Apiary Garden

honeybee on daisy

Buddleia Miss Ruby 1st flower

This weekend I planted two more Ceonathus thyrsiflorus "Victoria" starts.  No pic.  They were in 2-qt containers, in the picked-over and about-to-be-discarded section at Fred Meyer.  $7 each.  With pruning of dead branches, they look a little better.  Planted in the "nursery" bed near the beehive.  Expect they will need to be moved in a year or two when they are bigger.

Daisies and dandelions are blooming.   Blackberries look like they are about finished.  I don't know where the bees are foraging now.  Not a lot of bees on the Ceonathus or blackberries, this weekend.

This is the first flower on Buddleia X "Miss Ruby".  Missed photographing a hummingbird visiting this flower.  No bees on the Buddleia, either.

About one month ago I received the second beehive I bought via Beethinking.com.   Put it together, and the top didn't quite fit.  Today I took it apart, trimmed the endpieces, and put it back together.  The top fits now.  Next week, I might paint it.  No hurry.  I probably won't add the honeybees until next April.

Daisies and Dandelions

Honeybees

 Later...

I take back what I said about honeybees not foraging the blackberries.  This afternoon I looked and there are many bees on the blackberry flowers.

The hive is less than 10 feet from the brambles.  Good location, I think.

Beehive

Apiary garden. Shrubs for pollen and nectar.

Sterile buddleia hybrid "Miss Molly"

 I decided not to add more shrubs.  Then I needed something for my mood.  These are chosen as potential sources of nectar and pollen for honeybees and native pollinators.

The sterile buddleia hybrids are noninvasive and are available in nurseries in Portland OR and in Vancouver WA.  They replace the now illegal-Buddleia davidii varieties, which are invasive and rangy.

"Miss Molly" was bought in bloom.  I had it on my deck for a week.  The current flowers are about spent, so I planted it.  This, and the others, should bloom most of the summer and fall.  If we can believe the nursery ads.

"Miss Ruby" is the pollen parent of "Miss Molly".  Both are complex hybrids of multiple species of buddleia.  This plant was not in bud yet when I planted it last month, and is just beginning to bloom.

"Peach Cobbler" and "Blueberry Cobbler" are also sterile complex hybrids.  These plants look the same.  They were hold-overs from last year at the nursery.  I bought and planted them midwinter.  They have more than doubled in size.   Vigorous.  No flower buds yet.

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus "Victoria".  Not many honeybees on this.  The Ceanothus on the neighboring property was filled with honeybee activity, but now there aren't many.  More bumblebees and native bees.

Weigela florida "Lemon Ice"  A pale yellow weigela.  Impulse buy.  That, along with the ceanothus and Feijoa, were the result of my feeling ill.   Better now.  Fortunately there was room for all of these in the apiary yard and orchard.

Sterile buddleia hybrid "Miss Ruby"

Sterile bulldeia  hybrid "Peach Cobbler"

Ceanothus

Weigela "Lemon Ice"