Monthly Archives: June 2011
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| This orange flower’s name escapes me. I will add it in later. the bumble bees loved this plant |
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| The changing vista of an island |
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| The view. |
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| This bumble bee is a male- indicated by the yellow face. Once you see males foraging in the garden, the bumble bee colony is near its end. The queens mate, and hibernate by themselves in the ground. |
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| Drumstick Onions with a bumble bee embedded within the florets |
Joe has a great garden for bees. He tries to have continuous bloom so that bees always have food available to them.
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| Another onion drumstick with a bumble bee. |
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| Beautiful red columbine with drumstick onions in the background. |
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| Joe S. and three of his gorgeous rhododendrons in bloom. He tries to attain continuous bloom so that bees always have food available. |
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| Paris, Parc de Bercy. A quiet space, away from the hustle and bustle |
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| Paris: The hustle and bustle of a thorougfare |
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| Just around the corner from the hustle and bustle! |
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| We have arrived in Paris! |
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| River Seine |
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| Bluebell |
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| A vegetable garden within the park |
During my visit to Holland, I was lucky to see a number of gardens that belonged to friends and relatives Here are some of the bee attractive plants I saw in these gardens.
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| A close up of the tiny pink flower. |
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| Unfortunately I do not know the name of this 5 foot high bush. The tiny pink flowers were very attractive to bees. |
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| Pink Delphinium |
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| Foxglove |
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| Holland: bicycle stall at a railway station. |
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| Bluebell |
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| Old city of Dordrecht, Holland |
Right in front of the medical clinic on Quadra Island, a raised bed had some surprises in store for me. I was certainly not expecting numerous bumble bees foraging on 4 patches of sage ground cover. We were meandering along the store fronts, and there they were- too busy to take any notice of the photographer. |
| Very little of the ground covers’ green leaves were visible amongst the dense layers of flowers. |
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| There were numerous bumble bees present on these patches of sage. |
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| The bees’ tongue is visible probing the flowers |
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| Two bumble bees ready for flight. |
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| This is a large new queen that will be hibernating over the winter. |
Joe S. from Burnaby showed me his ‘bumble bee house’. He told me he always has swallows and chickadee nests up and often they are used by the birds. And ever so often the chickadee nests are used as a bumble bee nest. So this year, he asked around if anyone had an old chickadee nest, to please pass it on to him. He received one placed it in an old chickadee nest, and bingo, the bees arrived. Chickadee nests have quite a lot of hair in them, and he believes this might be the attractant, like a mouse nest. I am going to try this, but first I need a chickadee nest.
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| One guard, checks out the photographer. The splatter pattern on the outside of the box is the feces of the bumble bee. |
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| To make the box more to their liking, the bees even plugged up the large crack at the front of the box. |
