Are you seeing bees?

French bean I got this from wickipedia
The species Campanula rapunculus, commonly known as Rampion Bellflower, Rampion, or Rover Bellflower, is a biennial vegetable which was once widely grown in Europe for its leaves, which were used like spinach, and its parsnip-like root, which was used like a radish.[3] The Brothers Grimm's tale Rapunzel took its name from this plant.
Go back a few days in posts and you can see what the plant looks like

I'm seeing TONS of bees They love my patty pan squash which is great! But on the downside, they are ignoring all my other plants it seems. Mostly my cucumbers which are planted right by my squash
Here are some high speed shots of a busy bee












Sorry for the picture overload Look at all that pollen! Now if they would go take care of my cucumbers too, I would be a happy camper

Frenchbean wrote:Here in SE London Ive been sitting in my garden for the last few days. I have a huge lavender bush which is normally covered to the hilt with bees. This year I have seen only, you ready for this ,ONE bee.

What one earth are we all going to do?????????????????

I have so many cottage garden plants all bee less

I just can't believe things are this bad God save us all

Frenchbean, for a few years I wasn't seeing any bees, just hornets (or wasps) and they were going from flower to flower and plant to plant in my garden. I figured at least they are pollenating things.

Last year I saw bumble bees coming and going under my cement porch! I was so excited. They came back (or survived the Winter) and are still under my porch! If I am right, I think we have bees that have come back in my garden! I really need to sit down out there and just take in the scenery for a bit. Lots of people have been getting bee hives to put on their property so maybe that is helping. I don't know of any in the immediate area but there may be some.

So what I am getting at is there may be more than the one! I would think it would have to have a hive somewhere close by! Maybe if you can you can plant some flowers that they love to attract more to your yard.

[/quote]
I have essentially covered up, likely half an acre with the thick landscape fabric and this black wrap the comes around loads of wood...
I have started this new "mantra" when ever I find myself pulling weeds, I say to my self I WILL NOT PULL THESE TWICE, so go and get more fabric and so right now my yard looks really weird with all this black wrap.
BUT......
And here I go and PLANT another one, and not only that, I fertilized it with manure.
And then the stupid plant basically destroyed all of my plants that I had grown from seed
This is going to be a difficult fall pulling up all of this.[/quote]

Well it won't be forever that you have those areas covered and it sure is much better than weed killer!

I have an area that has gravel and had lots of weeds. I tried pulling the weeds and if a tiny piece is still in the ground, it will grow. In the Spring I laid down black plastic and anchored it down with rocks. I still haven't gotten around to removing it. I have a few weeds around the edges where the wind moved the plastic and rocks a little but the rest of the weeds are gone! I may have to do that in my back yard one area at a time and replant grass in the Fall or Spring.

Songstriss I sent you an e-mail. I would love some seeds and thank you!

RoOsTeR wrote:

Sorry for the picture overload Look at all that pollen! Now if they would go take care of my cucumbers too, I would be a happy camper

Oh Rooster, those are amazing pictures! So crystal clear! Have you thought of enlarging those and selling them! I would love to hang them in my house! They are wonderful!

That little bee looks like he is rolling around in snow.....

angel1237b wrote:i have one bee in my garden as well...i am afraid my cukes are not getting polinated properly..all the flowres are under the dense leaves,wich leads me to a question...can i trim off some of the leaves on my cukecumbers to open them up to the sun and my one bee (lol)..have a great day.

I often prune out annoyingly large leaves. This allows for better air circulation, bee access & hopefully no cukes hiding in dense shrubery.

two other plants that the bees love in my yard.
One.... from last year... I overwintered a carrot plant and had a HUGE white carrot flower and it was continually covered with bees.
The other is my oregano plant which has gone to flower and the flowers are white and the bees seems to love that one too.

camprn wrote:Here is an article on what to think about when planning to plant for the bees.
http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/act-today-2/plant-a-bee-garden/

Common pollen sources for bees in zone 5, North America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source

I am thinking I would like to plant some basswood... now where to put it............
I have a lot of wild white clover in my 'lawn' that I don't mow until the blooms have dried up. This saves about 5 weeks of gas.

Hi again,
Ever since you posted these wonderful resources, been busy researching this topic, read this thread better, & no less 10 tabs open in the browser, & am taking 2 wildflowers to be Identified, as I could not find them on the web, both are tiny blossoms on long stems (a bright yellow, & one that ranges from white to different shades of pink: Pretty so I mow around them LOL - But also have spreading purple clover, & like you the wild white clover in my 'lawn', as well as a spreading field of Camomile: why does this thrive in the driveway of all places, do you know?
By Basswood, do you mean the Lindon trees? - Lordy, they are huge!! No way!, as we're gonna get rid of the Laurel-monster (destroying both our Lilac bushes) and some others totally crowded out. - Then during yesterday's mowing, found 2 (1/2-inch) Bzzz-noisy critters dancing around in the Clover-blossoms, but neither looked like the Bee in rooster's Squash-blossom pictures, as these 2 only have 1 stripe across their head. Gonna try & have this identified too, as I sure would like Friendly bees to live with us. - Thank you Camprn so much, you have no idea how grateful I am for all the resources you share, as well as everyone else here. This is the friendliest! Forum. Enjoy each beautiful Summer day...

There are two great docs I would like to see everyone here watch (if you have not done already), The Queen of the Sun and Vanishing of the Bees. I am planting a necture garden plot at our comunnity garden when it is up and running wont be SFG lots of random bee plants as many native plants as possible.

