Wordless Wednesday: Bee Enjoying Dandelion

Bees Love Dandelions

That's  why I grow lots of them. 

Bee on Dandelion, © B. Radisavljevic

Another  Bee Enjoying Dandelion, © B. Radisavljevic

The Bee on the Dandelion Changed Positions. © B. Radisavljevic

Insects in My Neighborhood in April

I have seen both beneficial insects and insect pests in my neighborhood this month. Here are some I was able to capture with my camera.

Insect Friends

I and my neighbors have many herbs that provide forage for bees and other welcome insect visitors. I love hearing my herbs buzz. Below is a happy bee on my rosemary. The bees are also enjoying my black sage. 

Below is a butterfly enjoying my black sage. They don't mind sharing the sage with the bees.

I was very happy when I saw a ladybug on my wormwood yesterday, but I was unable to get a photo because I was working and didn't have my camera handy. I do have a photo of a ladybug on a vetch plant not far from home, though.

Insect Pests

The reason I was so happy to find the ladybug yesterday is because my calendula plants have been attacked by aphids this month. Ladybugs love to eat aphids. I hope the ladybug I saw will stick around and bring friends. I tore out this plant and another heavily infested calendula to try to keep them from getting any worse. There's still plenty left for the ladybugs. 

I also started seeing baby boxelder bugs yesterday. I didn't have my camera near me, but these bugs visit in droves every year. They get worse in fall. The photo below shows a mature boxelder bug on what I believe is a borage leaf. They don't do much damage, but they can be pests. 

If you enjoyed this post, please share it. The sharing buttons are just above the comment box at the end of this post. The photo below is especially designed for pinning. 

This is my ninth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is Things You Can See or Experience in North San Luis Obispo County. Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.

A is for Acorn
B is for Barney Schwartz Park
C is for Cattle in Wine Country
D is for Dark Star Cellars
E is for Electric Wires
F is for Family Farms
G is for Graveyard Vineyards

H is for Horses

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Insects Love Spring Wildflowers

Looking for wildflowers? So was I today. I searched along a trail I enter from the north end of Oxen Road in Paso Robles. I found many wildflowers along this trail last year. After all the rain, the wild grassy weeds were so tall they almost covered the few flowers that have appeared, but the insects were finding them. I could hear the buzzing. Insects love spring wildflowers.

The photo on the right
shows most of the wildflowers that were growing along the path I took. You can see the purple vetch, the yellow fiddlenecks, and the red clover. I hadn't realized until I looked them up that the fiddlenecks are related to borage. 

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 Borage-and-Calendula, Beautiful Borage Greeting Card




This greeting card from my herbal collection shows the blue borage growing in a flowerbed next to the orange calendula.

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The first insect I saw on my walk was this ladybug in the vetch and grasses. 

Here is a closer look at the vetch in the midst of the wild barley (foxtails.)

As I walked I could hear a lot of buzzing. Unfortunately my camera is broken and the zoom doesn't extend anymore, or if it does, I have to turn off the camera to retract it. That's why I could catch only this honey bee in the lupine or clover. It's hard to tell which she is after. There were also plenty of bumblebees foraging, but I'm not brave enough to try to get a macro shot of one. They were not close to me anyway, and they were very fast. They would not pose like the ladybug did.

Below is some of the fiddlehead in a collage.

 National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region
The Audubon Field Guide to North American Wildflowers is one of my most useful books in identifying wildflowers, and I have several. Sometimes you can't find every flower in one book. I like the way this book is arranged by the color of the flowers. I especially like its color plates. It's easy to find what I need quickly. 

The Peterson Field Guide to Pacific States Wildflowers is best known for the drawings of the flowers and their parts. Unlike the Audubon guide it does not have the actual photographs. Most authorities recommend using them together since the Peterson guides have more actual information, and the drawings are very detailed whereas the Audubon guides have the colored photo plates. You can find a wider selection of field guides, including those for your area on this Amazon field guide search page. 

