Blueberry blossoms (say that three times fast)

The blueberries aren’t as easy to see as the fruit trees, being lowbush berries, but they’re picking up the pace of flowering. Lots of little white blossoms hanging close to the ground. Here we are, little miner bees, here we are!

So much for orchid flowers

My moth orchid does not do multitasking. It will send up a flower stem. It will send up a new leaf. But not both.

Armies of bulbs

The bulbs are massing into sweeps of color. From this angle, it looks like the blue grape hyacinth are planning to go after the tulips. And that daffodil might get caught in the middle. But standing there what I really noticed was the sweet, soapy scent of lots and lots of flowers. Okay, bees. Come […]

Pear blossoms

The pear trees are in flower, too ,though not as extragantly as the plum tree. I like how they hold up white clusters to the sky. That means all my fruit trees are in flower.

Weed patrol: Bittersweet nightshade

Spring is entering the “Holy Crap look how fast everything is coming up” phase. As in, all of a sudden, there’s a huge vining tangle of Bittersweet nightshade up on the hill. Well, it’s a much smaller clump now, and I’ll be back to pull up more.

Tulip!

The sun is out. The first big fat tulip is open. More to come. Enjoy.

The plums have bees, too

The plum tree is now covered in fluffy white blossoms, and surrounded by little bees zooming in and out. They don’t stop for long, quickly moving on to the next prospect. This one is a sweat bee of genus Lasioglossum, which I suppose doesn’t tell you (or me) much. They are native bees and this […]

A bee seeing you

It turns out one of the bees that has been cruising the yard has been cruising the yard looking for dates.

Plum Blossoms!

Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms!

Not so great celandine

The next on the weed hit list is Greater Celandine. It forms nice clumps with interesting foliage and bright yellow flowers in early summer, but it wants to do so everywhere. Even if bees visit it (which if it happens at all must be when I’m not looking), there are other flowers for them. So […]