Pacific Ninebark Diabolo

The little pollen pants are loving the Pacific Ninebark right now. This example is actually part of a really good school planting in Vancouver. It is a trademarked cultivar of a tough deciduous shrub named Physocarpus capitus and it's in the Rosaceae family.

Under the Laburnums

We really should start a tradition of picnics under the laburnums when they are thrumming with bumble bees.

 The bumble bees and honey bees also love these alliums which look like fireworks.

And for the calming version of the alliums, head over to the white garden.

 I like this white version of the perennial cornflower, especially with a side order of honeybees.

 Masterwort is a good bee plant for dreary late spring days.

 This shows the inspired interplanting, integrating the shades of pale green and the burgundy, with a good use of texture.

 There were bumble bees in the red white and blue comfrey.

 The pollen from this false indigo is lighter in color than the lupin pollen. ˙Her suitcases are overflowing!

 This honeybee fits so nicely in the rosemary flowers. Her abdomen in distended with a nectar load.

 

It's bloomin' squid!

 There weren't any bees in this columbine patch, but there were some mining bees hanging around the green mulch nearby.

 You can really see why this is called milk thistle.

Another good choice for your white bee garden. The milk thistles I've grown have always been purple.

Here are my seedlings waited to be potted up.

Mango Lassies for Bees: Avens Geum 'Mango Lassi'

I was in VanDusen Gardens on Sunday doing Citizan Scientist training with Erin Udall of the Environmental Youth Alliance. It was cool and overcast, threatening rain, but by eleven thirty the bees were out foraging. I discovered this amazing variety of Avens that would be wonderful in a bee garden. This little bee is one of my favorite solitary bees, with the big pollen pants and the buff hairs on its thorax. It is so calm that you can stick the camera right into the flower, and it just ignores you.

And here is what I deem the Vozzy Bear of Bumble Bees: Bombus vosnesenskii.

It's funny, because these days I am developing a recipe for kale blossom mango smoothies with freshly grated turmeric, fresh mango, yogurt, coconut water, ice cubes and kale blossoms. Manog smoothies all around!