A
sunny day in Shropshire and I’ve just been watching bees working some
of the flowers in my garden and hoping at least some of the insects working so
industriously were mine. There are so many hives in the vicinity that I know
of, I couldn’t be sure.
A few weeks
ago it was the red flowers of the Japanese Quince, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Falconnet
Charlet’, they were enjoying. This time it was the yellow blossoms of Caltha palustris, the Marsh Marigold, or Kingcup, which flourishes in the
centre of my pond as well as the marshy edges of it, and is spreading with an
abandon I might regret in time.
In a few
weeks’ time it will the multitude of blue flowers covering the Californian
Lilac, Ceanothus thrysiflorus, a
shrub which prefers warmer conditions really, but clings to life in my garden
despite a climate which doesn’t really suit it much of the time, which will
seem to be humming themselves with so many bees visiting them for their pollen.
Proof that, in my garden at least, despite what some experts say, the bees have
no preference where colour is concerned.
In the
garden, keeping up the bee friendly flowers theme, any time between May and
September, look out for the slightly cupped, sweetly scented, white and yellow
carpet of flowers which, Limnanthes douglasii,
the Poached Egg plant, an annual, will produce.
Sometimes
called the “Bee Flower”, because honey bees are said to be so attracted to it
for both its nectar and pollen, when I grew it in my own garden a year or two
ago, it was notable for its complete lack of attendant bees of any sort. Nor
has it grown again as a result of self-seeding, as it’s supposed to do. Perhaps
because it didn’t attract enough insects to pollinate its flowers. Though that
could be a virtue rather than fault. It depends on your point of view.
The picture below is of one of my bees proving the Poached Egg plants popularity by being on two of its flowers at the same time.
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