Welcome to the 2020 thread!

Beautiful shot!

Thanks so much! I'm still learning how to do this (photography), a lucky shot. Bet you couldn't guess how many I took to get that one! I learned that from Big Bill; aim, point and keep firing off shots, one right after another. 📸

Just some random honeybee:

Beautiful as always, Asa!

Just because:


A few years ago, I got a single honeybee on a very warm (for us) day in January. Think it was on the 30th or 31st. Here's hoping for an early spring!

We get wood boring bees, bumble bees, little miniature bees of different colors, but in five years of living here i have only seen one honey bee.

I'm surprised, Eric, maybe you need to plant a Honey bee magnet plant.

Asa, nice shot, it has been quite warm here in Central FL, record high temps, the honey bees are enjoying it.

Can you find the honey bee in these pics?

Pics from last summer.




My big mama!

Had a nice surprise this morning when I opened the GH...LOTS of honey bees😊😊 stuff is blooming and they were happy little campers

That is a nice surprise! Boy, I can't wait for spring and summer, even though I will be complaining about the heat and humidity by June!

Seems like everytime i purchase a new plant the bumbles move on to the newer plant. They used to be all over my celosia intenz classic, but now they are paying attention to my mystic spires salvia.

Kinda like kids. Let them get a new video game, and they won't touch the older ones! Last year the bees were all over the basil; seldom went to any other plant. Since I will be putting in a lot of new plants this year, it will be interesting to see which plant they pick.

I came across something that I thought my fellow insect lovers here would enjoy. I've started listening to some podcasts lately, including some of the "Joe Gardener" ones. He's the host of the tv show "Growing a Greener World", which I recently "re-discovered". I'd tried it when it first came on PBS many years ago and didn't really like it at the time. Now it seems to have a much different vibe, and he's going all out with it. The tv show episodes are on You-Tube as well which is nice since my local PBS only airs the show on one of their non HD substations. Gardening shows need to be in HD! He also has the podcast where they often go deeper into subjects. The blog I'm linking to lets you listen to the podcasts and also adds into supplemental material and photos to go with it.

Anyways, I just listened to the two on beneficial insects in the garden and really enjoyed them. His guest was Jessica Walliser, who's written books on the subject and is really good at telling stories and explaining things in the podcast format. There's also some on birds that I haven't listened to yet, and lots of general gardening ones.

https://joegardener.com/podcas...
https://joegardener.com/podcas...

I'm kind of late to the whole podcast thing in general, but am finding I like to listen to them when doing some boring task when I can't really be looking at a screen to follow a program. Also good for late at night when I'm not quite ready for sleep but my eyes are too tired or dry to read or watch tv.

Morgan ~

Morgan.

I haven't had the experience of my insect friends abandoning old favorites for new plants. I'm often disappointed when I purchase plants that are supposed to be "pollinator magnets" only to have them be ignored. It's a butterfly bush, it's in the name! Never saw a single insect on it. C'mon!

I have three agastaches that are hardly ever visited by insects, or hummingbirds.

What really makes me mad is that so many companies try to get on the bee/butterfly/pollinator bandwagon and label all perennials as "pollinator" plants. For first time gardeners, this is very misleading. I get a lot of questions about this from new gardeners. Even so, some plants do better in certain places. I can only tell people what works in my garden. Now, more pics!

I have been seeing several lady bugs in my garden and larvae, maybe it is the warmer weather, but making me very happy.

I've not bought many new pollinating plants, but the bees certainly have their favorites in my garden.

One thing I've noticed about the bees is that they congregate and cycle from plant to plant. In my experience, it depends on the day (heat, humidity, etc.,), time of day, where in the pollen cycle the plant is, and what else is blooming. Oh, and also on the species of bee.

But...don't get the idea that they ignore whatever is in bloom. If there are resources (pollen), those resources will be used.