Last year in June, before the deer discovered it, the bees were on the Meadowfoam everyday.
If you’ve ever watched the bees on a Poached Egg Meadowfoam (Limnanthes Douglasii), you will want to grow some for your bees. Last year I bought 12 plants from my friendly nursery (101 Plants). The bees were on them everyday. Unfortunately, the deer discovered them, and mowed them down. This year I’m happy to say I found a source for seeds. I’m buying 1000 seeds for under $5.00 from Outside Pride in Oregon. With that many seeds, I can scatter them in quite a few areas (fenced in, this time). The bees will love them and so will I.
Another photo taken shortly before the deer decided to sample it last year.
I was under the mistaken impression that Meadowfoam was grown mostly in Oregon and Northern California, but I see the Royal Horticultural Society in Great Britain has a listing for it as a Poached Egg Plant.
The oil from Limnanthes Alba is valuable…According to Oregon Meadowfoam Growers, meadowfoam oil is 20 times more stable than soybean oil, which means it does not deteriorate as readily when exposed to air. A gallon of meadowfoam oil is worth about $200 retail.
February 2, 2014…the salvia is looking strong. Footnote…we replaced some bulbs in the light stand with the full spectrum bulbs this year hoping to lessen the legginess. These look good.
June 28, 2013…Penstemon is a great bumblebee attraction.
June 9, 2013…Honeybees are getting nectar from the Pincushion Flowers (Scabiosa)
Don’t forget the butterflies!
February 3, 2014…received my Butterflyweed seed package today. These bright flowers attract honeybees also.
One of the beekeeping blogs I follow, written by Emma Sarah Tennant, featured a TED talk by Marla Spivak, showing the reasons why bees are disappearing and how we can help them by planting habitat. We are proud to be a small part of a growing movement to help our wild pollinators.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
I planted poached egg plants from seeds some years ago before I had noticed the bees. I planted them in the vegetable garden as they are supposed to act as companion plants. I had a limited success with them but I will try again and get some seeds this year to see what bees they attract. I have increased my Salvias and Penstomons. I get a beautiful Amegilla and Anthophora in the Salvia. Have you tried Nepeta? It is very easy to grow and flowers all summer. Great videos, again.
Amegilla, Anthophora? Wow, you certainly know your bees. I asked my wife if we ever saw those. She said that’s what we’ve been calling ‘wasps’ because they didn’t look like bees. The abdomen wasn’t fuzzy.
I also asked her if we grew Nepeta. Apparently, it comes back every year without us planting it. Sort of like borage, coming back year after year.
Good luck with your poached egg plant plan. I’d love to see some pictures if you attract some bees.
I sympathise with your wife, I thought the Anthidium manicatum were wasps when I first saw them. Actually they are very fun solitary bees. Our Nepeta comes back every year, that’s why its so easy and it takes the sun and dry weather too.
I have started another site too, Bees in a French garden (https://beesinafrenchgarden.wordpress.com) it is really to help me identify the bees I have seen. Very few people care about the solitary bees but they are very important for the environment too.
Wow, what caught my eye was the package for the butterflyweed — Asclepias — which looks/sounds alot like Asclepius, the archetype of the Wounded Healer.
Quick search of the internet showed that the plant genus Asclepias was named for Asclepius “the Greek god of healing, because of the many folk-medicinal uses for the milkweed plants.”
Thank you for pointing the way to this juicy tidbit that I wasn’t aware of! 🙂
Thank YOU for contributing the tasty tidbit. You must be up on your Greek. I guess I was focusing on the beautiful orange blossom. While I was perusing the web for ‘Asclepias’, I found this web site…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_tuberosa It looks like if grown from seed, it won’t blossom until the third year. Hummm, that’s a long time to wait. Hope I don’t forget where it is. 🙂
As a body/energy worker & healing facilitator, I’m up on my healing archetypes. 🙂 Asclepius is a biggie. I think it’s super awesome that plants were named for him- and I love butterflyweed!
aren’t artichokes like that too- 2-3 seasons for edibles?
tasy tidbits! 😀
Thanks for a lovely and helpful post! I am not a beekeeper but a friend keeps some hives here on our bit of land – I love to see the bees, and am trying each year to plant more things that they like. It’s so great that there seems to be more and more interest in looking after pollinators – but so much more to be done! Thanks again, and best wishes.
You’re right…so much more to be done, but let’s have fun doing it.
Reblogged this on WelcomeTree Farm and commented:
“Not a single bee has ever sent you an invoice. And that is part of the problem – because most of what comes to us from nature is free, because it is not invoiced, because it is not priced, because it is not traded in markets, we tend to ignore it.”
– Pavan Sukhdev, United Nations report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.
Love this post…
I just love the name ‘poached egg’ very fitting. I know what I’m having for breakfast in the morning 🙂
Actually I thought they looked more like ‘fried eggs.’ Glad to see you’re back in Poland. Can’t wait to hear about the birth of your daughter…hoping for Valentine’s Day. Is there a chance?
Good to be back and yes Valentines day is a possibility; at the doctors later today to see if everything is on track 🙂