Carpenter Bee Survey

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…well, one bee, although there were several on the echinops above, E Arctic Glow’, when I was trying to take a photograph, but they wouldn’t stand still or long enough! The garden, is, however, currently swarming with bees and butterflies, which is good to see.

The solitary mason bee is a North American native pollinator that deserves more attention and respect. Honeybees do a lot of pollinating, but they are not native, their populations are in decline, and they are not as efficient at pollinating as some other species, including mason bees. Learn more about this humble bee and how to support it in your garden.

Rumour that Bees are in terminal decline is not borne out in my garden this year. The Bees seem very happy on the blue flowers and I am happy as it gives me an excuse to show some more blue photographs (of flowers!).

Monarda enmass

Carnations defy the single flower rule attracting as many insects as the dahlias, poppies and blackberries

I thought I would just list some special tactics to try increase successful sowing activities.  After all ‘Tis the season for sowing summer annuals and so on’.

Aldi

Are you frustrated because there are dandelions and other weeds in your lawn? Did you know that dandelion flowers provide one of the first springtime sources of pollen for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects?

Our family now has a new favorite garden perennial plant. Ever since our ‘Jacob Cline’ Monarda (Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’) came into bloom, it has been the most gorgeous flower we have tried in our landscape. Ruby-throated hummingbirds simply flock to its scarlet red flowers for nectar. This cultivar towers above the other perennials, as it stands about 4 feet tall. It requires some support in partial shade, so we use large, round, wire plant supports that were installed when the plants were just coming up for the spring; then, they grow up through these supports. Monardas grow best in half to all-day sunlight and do prefer a somewhat moist soil. ‘Jacob Cline’ is a powdery mildew resistant cultivar, which is a fungal disease that ruins the foliage of many monardas.

During pollinator week (June 20 -24), I spent time hunting for native bees in the South Carolina Botanical Garden. Native bees are powerhouse pollinators and of critical importance to plant life and our food supply. Over 4000 species are native to North America, with perhaps a thousand active in the Southeast, still a rather daunting number! But you must begin somewhere, so I set out with my camera to see who was in the garden!

This little critter looks a lot like a bee (it’s yellow, fuzzy, and foraging flowers), but if you look closely, you’ll see it has only one pair of wings (bees have two). This feature distinguishes this as a fly, specifically a bee fly (family Bombyliidae). Though they look similar, these flies grow up very differently from bees. Bee flies are parasitic and develop on the larvae and pupae of other insects, such as wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, grasshoppers, and other flies.