Can’t keep track. Can’t care. Love every one of them.
Bee 077 – Triduxing on a Gailardia (or is that quadduxing – nonduxing??)
Tag: Gaillardia
Bee 059 – Bombus Huntii on a Gailardia
Should mention that these are also called a “blanket flower”. So if you’re looking in a nursery, that might be what you need to ask for. Get some. Your bees will be grateful.
Bee 038 – Leaving the Gailardia
Really like the detail in this one. From tongue to toes.
Bee 032 – The Gailardia Returns
Don’t know what kind of bee this is – but it’s got a great face.
Bee 021 – The First of Many on a Gailardia
This one is Mesa Peach. And it’s a magnet for pollinators. I bought two more Gailardias this spring and I think several more are on order. Hope they’re as attractive to the bees as this one is.
Bumble on a Gaillardia – (Blanket Flower)
Like going to the well. So many great pictures last summer of this particular bloomer. With hopefully more varieties this summer.
Been very cold and windy these last couple of days. So the camera has stayed in the house. Should warm up by the weekend. Which will be a relief from the high 20s/40s of the last little bit. I really like posting stuff day-of. Think it adds good value to the enterprise.
Leafcutter on a Gaillardia
Check out that eye! And that front leg is neat, too. I really love this flower for pollinators. It’s full of pollen, blooms like mad, and attracts natives an honeybees from mid-summer until the first hard, hard frost. Plus it’s elegantly complex and photographs really well. One of my very favorites.
Honeybee on a Gaillardia
Great beeface on a Gaillardia Mesa™ Peach. Beautiful girl. Note the miniscule spider, too. For more on the Gaillardia as an wonderful flower for pollinators, see the February 11th post.
Pollenface!
This is one of my favorite shots from last summer. She’s a complete mess and must be in some kind of bee bliss. At least that’s what I’d like to think.
In addition to her outright beauty (and her covered face), a couple of things jump out at me. First that pollen basket is packed! She’s loaded up. Second, notice the pollen on her eye. It’s floating on the tiny hairs there. See the “Hairy Eyeball” post below for a discussion on that. It will end up in the basket, eventually, as she grooms herself.
You’ll be seeing a lot of this particular flower – Gaillardia Mesa™ Peach – if you keep checking back. Besides being gorgeous itself, it is a magnet for all kinds of pollinators. It starts blooming here in the Rockies in mid-summer and just doesn’t stop until a hard frost. And it’s such an interesting background/foreground/midground to shoot at. Complex and varied and beautiful. I’m pretty sure it would look good in your garden, too.
I just love this shot. So many elements of quintessential “honeybee in a flower garden”.