Last year I discovered a new bee-loving flower. My wife and I were visiting with Hal and Patti when I spotted a bunch of bee activity on some reddish blossoms. Patti said it was Sedum. I had heard of it, but I’ve never paid much attention to it. Now that I’m keeping bees, I’m all ears when it comes to flowers that attract bees.
So we bought some from our friendly nursery…bees started working it as my wife was carrying the potted plants out to the garden.
The plants will winter over, but protect them from the deer which will eat surely eat the blossoms as we found out.
This sedum has wintered over and is on it’s way to flowering in September. This time I’ve got it inside a deer fence.
I shot some video of the bees working the sedum. It’s a good time to plant some now hint, hint…:-)
George Bennett wasn’t the first to visit Bandon from Ireland, but he was the one who named the town in 1891, because it reminded him of his home town of Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. His friend, Henry Hewitt Baldwin was the first. Baldwin’s ship, the “Captain Lincoln” wrecked north of the Coos Bay bar in 1852 and he hiked into this area. Baldwin persuaded his home town friend, George Bennett to settle here. Lord Bennett and two sons arrived in 1873. It is unclear how and when the title “Lord” was bestowed on him. Some members of the Bandon Historical Society Museum are in agreement that he acquired the title on the journey from Ireland to here. The former name of the town was Averill which is now the name of the Pioneer Cemetery where Lord Bennett is buried.
Averill Pioneer Cemetery, where Lord Bennett is buried.
Lord Bennett is probably best known not for naming the town, but for bringing GORSE seeds to this area.
To say gorse is a nuisance plant is probably an understatement. It’s full of sharp spiny thorns, is impenetrable to walk through, and embodies an oil-type substance that makes it highly flammable.
In 1936, the Bandon Fire leveled the town, gorse being a contributing factor.
My new hobby of beekeeping has sparked an interest in gorse. When I joined the local bee club, I was advised that Bandon was not the best place for bees. “Too damp and windy.” I thought to myself maybe Bandon would have a slight advantage in the winter because of all the gorse growing here. It starts to bloom early to mid February and continues through late spring. This would be a definite advantage in giving my bees a nectar and pollen source mid winter.
Some photographs of gorse.
Gorse growing near town
Gorse can grow tall
Gorse pollen is orange…I had been hoping it was the yellow pollen I had seen going into the hive. February 13, 2013
Honey bee on gorse, up the road from me.
I love how the bees swagger when they are loaded with pollen…
I realize that without special techniques to properly identify pollen, I can’t say for certain that all the orange pollen is from gorse. Indeed, I could only find a small percentage of gorse with bees working it, but there is a lot of gorse that I don’t see. My bees were bringing in a gobs of orange pollen through February and early March. It’s possible this pollen could be coming from gorse. I’d like to think so.
These seeds are from last year’s Black-eyed Susan vine. Big and easy to plant.
Thunbergia , also called Black-eyed Susan vines, attract leaf cutter bees.
These are not much to look at right now, but today we transplanted the Thunbergia seedlings into a hanging basket and left them under the fluorescent lights until the weather warms up. This year we’ll provide some bamboo tube housing near by.
This is what we are aiming for…last year’s vine…and where we saved seed from.
Black-Eyed Susan with leaf cutter ‘cut-outs
August 9, 2013 I haven’t seen any sign of the leaf cutter bees on this plant, but it’s not for lack of blossoms. We’re real happy with the way it turned out from our own saved seed.
August 27, 2013…This Thunbergia plant just keeps growing and growing. You can see an Echium in a pot below and the hop vine that my son-in-law said wouldn’t grow, at the top. I haven’t seen any “cut-outs” yet.
This is the video I shot last August of the Leaf Cutter Bees slicing up petals from the Thunbergia as well as a nearby Dahlia. I’m looking forward to getting more video this year. Hope they were planted early enough.
Could this be pollen from the laurel bush? It’s been blooming since Jan. 22. I know that you can’t tell by color alone, but at this time I don’t have the microscope or capability to properly identify pollen.
This is the first year I’ve had bees into winter. I was curious about all the types of pollen showing up on the bees entering the hive. I was sure some of it was gorse since we seem to have so much of it growing thanks to Lord Bennett of Ireland.
I made a 9 minute movie showing the bees on different types of flowers and Shigeo of the local bee association demonstrates how to transplant an Echium. I realize that some people can’t spare the time, so I’m offering ‘screen saves,’ as well.
Laurel blooming by Bonnie’s house
Bee on laurel, tannish-colored pollen…January 22, 2013
Bees on rosemary, at City Hall, February 8, 2013
Willow catkins blooming near our hives…sun comes out…bees love it. February 8,2013
Gorse pollen is orange…I had been hoping it was the yellow pollen I had seen going into the hive. February 13, 2013
The video shows this bee in slow motion working the pollen back to it’s pollen sac. I didn’t see it at first until a more experience bee keeper showed me. February 13, 2013
Bee on heather, 2-14-13, right up the street from Joe and Karen’s house.
