July 18, 2014…Although I walk past this New Zealand Flax just about every day, I never took notice of it until it started blooming about a week ago. I became curious whether bees would be attracted to it. Yes, they were…even as early as 8:30 am..
July 17, 2014…bee going deep for nectar. I recently read a website that stated honeybees can’t get the nectar from New Zealand Flax, and yet I saw many honeybees attending these blossoms.
July 12, 2014…Hummingbirds also visited, but were often chased away by rivals. Why is that? There is plenty to go around. “Why can’t they cooperate for the common good,” my wife wonders? I have no idea…Why can’t humans cooperate for the common good? Looking at our blue planet from space, seeing nothing around that’s habitable for light year distances, you’d think we’d want to work together for our mutual survival.
Just some random thoughts in light of the disturbing current world affairs.
July 14, 2014…When I saw reddish orange pollen coming into my Bee-atrice Log Hive, I wondered where it was coming from.
Reddish orange pollen, coming from the New Zealand Flax.
Ants like it too. When I was shooting the video I waited and waited until this ant emerged, then another came up, and another.
History of flax use in New Zealand
The Short Story of Flax in New Zealand
How to clean and harvest New Zealand Flax
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Nice shots and video, Pat. One of these days I’m going to shoot a hummingbird, though in the meanwhile I’ll probably stick with the hummingbird moths. That’s an interesting flower. I’d be wary if I was critter climbing in there though. I imagine butterflies might like this kind of plant? Well at least butterflies in New Zealand maybe…
I would have liked to catch some butterflies sipping nectar, but didn’t see any. I was surprised to see the ants, but one of the branches obligingly lay down where I could get some good video…that’s when I saw the ants! 🙂
Lovely footage & photographs! Strangely I came across your post after learning about the practical uses of Flax today in a gardening workshop. We separated it into thin strips & used it as twine to tie back tomatoes & to secure grafts on apple trees by wrapping the flax round, tying it & sealing with beeswax! Flax truly is an amazing plant offering multiple functions to an ecosytem!
How lucky you are to find out about NZ Flax. The more I read about it, the more I realize how useful it is. In addition to using flax to weave baskets, containers, and mats, the Maori people discovered medicinal properties such as crushing the roots to make a poultice for skin infections, or to make a juice with disinfectant and laxative properties. The leaves themselves could be used as bandages and to secure broken bones. All this as early as 1250 AD.
NZ Flax was not a plant I was familiar with – very interesting. I’ve never lived anywhere that has hummingbirds either. I find the bees will share flowers and ignore other bees on the same flower but sometimes little bees fall off if a large one lands and stomps around. Amelia
Thanks. We grow it in Scotland and this year keeping honey bees for first time was amazed that they could take nectar as well as pollen. I also like to break of the base of the flower to sip the nectar. The orange pollen left on my beard incriminates me. “Where the bee sucks there suck I”
That is so fascinating. You actually get the color of the pollen on your beard!!! I’m afraid I’m gonna have to wait until next year to try that out, because there’s not much left this year. Thanks for writing.
I was told there are NO hummingbirds in NZ! Where did you film that?