When the goldfinches show up, you know you’re dong something right

It’s so amazing when these bright bits of canary yellow come swooping into the yard. That’s how you know that the coneflower seeds are ripe. Sunflower seeds are good, too, but only straight from the flowerhead. Goldfinches are so exacting about what they eat, but when they find something they like, they seem to really […]

More coneflowers, more bees

More coneflowers have answered the first coneflower‘s call. This is one of the great bee flowers. My trinity of bees — honeybees, bumblebees, and Agapostemon — visit them, methodically going through the spikes of pollen in the centers. When the Halictus bees are done with the sunflowers, they’ll come to the coneflowers too. Together they […]

One Coneflower today, more soon

Coneflowers belong to hot summer days and lots of bumblebees. Not to grey rainy skies. And the bees are hard to please, and they prefer the raspberries. So this lone coneflower is the vanguard, scouting things out for when it’s safe for the rest of them to fully bloom.

The bees have arrived on the coneflowers

The full trinity of bees have found the coneflowers. Bumblebees, honeybees, and Agapostemon Virescens. Let’s call her Aggie.

Planting flowers for the bees

It’s easy enough to say “Plant flowers” for the bees, until you ask which flowers? If I had to pick one to start with, I would say Purple Coneflower. Bumblebees and honeybees love it. Other native bees, too. As a bonus, the seeds will feed goldfinches. But then, they’re coming into their full color right […]

Mystery Plants

Got a couple of mystery plants. One is new, one is old. I have a guess for both, but I’m never sure. The new one is a several ones all sprouting near where a small sunflower grew last year. Is it another sunflower? Or a Black-Eyed Susan? It might even be a coneflower. Or something […]

Coneflowers in fall

Snow or no snow, this is the last coneflower of the year. All the others, after blooming and feeding bees, have ripened into spiky seedheads. And the goldfinches have found them.

Coneflowers are buzzing

Coneflowers are buzzing. Buzzing with bumblebees. Buzzing with honeybees. Buzzing with … flies? That doesn’t even look like a syrphid fly. But you know what? There’s lots of coneflowers for everyone.

Summer, still?

Ah! Another barbeque perfect day. How long can it last? And the first coneflowers are stretching out their purple wings, oblivious to their inevitable, tatty fate. For now, they’re sunny and happy and ready for the bees.

Collards are survivors

Well, the collards that poked their heads above the snow from time to time are definitely dead. But the collards out back on the hillside, the ones I didn’t see up close all winter not only survived, but look downright robust. They’re as tough as pansies.