Bee population in my garden this year
Fri, 12/19/2008 - 13:30 — flowergardener
beeswarm crop1.jpg
First off, my sunflower never germinated so I couldn't post any counts. However, this was a bumper year for bees in my garden. We used to have a bee swarm every year in our weeping cherry tree but the last 2 years we had none. . This year we had a swarm. We had tons of bees of all varieties this year. The two plants that get the most action are the clethra bush and plain old oregano. There were too many bees of all varieties and wasps on the clethra to even count and I lost count after about 50 on the oregano. Bee swarm picture posted (hopefully)
beeswarm crop1.jpg
Spring blooming plants like
Spring blooming plants like weeping cherries, apple, and other plants flowering at that time are hit or miss each year. Bees only forage on days over 50F and a late frost can kill all the flower buds. They'd only get so many good days of foraging in before the tree was done flowering anyhow. Perhaps next year they'll be more successful.
I bought a Clethra alnifolia after viewing, and smelling, a friend's bush. It was one of the most amazing sight I ever saw. There were so many varieties of bee all over thing. And it had such a robust creamy sweet smell that filled his garden, It was so great that I bought 4 saplings this year. I gave two away. The other two are lining the patio. They didn't bloom this year but I can't wait until they start. That was an amazing fragrance and it attracted some of the rarely seen Scoliid wasps. I highly recommend the plant to anyone with a pollinator garden, they are also native to the US.