Bee on acacia, 2-15-13…Shigeo showed me this place to get some video. By the time we got to it, the bees were returning to home so I only got a short clip of it.
Shigeo shows how to transplant an Echium Tree.
Echium for 2013…I’m hoping this plant will shoot up 10 feet (3 m) starting about April or May. The tarp protects against freezing weather.
These are the plants that Shigeo demonstrated in the video, how to transplant. They are my hope for 2014
We planted this echium in late October 2011. It just stood still for several months. About April or May we noticed it had grown to about 10 feet. The bees worked it for 3 solid months.
The video shows the bees in action on the flowers. I used the Canon SX-50 (50x optical zoom) on the laurel as well as the willow catkins. My little pocket camera, a Sanyo Xacti performed admirably for the rest of the close ups…I love the ‘super macro’ feature.
In years’ past, we grew dozens of sunflowers of all types. This year…very few. Of the few that we planted, only four decided to grow. Of the four, only one was big enough to draw any visitors. This is the one.
My best sunflower this year
This might be the bug/beetle which appears in the video taken two days previous. It was on the flower part but jumped to the leaf while I was getting the camera switched on and focused.
Growing poppies is a long term affair. We planted these under lights in the house. After two to three weeks in a plastic bag to keep it moist, the very fine seeds have sprouted.
Poppies ready to be transplanted into bigger pots. The plants in the foreground are St. John’s Wort (Hypericum).
The poppy seed was planted in February. It is just now blooming in September. I think we’ll start earlier if we want poppies in spring or summer for the bees next year.
Here’s the beautiful result of our labor of love…
The poppy has finally opened up. I wonder when the bees will find it.
A couple of days after this first one opened up, we had a bee doing something strange (to me). It faced away from the center of the flower, beating her wings rapidly, vibrating the pollen off the stamen and onto her body. After getting a layer of purple pollen, she landed on the outside of the flower and groomed herself with her middle legs, pulling the pollen off her back and into her pollen baskets. It was incredible. I had my little pocket camera with me and got some video of it.
What is making these circular holes in the Black-Eyed Susan Vine? Slugs can’t get up that high and birds wouldn’t cut circles.
Last year my wife noticed circular holes in her Thunbergia’s petals. She couldn’t figure out what could have made the holes. We soon found out after spotting a bee carrying a leaf. It flew into a hole in the side of the shop.
Dahlia blossom with circular holes
As I was looking for more evidence to photograph, a leaf cutting bee landed on this Dahlia plant and cut a segment out. She was fast. It took about 10 seconds to cut the petal and fly away. I was able to point the camera and shoot away. It wasn’t until the next day that I was able to catch the bees flying into a hole in the newly replaced shop wall, between two spider webs. Both spiders failed to trap her…this time.
Burying the very available crab shell and coffee grounds to spice up the soil is the first thing. Warre hive is on the left and Bee Beard carved log hive on the right. I’m in good company.
Potatoes…should we harvest now or leave them in to grow more? If I leave them in, the voles might eat them…I better take them out. Then I can plant buckwheat in both beds.
Red Pontiacs – Three at once
A mole tunnel…the moles dig the tunnels, the voles follow the tunnels to the potatoes. More than a few potatoes had been chewed on, so it was good idea to get them out of the ground.
Some of the potatoes harvested from this first potato bed. We could have left them in to grow more, but the voles would have taken a big bite out of our harvest. This way we can grow buckwheat in both beds for the bees in September.
We’ve been fairly successful in the “no tilling” method for a few years. We think it’s important to use less manufactured energy and more physical energy. Is spading ‘as good as’ using a tiller? Probably not, but it’s important to be able to grow food without using fossil fuel for the possible time when we don’t have any.
We have dug in crab shell, kitchen scraps (no meat), comfrey leaves, and coffee grounds to enhance the soil. Now we’re planting the buckwheat seed.
The drip irrigation grid and the deer netting are in place.
Why do we need deer netting? Because of her…and all her offspring!
According to this article by the Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute “…buckwheat crop seems to improve soil tilth, and is reported to make phosphorous more available as a soil nutrient, possible through root-associated mycorrhizae. Buckwheat flowers profusely, making it popular with bee keepers and an attractive crop in the landscape.”
Sept. 9, 2012…about 5 weeks after planting, buckwheat is looking good. Bees have been working the blossoms for a couple of weeks already.
Sept. 9, 2012…Honeybees attending to the buckwheat blossoms under the deer netting.
A fly mimicking a bee on the buckwheat blossom.
My wife saved me the ultimate embarrassment of thinking I found some kind of new bee. “Honey, that’s a FLY!” “Ulp.”
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 