Hundreds of bees

The bees returned to the Firebush, this morning I was standing next to the tree and I could hear the buzzing of hundreds of bees flying from flower to flower.   Our summer bees are our year around residents; during the winter we get many professional bee keepers bringing in many hives from up north to pollinate the winter vegetables.   By this time of the year they are all gone and we depend on our local bees to do the job.  For the last couple of months, I was concerned with the lack of bees in the garden, but today it looked like normal times.  

The Zebra and Julia butterflies are also plentiful and enjoying the Firebush.

FYI the Firebush is the perfect pollinator tree, popular with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.  I noticed that our local highway department (MDX) is planting many of these trees in the medium and on the side of the road.  Kudos to MDX for bringing more color to our highways while helping our pollinators.

The container and the dog was a gift for father’s day.  Today I headed to my local nursery to find a plant, I found this pineapple lily or aloha lily.  This is the first time I see this plant around here and it had to come home with me.

I also got a Micro lens for my Nikon camera for my birthday (I had a busy week, birthday this week and father’s day tomorrow.   I am practicing my close-up photos. 

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY   

Summer replacement.

Every year as summer approaches, must of my annuals died of heat stroke.  Over the years I found that the best summer substitute for full sun areas are the moss rose and the purslane.  These colorful plants are also great ground cover; they bloom all summer long and don’t mind our harsh summer weather.  

I love Elephant Ears plants and the Black Magic Elephant Ears are my favorite.  I been looking for this plant for a while and last week I found one in my local Home Depot store.  

This Orange Geiger tree was a gift from my local government (their efforts to promote native trees).  I like the combination of the olive leaves and the orange flowers, it is one the most attractive flowering tree in my collection. The Geiger tree has two negatives; first it drops all the leaves in the fall creating a mess, and second the white golf ball size fruits drop during the summer.  The ripen fruits do not have a pleasant odor.  

Tomato Hornworms attacked my Angel’s Trumpet plant.  Last week this plant was full of flowers (see my last post) Sunday I discovered this terrorist eating away at my plant.  I did not know that Hornworms found Angels Trumpets appetizing.