Tag: spring flowers

Bee garden

In the broad beans, borage, bacopa, fox gloves, aquilegia, tī kōuka flowers, the bees are busy this morning.

Bumble bee on bacopa flowers in hanging basket

In the front garden there is more borage, and forget-me-nots, solomon’s seal, sage, clematis, roses and kowhai busy with bees.

There seem to be more bumble bees than honey bees, although the constant buzzing high up in the tī kōuka flowers seems to be honey bees. The bumbles often have impressive honey sacs.

This insect (below) was on the sage flowers and it chased away a bee trying to land on a nearby flower. I thought it was a wasp, possibly the common European wasp, but it is rounder in shape so it is possibly a drone fly, a species which pollinates many plants. They also produce the ‘rat-tailed maggots’ which are so-called because they have snorkel for breathing if they are in water. These fascinated me last summer in the chicken poo bucket. The chooks loved them and crowded around whenever I lifted the lid. There’s a nice thought when you’re roasting a chicken or poaching an egg. Yum!

The word ‘busy’ is aptly used for bees. They have often flown to the next flower – and the next and the next – while you are zooming in and focussing the camera.

There was a bee here a second ago…

Explosive growth

That sounds rather unpleasant, but I’m talking about the incredible Spring growth in the garden. The plants are practically invading the house, pressing against the windows. When I’m looking out it’s like being in a forest – with the comfort of a couch.

I took the first photo on October 12 and the second one this afternoon. In the second photo, the house has almost disappeared.

The broad beans are bursting out of their dome. The snow peas and lettuces are pushing against the roof and sides of the greenhouse. The broccoli has outgrown its protective netting and, consequently, the chooks have been nibbling the leaves.

Clematis is pouring across the front fence, and banksia is billowing over the back fence. The chooks wade through the long, lush grass.

‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ pops into my mind when I’m out amongst this explosive growth.

Hello again!

Each new flower is like a discovery, yet my photos of a year ago, four years ago, six years ago show that the same sudden appearances have surprised me each spring. Today, it was the first rose.

Chinensis mutabilis

The kowhai trees are flowering enthusiastically – better than before, surely?

  • New flowers and seed pods from last year’s flowers
These golden flowers glow in the sunlight attracting bees and wax eyes.

The apple tree seems to have been encouraged by pruning.

Each new blooming is superseded by another: Camellias then lilacs, magnolia stellata then forsythia, violets then forget-me-nots, aquilegias and Solomon’s seal, bluebells then hebe, lavender and bay, rosemary then banksia, and the beginnings of fox gloves, cabbage tree flowers, and karo.

  • Hebe
  • Solomon’s seal
  • Aquilegia
  • Lavender and Bay
  • Fox glove
  • Karo
  • Tulip
  • Protea

The blueberry is flowering profusely and the first flowers are appearing on the strawberry plants in a hanging basket, with promise of summer fruit.

And, on the beach on Sunday, eight inflatable rescue boats on exercises meant the surf patrollers (my nephew included) are gearing up for the summer season.