of the friendship that founders Carrie Driehaus and Jenny O’Donnell formed over a beehive and a cup of coffee. They were quickly dubbed Bee-FFs and within a few months had formed a 501-C3 to save the world one pollinator at a time. Soon after, Sylvana Ross (aka Syl Ross the Science Boss) joined the call to action and we became a force of nature, bringing to Cincinnati another opportunity to be her best self.
2023 marks our fourth growing season in this mission and the garden is strong. Sylvana Ross has migrated to Cornell University to follow the passion she found in entomology and carries QCPP’s love and support with her. We are continuing to support young entomologists, beekeepers, and gardeners as we are supporting now students from two local high schools and UC, folding them into the opportunities provided by our amazing partners at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Civic Garden Center, Lick Run Greenway, Fizzy Beez, Preserve Burnet Woods, Cincinnati Parks, New School Montessori, Urban Stead Cheese, and Cincinnati-Nancy Sister City Association.
We provide a science-based curriculum for adults and children in after-school, and in-class programs, bringing programs to garden clubs, social clubs, and beekeeping groups built with our expertise, stunning photos, fun activities, and practical advice for creating pollinator-friendly spaces large and small. Catch us with Carol Mundy, The Crow Knows, on Spectrum News1, and in the Lloyd Library program archives for some of our recorded programs.
Three environmental activists started this effort by planting beehives on rooftops and milkweed, parsley, and zinnias in abandoned lots and talking to anyone who would listen about what each of us can do to protect and support pollinators. Together, they have developed not only an educationally rich website, and social media presence, but now as the worker bees continue to focus on caring for all local pollinators, they are also teaching others how they can join the effort. QCPP’s list of partners is growing, just like a healthy garden because they are working with and supporting other organizations that are already Cincinnati-passionate leaders in environmental protection and sustainability. Now along with its dedicated board members, QCPP is a vibrant colony of pollinator ecosystem supporters.
What We Do
EDUCATION
Our classes are designed for grades 3rd and up through adults and include classes for schools, garden groups, community organizations, local businesses, and more! Program lengths can range from 1-hour stand-alone presentations to semester and summer-long programs. Our science educators teach programs and give presentations on pollinator ecology, land management practices, entomology, honeybee biology, gardening for pollinators, and more! Our programs will encourage you to contribute data to biodiversity-focused community science projects and become more familiar with the strengths and threats to wildlife and ecosystems in your community. Learn how your contributions to the health of your local ecosystem impact the organisms around you and the future well-being of the planet. Click below to contact us, and request pricing for a program at your school or community organization. CONSERVATION
We aren’t here to harvest honey, we are here to support the native bees and honeybees and work to benefit them. We are pollinator protectors. We are passionate about education and using the honeybee as a tool to teach our community about the ecological services and threats all our pollinators are facing. We advocate for minimizing pesticide and insecticide use and promote more ecologically friendly methods of living with these important ecology partners. We plant native pollinator species and distribute these seeds to community members for distribution across the city and region. We know that augementing the city's soil benefits us all. Feed the bees (and butterflies, etc.) and we feed ourselves. We organize and participate in community science projects, including tagging the migratory generation of monarch butterflies and monitoring pollinator populations. We raise native butterfly and moth species and advocate for native and specific host plants in gardens, even when you don't think it's a viable garden space. We plant milkweed and other host plants at local school gardens, community gardens, and local businesses. Click below to contact us to learn about ways you can help pollinators at your home or business! COLLABORATION
Cincinnati is one of the U.S’s Top 35 Greenest cities and we are passionate about making sure biodiversity and habitat conservation contribute not only to the well-being of Cincinnatians, but the organisms that live among us. We partner with other non-profits, local businesses, county parks, and community organizations to build pollinator habitats, educate with honeybee hives, conduct professional developments for S.T.E.A.M teachers, and more. Contact us if your organization is interested in collaborating and check out our award-winning collaboration with the Cincinnati - Nancy Sister City Association and our pollinator protection project in Nancy, France by clicking below. 
"I fell in love with the 6-legged invertebrates that call this same planet home, and yes some have venomous stingers and alien-like transformations, but there is so much beauty in their work. The relationship between a pollinator and a plant is symbiosis at its finest and we can learn so much from their dedication to one another. For each of their lives depend on the tenacity of the other, and while they are easy to pass by, our lives depend on their tenacity as well. We are at the mercy of hard-working insects and bountiful flowers and it is our jobs as the keeper of the keys to make this planet better for them not just to live, but to thrive."
— QCPP Board Member, educator Sylvana Ross
Look closer
Honeybees are only one type of pollinator and are not native to North America, but they are oh, so sweet and so is their honey! We know that we need to feed all the bees to support the natives and the naturalized bees. Look closely at the bumbles and the honey bees and you will see their “pollen pants.” Thinking about where they go in their quest for food and nectar really demonstrates how everything in your yard will end up in your neighbor’s yard and vice versa because pollinators don’t recognize property lines! We all must build our hive together.
Try this — go outside and find a bee, wasp, fly, butterfly, or any other flying insect on a plant. Take a minimum of 15 seconds to sit quietly and watch them work. Share this activity with your kids! You can get really close and the insects don’t care that you’re there. When you really sit quietly and watch, you might find that you start noticing more about the flowers, bugs and ecosystem than you ever have before. If you are really inspired, join one of the citizen science projects in I-Naturalist or other programs to build a body of data used to support and research native bees, butterfly migration, and pollinators, in general.