Cypress Community Garden Pollinators

Madame Beespeaker had a marvelous day off today doing some of her favorite things: eating lunch at Aphrodite's Organic Delights, touring gardens and thrift shopping. Yes! These lovely bees are enjoying the vanilla scented Joe Pye Weed in the Cypress Community Garden. Note the odd morphology of these blossoms. I am not seeing much pollen here. I like capturing more than one bee on a plant. Bees seem to like to have space around them when they forage, much like me at the supermarket checkout. If someone gets in my personal bubble, I need to take a deep breath and  try to shift to  get away from the tailgater. The other day it was hot, I had a migraine and I snapped: "Could you please give me some space?"  I mean the woman was acting like I wasn't there and it was really bugging me.

I see bees bump one another out of their personal bubble, even bees of their own ilk. The larger bees often win, but not always. Sometimes the plant is so delectable that they tolerate the nearness of other bees. Kind of like me, when I'm tucking in to Aphrodite's delectable vegan cheesecake. I am very focused. Everything else in my range of vision melts away as I immerse myself in the cheesecake and nothing but the cheesecake and my iced chai. Does Joe Pye weed taste like vanilla cheesecake to a bee?

It was overcast today and I saw a few yellow leaves fall here and there. At first I would think it was a butterfly, but my heart sank as I saw it was a yellow leaf or two fluttering to the shadows on the ground.  I have had migraines the last two days with the humidity and heat, so today was a welcome relief. I can see into the future on days like this, and I spent the day imagining dresses inspired by bee and hummingbird plants. I was quickly brought to earth by the Chinese Canadian lady who owns the second hand store where I was perusing dresses. "That will never fit you," she said bluntly, "Maybe a friend, but not you, lady." Thump. Sound of a dreamer's dreams hitting the floor.

Can't you imagine a gown inspired by brown-eyed Susans and sneezeweed?

These gardens along the railway tracks are fascinating. Bordered by a hedgerow of blackberry they form pollinator corridors in our city. Linked up with gardens on bike lanes, they would form a strong network of passages for birds and insects. Wouldn't it be wonderful to turn all the disused rail lines into pollinator corridors across Canada? Told you I was in a dreamin' mood.

By the time I saw this skipper sipping nectar from a cosmos I was ready to head to Beaucoup Bakery for an iced tea. There should be tea rooms at regular intervals along the national pollinator pathways. Make mine jasmine green tea with a hint of rose and a fat brioche stuffed with hazelnut cream.

As I saw a honeybee attempt to sip nectar from one of these hardy fuschias it occurred to me that this plant is almost like a bee plant wearing a humming bird plant--purple underskirt for the bee, and red cape for the hummers, but those long stamens are definitely bird-sized. I wonder if these get robbed for nectar or if the double structure prevents that from happening. Watch your fuschias and tell me what you see!

Skippers and a New Insect Hotel

 I have been noticing a lot of skippers lately all around the city. They are so plucky and playful. I like their attitude. This is a skipper in the snowberry (still blooming!!!) at the Moberly Cultural Herb Garden. (Have you got your red dress for the party this Sunday????)

 This is a small buddleia at the Oak Meadows park. It is a shame that most buddleia are invasive* here in Vancouver because they are great bee, butterfly and hummingbird plants. In fact, after I took this picture, I stood up and startled a hummingbird feeding from this plant. This afternoon I spent a good ten minutes watching an Anna's female feed in my neighbor's towering 18 ft buddleia. The bees were all over it as well. The Anna's even fought with a smaller hummer (perhaps a female rufous) to defend "her" bush. There was no squeaking, just the clacking of beaks like tiny swords. About a half and hour later there was a flock of bush tits in the buddleia, feeding on bugs. It was funny to see them land on a branch and sproing up and down on it.

 You can see her tongue go into the orange center of the floret.

 Erin Udal from the Environmental Youth Alliance says the yarrow in Oak Meadows Park has bee supporting the bees since the lupins finished. We discussed how plants like yarrow can be empty in some gardens and teeming with insects in others.

There are a variety of wasps out now and bees that look like wasps, so it all gets very confusing. But this wasp is acting like a bee.

These twins love phacelia.

This is an empty ladybug pupae case on tansy, which is an escaped old world herb. The honey bees and bumble bees were visiting this plant as well.

 Check out this fabulous new insect hotel made from a decommissioned phone booth by Contexture Design!

 *You must cut off the seed heads of the buddleia before they mature. Plant breeders are developing less fertile cultivars, but the pollen and nectar rewards may not be the same as the weedy ones. We have one that grows out of a crack in the sidewalk in front of our house.

Hello Stinky!

