[mention]PlainJane[/mention]

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention]

You beat me to it.

I intended this plant to be for hummingbirds, but the bees are using it a lot.

I put in a new bed for watermelons and cantaloupes and to make sure the bees find the blossoms (assuming the melons grow!) I planted a flower border of all kinds of mixed seeds including zinnias, cosmos, bachelors' buttons and a bunch more I can't remember. Looks like a lot of them have come up. Yay!

Wow, fantastic photos from everybody.

Even though it was the last day of September, I managed to pick up two beautiful Blue Fortune hyssop plants at Lowe's. They were only $6.98 each. The bees were swarming the display. I put one of the plants that I bought near the bird bath to replace a Mexican Sage plant that bit the dust earlier in the year.

The bees really like our asters (the hoverflies do, too). Here's a video of them:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/xe ... 4NRLHfFB8A

You can hear the bees if you turn the volume up a lot.

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:21 am I intended this plant to be for hummingbirds, but the bees are using it a lot.

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Have you noticed that the bees have problems reaching the nectar through the flowers opening so they come in from the side and chew a hole in the tube so that they can reach the nectar at the base of the flower.

The honey bees go crazy for the big squash, a Thai pumpkin and butternut type, blossoms. Seems like they are into the pollen more than anything. The bees come out mostly yellow and covered in pollen at times. Honey bees are also hitting my okra, but not for the nectar or pollen from the blossoms. They are after the honeydew from the aphids that are trying to infest my okra plants.

Bumblebees won’t leave my zinnias alone. These bumblebees look massive, especially large and fuzzy, like bears fattening up for winter. But all afternoon they continue to come to the thirty or so zinnia blooms I have. I want to follow these bees, some at least are heading off to the Southeast, and find their nest. Don’t ever seriously disturb a bumblebee hive without a bee suit, though. Bumblebees make honey, but not very much of it and they fiercely protect their stash.

MissS wrote: ↑Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:34 pm

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:21 am I intended this plant to be for hummingbirds, but the bees are using it a lot.

0605200856.jpg

0603201413a.jpg

Have you noticed that the bees have problems reaching the nectar through the flowers opening so they come in from the side and chew a hole in the tube so that they can reach the nectar at the base of the flower.

Yes, bees drill holes at the base of the tube.

This guy is a hole-driller.

Thanks for all the pictures. Spooky, those pentas are real bee magnets. Have a few left in the ground in red tones. Could not believe seeing a hummer on one yesterday. The feeders have been pulled and there's not much left in flowers. It's the latest I've ever seen one.

I've seen hummingbirds on my pentas also. These easy to grow plants attract a wide variety of pollinators.

The bees were busy today on the Thai basil.

Honey Bees love the Thai Pumpkin and South Anna Butternut squash blooms. I think they are more after the pollen than anything else. Not a beekeeper, but seems like honey bees need both nectar and pollen sources. Anyway, the honey bees come very early to the blooms and get covered in yellow pollen. I’ve seen a few carpenter bees in the blooms also.

My zinnias are still attracting bumble bees. The honey bees don’t seem to come to zinnias. Okra blooms attract honey bees, but not the flowers, it’s the aphids secretions. Honey bees like aphid secretions and one can buy honeydew honey, honey made from bees feeding mostly on these secretions. Black Forest honey or pine honey are a couple of more readily available types. Honeydew (forest) honeys are very popular in Europe. I have some sorghum honeydew honey and it’s very earthy and complex.

Aphids may not be all bad if they keep the bees fed.

About to take out my old zinnia patch, too messy looking so says the wife, and the Okra patch is coming out soon for some crops more suited to the upcoming cooler weather. I’ll leave the squash in as long as I can. The two plants generally have a half a dozen blooms a day each.

I have some several patches of ground cover with numerous orangy yellow blooms that will attract bees. Not sure what it is, it was well established prior to my move to this house. It’s really blooming now, but manages to almost always have a few blooms. The loquats are blooming now and those are bee magnets.

Watching the bees come to the garden is a true joy.

I was adopted by a bee just now.
She stayed on my leg for awhile cleaning and then left.

[mention]worth1[/mention] Was her name honey ?

The guys I work with would have had a heart attack if it would have landed on them.
I had to tell both of them to calm down many times.
They looked like helicopters flapping around.

Maybe let them have a heart attack. I assume they are grown men.

My garden has been adopted by honey bees. This fall I noticed bees rising from an old compost bin at one edge down the wall. I had been planning on cleaning it up a bit but when I saw the bees I left it alone. One warmer day lately I was over that way and a bee flew up to me, checked me out and flew on. Did it recognise me? I wonder. They are out of the way and safe there for the winter.

There are still some salvias in bloom though I don't imagine there is much nectar available it being so cold out these days.