Didn't have many bees helping with tomatoes, peppers and other plants even though had lots of marigolds and lillypot zinnias. Then the sunflowers sprouted up....

The six or seven sunflowers became havens for bees until the most of the sunflowers died due to heat here in Phoenix. One plant was left but now the watermelon, which has taken off with the humidity from the monsoon, is drawing more bees every day. Less work for me handpollinating. Already grabbed an 18 pound Ali Baba watermelon -- delicious.

I have about 100,000 of them in my yard but they keep flying away elsewhere.

camprn wrote:I have about 100,000 of them in my yard but they keep flying away elsewhere.

When I read that, my curiosity asked: Are you joking? - Knowing that a queen-bee lays about 2000-eggs daily, do you figure "100,000" by how many you bought, & their maturity-date, or what? - I searched online but is the answer too obvious? - Enlighten me if you would. Thanks!

jkahn2eb wrote:Didn't have many bees helping with tomatoes, peppers and other plants even though had lots of marigolds and lillypot zinnias. Then the sunflowers sprouted up....
The six or seven sunflowers became havens for bees until the most of the sunflowers died due to heat here in Phoenix. One plant was left but now the watermelon, which has taken off with the humidity from the monsoon, is drawing more bees every day. Less work for me handpollinating. Already grabbed an 18 pound Ali Baba watermelon -- delicious.

All this BEE-talk has me now learning, so another question I asked was: which is the most productive & fastest Pollinator: bees?, big-birds, butterflies?, or hummingbirds? - still searching for this answer, yet look: http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8009 - with upclose of the 2 beetles so you can identify them. Kewl, eh?

in case anyone else is just as curious about all-things-bees, this is excellent: http://english.turkcebilgi.com/Queen+bee - fascinating!

LittleGardener wrote:

camprn wrote:I have about 100,000 of them in my yard but they keep flying away elsewhere.

When I read that, my curiosity asked: Are you joking? - Knowing that a queen-bee lays about 2000-eggs daily, do you figure "100,000" by how many you bought, & their maturity-date, or what? - I searched online but is the answer too obvious? - Enlighten me if you would. Thanks!

No joke and there is probably more than that. Yes a good queen can lay up to 2000 eggs a day. It takes about 3 weeks for a worker bee to go from egg to hatch, but then they become nurse bees, taking care of the hive for another few weeks and then they graduate to forager. The life cycle of a summertime worker bee is no longer than about 7 weeks. Winter bees can last about 5 months and will be available in the spring for the cycle to begin anew.

This site has a lot of great info. By my beekeeping Guru, Michael Bush.

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

camprn wrote: No joke and there is probably more than that. Yes a good queen can lay up to 2000 eggs a day.
This site has a lot of great info. By my beekeeping Guru, Michael Bush.
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Thanks! - Added to my other nine Bee-links. - Presently researching all the Bee-encouraging plants we could grow, and as always your helpful suggestions are invaluable. Thank you again

I don't know about the rest of you, but the bumble bees in my area LOVE my basil flowers! I try to keep it down, but when it rains a lot I can't always trim it. Honestly, I figure an occasional lapse is good for the bees and me. The come back to pollinate my string beans.

FLA-girl wrote:I don't know about the rest of you, but the bumble bees in my area LOVE my basil flowers! I try to keep it down, but when it rains a lot I can't always trim it. Honestly, I figure an occasional lapse is good for the bees and me. The come back to pollinate my string beans.

Does the flowering of your basil affect the basil production in any way? I've always done my best to pluck flowers when I see them

LittleGardener wrote:-T Presently researching all the Bee-encouraging plants we could grow, and as always your helpful suggestions are invaluable. Thank you again

Keep in mind that there are any kinds of bees besides the familiar honey bees and bumble bees. At our place, spiderwort is a favorite for the tiny Ceratina bees (some not much bigger than a gnat); Cosmos, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, and coneflower are favorites of the little Lassioglossum bees and the green sweat bees, as well as the bigger bees. Yesterday, I saw lots of Megachilid (when we were kids we called them "jelly belly" bees, because they have brightly colored pollen on their bellies) on the Cosmos at Lowes. Passion flower is a favorite of our large carpenter bees. We have a little squash bee that only goes to squash blossoms. Blueberry bees like the redbud blossoms, then they come to the blueberries and huckleberries later.
The whole point is not so much to "attract bees" but to give them nest sites, good feed, water, and freedom from pesticide poisoning, so their populations will recover back to normal levels. This is a long-term program that requires some thought.
If bee populations are normal, competition will ensure that every blossom will get worked. If they are sparse, they will only work the more attractive blossoms. In that case, planting to attract bees, may succeed in attracting the ones that are present right away from the garden veggies that you want pollinated.

Oops - "many" kinds of bees...

+1, Pollinator I LOVE your posts. Thank you!

A few days ago my grandkids and I were in the front yard and I have lots of field bind weeds (morning glory) in my lawn. It's not the weeds I was excited about but the many many bees pollinating the flowers of the field bind weeds. The kids went around spotting more and more and were excited also and not scared of getting stung. I wonder how many bees take back the pesticides from people using weed-n-feed on their lawns. I didn't get a chance to read this whole thread so if someone already mentioned this, sorry.

I actually starting keeping bees last year and have seen some great pollination in my vegetable plants this year. They are really helping all of the squashes and the melons especially. Here is a blog post showing my watermelon. http://homegardenstogo.blogspot.com/2012/08/volunteer-watermelon-sweet-surprise.html?spref=fb