When I was shopping for a rosemary plant last week, I had a look for a cactus dahlia, having been charmed by the ones I saw at River Cottage in the summer of 2019. There weren’t any to my taste but there was another dahlia which caught my eye as well as a lily, both of which should be a deep red.
The dahlia has now been planted between the ferns at the side of the pond and I look forward to seeing it in the summer. The lily is destined for the front garden with it not being edible unlike the flowers of the dahlia (apparently, though I gave it a go last year and am still alive and kicking).
In the meantime, I was very pleased to see the first bumblebee of the year. It was zigzagging low across the garden and then disappeared from view, only to emerge from a hole in the soil near the back door.
I’d wondered if this might be a bumblebee nest, after noticing it previously. Having just looked on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website, I now see that the bumblebee zigzagging close to the ground was probably a queen bee who was looking for a nest site. So, I am a bit disappointed that she may well have rejected this hole but who knows?
Those blooms should be worth waiting for. Jackie planted 6 Bishop of LLandaff dahlias yesterday.
What are Jackie’s dahlia’s like?
Red, with large blooms, but not as deep as your lilies. The last ones she had were eaten by voles.
Well, let’s hope the voles leave the new ones alone!
🙂
I grew dahlias successfully for the first time last year and just hope they have survived the winter. I have noticed bumble bees on my apricot flowers – a lovely sign that the weather is warming up.
Good luck with your dahlia’s this year. So good to see the bumblebees, isn’t it!
I wonder if the bumblebee will return. The flowers look lovely
Thank you 😊 No sign of the bumblebee today but I’m sure more will be seen soon!
It will be a while before we see bumblebees here. It is still very rainy and the ground is saturated.
I hope you have some brighter days soon, Lavinia.
Thank you for the info on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website! I did not know such a thing existed. We provide space for local Honey Bee Operator. We are just off a major highway and have a huge field that they bring semi-trucks into every spring. Unload about 600 colonies. They let them rest for 3-days here with us, and then load them onto smaller flatbed trucks that move them all around Northeastern Colorado. We have learned so much from them and take great pride in providing the right support (mainly our pond, creek & front yard fish pond – oh, and flowers of course) to thrive. We get all kinds of good bugs here. My favorite is the Praying Mantis. Every year now seems to introduce us to a new critter and we love it! Nothing better than weeding my gardens and a honey bee lands on my arm to help – guess I smell like the flowers a lot – LOL! Thank you for the lovely share.
And thank you for your lovely comment. It’s great that you are supporting bees.
Wow! Even if she doesn’t stay, how cool to spot a queen bee in your garden, Helen. That is noteworthy indeed.
I hope the queen has now found a suitable place to nest.
Me too.
😊