It hasn’t been a great year so far for bees and butterflies in my garden, but I had a wander down to the raised beds the other afternoon mainly to see whether my least favourite flower (because of its smell, not looks) Eryngium – the sea holly – was attracting anything other than flies. I was happy to see not only bees, mostly white-tailed bumblebees, but also a few Red Admiral butterflies gorging themselves.
Eryngium Alpinum ‘Blue Star”
Echinops
Eryngium Alpinum ‘Blue Star”
Golden Marjoram
Eryngium Alpinum ‘Blue Star”
Agapanthus
And just in case you were thinking that it was the purple / blue tones that attract the bees, here’s a bee that tunnelled so deep into a daylily I thought it had become stuck!
You’re right about its not having ben a good year for bees, But suddenly, come August, here at least, it’s got much better.
I am glad your garden is beeing happy Jude 😁
👍
LOL, that bee in the daylily is determined not to miss anything! We’ve had quite an up and down year for pollinators here too, but some days the garden is buzzing. I hadn’t seen many honeybees for a while but now they’re coming in to a thyme. The thyme is so popular that I think I should plant more. 🙂
My eryngium and echinops are full of bees at the moment. Marjoram is also popular and the last of the penstemons. Still a shortage of honey bees though.
I’ve seen a few honey bees at last – mostly in a thyme and a sedum, but it’s taken much longer than usual for them to visit. We always seem to have a lot more bumblebees.
I always love to see some good bee photos 🙂 Like you we’ve not seen so many this year – I’m hoping it’s the weather rather than a general trend downwards. Oh for an Indian summer!!
That would be good!
This year, we have way fewer bees than before – unfortunately.
It’s a worrying problem. We need the bees!
Good to see the bees. I read recently that flying insects in England have reduced by up to 50% this year. That is certainly true of houseflies, as we have only had a handful inside. Could be a really serious issue ecologically though.
Best wishes, Pete. x
I’m not sad to see less houseflies, but there have definitely been less insects in my garden this year.
What a beautiful little bee❣❣❣
Mr ET has cherry tomatoes growing in a sunny sheltered position and even though it’s still winter they have lots of flowers. He hasn’t seen many bees either and he read that you can stimulate the plants by holding an electric toothbrush against the stems. Apparently the vibrations simulate the movement of bees. He looks funny standing out there with his toothbrush held up to the tomato plants. Time will tell if it works.
That is funny 😂 maybe I should have tried that with my aubergine plants.
Didn’t know the sea holly smelt bad, it’s very good looking though which might be some consolation! My neighbour keeps bees and says the colony is much weaker this year, possibly because of the climate and knock-on effect on the availability of food. ☹️
Not all sea hollies smell. The silver ones don’t and I think this one is only really bad when it flowers. Not one to bring indoors!
Beautiful – I so hope they have a good autumn
I hope we do too! I feel like a hermit since May.
ooh yes that’s what I am feeling too. This constant greyness is just draining, and then there’s the news. . . . here’s to a bright autumn for us all xxx
Sigh… Best not talk about the news. It’s just simply awful. My lad spent one tour over on Helmand. My heart goes out to those families of personnel who didn’t return or were injured. And where is the rest of the world in this?
😦