 On two occasions I have carried a bouquet home from a certain farm I love and this strong odor starts permeating the city bus. That would be a stink bug, or two. Twice stunk, never forgotten. When I took this photo of bugs and larvae in mom's garden if I had known they were "Twice Stabbed" stink bugs I might not have got this close up a personal. This post from The Home Bug Garden helped me identify these suckers.

 This has been a weird year at my parent's place because of the large amounts of rain that fell this spring. This is also the first year my mom has seen Monarch butterflies in her garden.

Isn't that the horribly invasive purple loosestrife? Why yes it is, full of butterflies and bees.

 Here you get a glimpse of the cracks in the garden soil. It's such a challenging zone.

 Mom gave me some beets to take home. We had some tonight, shredded in tacos.

 No matter what the weather, mom always has an amazing garden.

The feral kittens love playing in the garden, chasing grasshoppers and crickets. There were big black noisy crickets everywhere you looked. In fact the first night, I turned to my partner and said "Those crickets are driving me crazy!!!!" Dead silence. I'm not kidding you. It was uncanny. And I didn't hear them again the whole time we were there. Just call me Madame Cricketspeaker.

Crickets, stink bugs, and bees, oh my. Good night!

More Butterflies and Bees

As I was searching the web for images to identify one of the butterflies I posted about below, I found information about Heather Kharouba, a PHD Candidate at UBC. She is studying the "Phenological synchronization between insect herbivores and their host plants". Sounds fascinating! The Young Naturalists Club of B. C. have a call for kids in the province to submit photographs of butterflies and their host plants to Heather for her research. Click here for more info. There are prizes!

Also, I wanted to share a fantastic blog post from The Home Bug Garden written by a scientist/gardener in Edmonton. This particular post features the photos of the varieties of insects that feed on the roses in his garden. Enjoy!

The Moveable Feast at the Burnaby Art Gallery

On Wednesday I traveled to the grounds of the Burnaby Art Gallery to meet artist in residence Holly Schmidt and talk about gardens and bees. Holly has created a mini-community garden on the lawn beside Ceperly House. A lush crop of garden vegetables is emerging over the top of some large crates filled with rich soil. These are the kinds of crates that "ordinary" art is shipped in. Well, the bonus is that you can appreciate the aesthetic qualities of Holly's art and you can eat it too. The artist has set up a number of workshops and tastings for the community to engage with her project, which is called The Moveable Feast.

 I will be giving a workshop on bee gardening on July 14, so I came to evaluate the bee plants on the grounds of the gallery. Turns out the best bee plants are right next to Holly's garden. The white clover in the lawn, the dandelions, maple trees and blackberry bushes are all great bee plants.

 There is also a lavender planting along one side of the garden, and what look like brown-eyed Susans, which will bloom later in the season. While I am chatting with Holly, her carpenter comes and drops off some lovely benches for the site. The tables, complete with holes for plant pots will arrive later in the week.

 This is a great way to create a temporary potato garden!

 My partner and I created a site-specific installation on the grounds a few years ago so  it was lovely to return to the site, especially on the first sunny day in ages.

 Last year Holly created a garden project near the Creekside Community Centre. With The Moveable Feast the artist is exploring aspects of pedagogy embedded in her community art practice. She's passionate about gardening and once worked for an all-women organic landscaping team in Calgary Alberta.

 Here's a honey bee taking a nose dive into the nectary of a blackberry flower.

 In fact this little female honey bee was sticking her tongue into the edge along one of Holly's crates. I think she was looking for water trapped in the cracks.

 There was a diversity of insect life in the blackberry bushes including at least three varieties of bumble bees, sweat bees, mosquitoes, syrphid flies dragon flies and leafcutter bees. (See below.)

 Did I mention the mosquitoes? Argh. Actually being near Deer Lake means mosquitoes, but also a good source of native plants and insect diversity.

 There are some lovely trees on the site, creating dappled shade for bumble bee plants such as bleeding hearts and Solomon's Seal.

 I also saw two butterflies. I believe this is a Lorquin's Admiral, sipping nectar from blackberry flowers.

 I also saw this anise swallowtail searching for nectar in this frilly marigold. Frilly plants are not great for insects. I hope she found something under all those petals! Furthermore, if she lays her eggs on these seasonal plantings they will get ripped up for the fall and the eggs will be lost. It would be better to plant pollinator-friendly plants with xeriscaped permaculture in mind. Saves water, labour, and the butterflies.

Be sure to check out the list of tastings and workshops for the Moveable Feast and head out to the Burnaby Art Gallery. Bring a picnic or make reservations at the Hart House for lunch. Also, be sure to check out Elizabeth Mackenzie's show in the gallery. Her haunting drawings referring to the history of Ceperly House are very powerful.