The other two books are just for fun. How to Be a Wildflower is more of a journal related to wildflowers. The coloring book is an educational 64-page book of wildflowers to color from a model sticker, It is suitable for anyone over eight years old. 

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 A Field Guide to Pacific States Wildflowers: Field Marks of Species Found in Washington, Oregon, California, and Adjacent Areas : A Visual Approach ... Detail (The Peterson Field Guide Series ; 22) How to Be a Wildflower: A Field Guide Peterson Field Guide Coloring Books: Wildflowers (Peterson Field Guide Color-In Books)

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I Love Lantanas

Lantana in Bloom

Recently as I walked by the Park Cinemas Theater, I could not help but notice how tall the lantanas in their planters have grown this summer. I have always loved lantana's multi-colored flowers, but today is the first time I've ever seen their berries. Most lantanas I've planted have never matured enough to produce berries. This photo shows both the flowers and the berries.

The photo  below shows the berries, both green and mature, up close. If one picks the fully mature berries and digs the seeds out of them, one can then clean the seeds and dry them  for a couple of days. Refrigerate the dried seeds in a sealed container until you are ready to plant them.

They should be planted in spring when the weather warms up. Water well at first until established, and then water should be cut back to about once a week. Fertilizer is not necessary. Lantanas can also be propagated from cuttings.

Both birds and bees love lantanas for different reasons. The bees forage in their flowers and the birds eat the berries. Butterflies, especially swallowtails, also enjoy the flowers. The leaves are toxic to most animals, as are the green berries. The jury is still out on whether it is safe to eat the fully ripe blackberries.  I would not advise eating them.

In mild climates, lantanas can survive all year. They should be cut back each spring to promote more blooming. They cannot survive frost, as I've learned the hard way.

Zazzle Creators Love Lantana and the Critters That Love It.

Here are some of their creations.

Flower Collection - Lantana PillowMonarch Butterfly on Lantana Flower Coffee MugButterfly - Eastern Tiger SwallowtailClose Up Butterfly PosterLantana Garden Flower Yellow LabelLantana Flowers StickerLantana Flowers Poster,Print Poster

Pyracantha in Bloom

At least I believe this is a pyracantha, commonly known as firethorn, even though I'd always thought it was a cotoneaster. I looked up cotoneaster in my Sunset Western Garden Book tonight and there was no mention of  thorns.  This plant you see in the photo has dangerous thorns, and only the pyracantha description mentions thorns. Both plants can grow tall like this and both have colorful orange or red berries. Both plants can grow in poor soil and are drought resistant. The fruits appears in July or August and last long enough to provide winter color.

This is the same shrub in bloom in May. The bees love the flowers. I can hear the tree buzzing as I approach it when the tree is in bloom. Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

This is a close-up of the pyracantha flowers.

I love my Sunset Western Garden Book as a General reference for finding out more about the plants in my garden and selecting plants for special situations or with certain characteristics. In this case, I looked up plants with colorful berries to see what else this might have been, if not cotoneaster. It's a book no western gardener should be without. 

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Mixed Herbs in a Paso Robles Garden

Mixed Herbs in a Paso Robles Garden, © B. Radisavljevic

This photo came from my front flower bed about a month ago, in June. Two of the herbs are in bloom. The pale pink flower clusters are on the clary sage. To the left of it you see tricolor sage. Between that and the kale in back is oregano, which is now in bloom, but it wasn't then. The small purple flowers are hyssop blossoms. For a closer look, just click the photo to enlarge it.

The sages and oregano are in pots to keep them confined. I like growing these perennial herbs because they require almost no care and little water. I harvest and use the oregano. I grow the other herbs for their ornamental value. The bees use them for forage, and they add color in season. Herbs give me the most value for my money when water is rationed.

The photo on the card below comes from another of my herb gardens in Templeton. It shows the tricolor sage in bloom. To its right is common sage, which has finished blooming. The rosemary, which has also finished blooming, is behind.

Blank Card: Mixed Sages and Rosemary by barbsbooks

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