If You Plant It, They Will Come....

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I had been doing some planting in the garden. When I got home from work today, I took a stroll around the garden so see how things were doing and if anything sustained any damage from the strong storms we had yesterday and last night.

Luckily, there was no damage.  Also, I was thrilled to note that there were several bees enjoying the perennial Salvia.  It didn't take them long to find it :-)

I thought I'd share some photos that I took - they make me so happy :-)

As always, if you click on any of the photos, it will enlarge and you will be able to see the bees more clearly.

Did you know that June 18-24, 2018 has been designated National Pollinator Week? Several states have also proclaimed a State Pollinator Week (Texas hasn't -- yet).

The Pollinator Partnership website has information about pollination for farmers and gardeners, as well as fun stuff - how to build a bee condo, how kids can help pollinators and more.

There's also information about how to contact your governor to ask them to proclaim a State Pollinator Week, including contact information for the various state governors' offices and a sample letter or phone script to get you started.


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Butterflies and Bees

One of my favorite pastimes is watching the bees and butterflies enjoying the bounty of our island beds.  This year seems to be shaping up to be a good year for them.

This lovely pink flower is much beloved by the pollinators of all types that visit our garden.  But I have no idea what it is!! 

In fact, at it's base, I have a sign which states "I don't remember planting this"!  The very fact that it has taken hold and is thriving so well leads me to believe that it is, in fact, a weed.

If anyone knows what it is, I would really appreciate if you could let me know in the comments.   here's another photo, showing the forming seed heads.

The bumblebees also love the Salvia Greggi., there are usually at least five of them bumbling from bloom to bloom at any given time.  They make me smile.

Another visitor this week has been this Black Swallowtail on the Dallas Red Lantana (at least I think think it's a Black Swallowtail).  I haven't had much luck getting a good photo of it's wings to ID it with.  I tried again earlier today with no luck at all!

I have better luck taking photos of Gulf Fritillaries.  They seem to like landing on blooms to eat, rather than fluttering around like the Swallowtails do.  Makes the photos much easier.  Here's one on the Violet Queen zinnia. 

Here's another one enjoying the Profusion zinnia.  You can also see the sign I mentioned earlier in the post.

I'm also seeing Monarch butterflies in the garden. This looks like a female, so it's not one of the ones I released a couple of days ago from my Monarch Nursery, which were both male.  

Speaking of the Monarch Nursery, I still have 4 chrysalides in the enclosure in the bathroom.  Here's a photo of some of the caterpillars before they changed.

And here's one who has left the milkweed and climbed to the top of the enclosure to make his chrysalis.  

I'll probably get a lot more caterpillars and chrysalides later in the year, as the Monarchs prepare for their migration.  Last year I had a total of 30.  I'll see if I can match that this year :-)  Wish me luck!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Birds and the Bees

 What a fun morning in the garden today!  As I was sitting on the patio enjoying my morning coffee I had a chance to get some photos of the young birds who have been visiting the feeders this week.

This young mockingbird was hopping around in the grape vine, cheeping plaintively.

He was quite insistent, and wasn't shy about letting his wants known.

And finally his patience was rewarded when mom (or is it dad?) arrives with something tasty.  I was lucky to snap these photos.  About five seconds after the last one was taken, both birds disappeared into the hedgerow opposite, and I haven't seen them since!

Once the mockingbirds had moved on, I was happy to see the Cardinal Kids show up. They both look a little moth-eaten at the moment, the male below especially, as they get their adult plumage.

Their beaks are starting to turn color as well - they were much darker a few days ago.

And finally, the Profusion zinnia is proving irresistible to several bumble bees (as well as butterflies, but I will keep that for another post).

I'm not positive which species of bumble bee these are, as there are 46 species.  It may be Bombus auricomus, but I'm really not sure.  If anyone knows, please let me know!

I'm going to add today's post to Camera Critters.  You can visit by clicking on my link, or on the Camera Critters button in the right hand bar of my blog to see critter photos posted by other bloggers around the world.



Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Bees are Buzzing

Down in the corner of our garden, by the birdbath and the wall where I put the bird seed, I've got two Savannah holly bushes.  I planted them when I moved in and haven't touched them since.  They're about 12 - 15 ft tall now and at this time of year, they are covered in tiny little blossoms.

When I went down to sprinkle bird seed on the wall this morning, the first thing I noticed was a happy buzzing sound that took me right back to my childhood.  I turned to look, and the Savannah hollies were alive with busy bees. 

Naturally, I grabbed the camera and took photos.  Most of them ending up being not very inspiring photos of a bee's back end with the rest of it hidden behind a leaf, but I did get a couple of decent shots to show you.

  
And, upon looking around the garden, I found that my little bluebonnets were popular with the bees this morning too.

Never let it be said that we aren't doing our part for pollinators :-)

Have a great week, everyone.   


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Happy Belated Pollinator Week

OK, so I'm a few weeks late in officially recognizing National Pollinator Week, which this year was celebrated from June 16th - 22nd.  But I saw a post of Facebook yesterday asking, "Where are the bees?"   The poster lamented the fact that they had no bees in their garden and they were worried about the consequences.

My iPhoto library helps me keep a record of when I see things in the garden and last year, I seemed to have a lot of carpenter bees and bumble bees in the garden at the end of August and into September.  Not so much in July.

So as I was taking a stroll around the garden this morning, I was pleased to see there were a few bees out there. 

The cucumber vines are covered in flowers and we've already harvested some good sized cukes. This little honey bee seems to be making sure that we get some more cucumbers later in the summer.

 This is better than last year, when we had lots of flowers and not one single cucumber.

Further along on my garden stroll, I noticed some bumble bees on the zinnia - nothing like the numbers we had last August, but it's early days yet :-)  

After a five minute stroll with my camera, the sweat was pouring off me. and that was the end of my foray into the garden for today! I'm glad I was able to find some bees, and hopefully our garden is suiting them and they stick around for the rest of the season.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Busy Bees

Stepping out the front door this morning, I noticed that the front flower bed was buzzing with activity.  

At first, I thought they were bumble bees,  Bombus sp. But as I watched, I realized there was something different about them.  Instead of fuzzy, yellow and blacked striped bodies, these had black shiny bodies. After taking these photos, I looked them up and found out they are Carpenter bees, Xylocopa sp. 

 There were quite a few of them, and they were loving the tropical milkweed.

Unlike termites, Carpenter bees do not eat wood, but they do burrow through it when building their nests.  They may have been attracted to the vicinity by all the construction going on either side of us...

 
Look at all that wood!!  They must have felt like they won the lottery!

I'm not to worried about them.  Our house has no exposed wood and I think our neighbors won't either, once the houses are finished.

And in the meantime, the bees are pollinating our garden:-)


They were hard at work in the Vitex in the back garden too.

 In fact, the Vitex was teeming with life.  Bees were buzzing all around me.  

Or are they bees?  Sure, they have black and yellow stripes, but something doesn't look right to me.

I went online to try and ID them, and didn't find any bees that look like this. Wasn't sure what else to look under and searches for "yellow and black striped insect" brought up lists of beetles.

 Anyone have an idea what they are?
 

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.