No surprise here! Eleagnus umbellata is very popular with all the bees because it produces an abundant supply of nectar.
I need no other reason for planting it in my garden but E. umbellata deserves a place in the garden because of its perfume which carries a good two metres when you are in its vicinity. As the photographs show, the creamy white flowers are delcate and very attractive.
I’ve just noted all my close-up photographs are of bumblebees but all the other bees, including honey bees find it attractive and you can stand underneath it and listen to the buzz.
I bought 10 at 1.71 euros each and shared some with friends. That was in February 2017 and they have grown rapidly. For that price they were just little bare root saplings but they have all survived and they can easily be incorporated into a hedge or trained into a little tree.
I certainly got a good deal from that purchase and I recommend it as a trouble free and valuable addition to the garden. It usually starts flowering here at the beginning of April and has now sadly finished.
It is also known as the Autumn Olive or a French equivalent is the Chalef d’autumne. Chalef seems a funny name but it is used for all the eleagnus species. Perhaps someone knows where this name comes from?
It was in fact a video showing someone enjoying the fruits of this tree in autumn that attracted us to buy it in the first place. The fruits are described as being like sweet currants but we have not been able to taste them to verify this. We are not sure whether the trees have not fruited yet or that the birds beat us to it. I would put my money on the birds.
I heard her coming as I stepped outside of the front door.
The pot had already been covered and she spent the next two days adding layers of mud to weather proof her nest for the winter.
I was fascinated to see her bring the smooth mud ball, held against her thorax by her front legs and her head.
The mud ball was then smoothed into place, perhaps to resemble the stone wall surface?
This is the type of pot she is covering, so she is capable of a much finer work. I had watched a pot being built last October. Perhaps it was from that very pot that she has emerged this year.
The shutters are closed while the sun is up. At least now the nights are cooler and we can air the house in the cool of the morning.
Most plants are showing signs of heat exhaustion and the lack of rain. The Chitalpa does not get watered but it has flowered for even longer this year, having had flowers since early June.
The plants in this patch of the back garden get sun most of the day. The lavender has survived for many years, although it has finished flowering for this year. I am not sure whether the Colutea will survive as all I can see is its seed pods with no leaves. Surprisingly, the Eucryphea has started to flower even although some of its leaves have been burnt by the sun.
I’m not sure what the yellow flowers are in this area. They are very tough perennials which grow out of tubers that must allow them to survive in the heat and dry.
They are very attractive to the honey bees and although I find them rather invasive, I do appreciate them during hot summers.
The cat’s ears in our “lawn” provide a splash of colour in the sunshine as the lawn is a crispy brown.
The honey bees love the pollen and have been bringing in this bright orange pollen to the hives.
The cat’s ear weed attracts the Dasypoda bees. They are also called pantaloon bees as their hind legs have such long hairs for collecting the pollen. These bees nest in sandy soil, digging tunnels into the ground to lay their eggs. I am sure I must have nests nearby but I have never discovered any.
The larger Tetradiumdaniellii (the bee-bee tree) has just started to flower on the top branches and there is a satisfactory buzz when I stand underneath it. The garden is managing in the heat better than I am but both of us would benefit from some refreshing rain.
Our department of the Charente Maritime (plus another eleven departments) have been placed on a red alert because of the predicted high temperatures – approaching 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Depending on where you live this may seem extreme or not.
It feels pretty hot to me but luckily we live in an old stone house that will stay cool until this stretch of extreme weather passes. We were booked to go with friends to an evening outside meal with music at our village tomorrow but all outside entertainment has been stopped including outside markets until the weather cools.
The bees are hot and fan in front of their entrances. The trees behind them protect them from the worse of the direct sun and there is insulation under the roof.
Kourosh thought of the old type of coolers that pushed air through wet straw and has sprayed the wooden entrances to increase the efficiency of the bees fanning.
We always leave plenty of water out for the bees and they need it, especially in the heat.
There is a particular crush around this local stone which is limestone and soaks up the water well.
It is not only the bees that appreciate the water and the bath is perfect for a morning dip for the robin.
It is too hot to go walking and too hot at the beach for me. I have checked out the Magnolia tree this morning and the bees had already set upon the flowers with gusto. The flowers do not last a day once they have opened.
Macroglossum stellatarum
The hummingbird hawk moth is back in the lavender.
I find it difficult staying inside and so check out the garden for only short periods.
There are little bees nesting in tiny tunnels in the house walls. I do not know what they are so that will give me something to think about. If you have any ideas please drop me a hint.
The back garden is a mixture of bare trees, leafing trees and blossom.
I don’t want the Nashi and the Accolade flowering cherry to finish.
In the front garden there is plenty of colour even although most of the daffodils have finished.
The Eleagnus umbellata trees are full of flowers and attract honeybees.
I would highly recommend Eleagnus umbellata if you were looking for a fast growing small tree. I bought 10 at 1.71 euros each and shared some with friends. That was in February 2017 and they have grown rapidly. I like them as trees but they can also be used as a hedge. They survive our dry summer weather which is a great plus.
Another beauty is the Malus coccinella, it was bought in February 2020 and is smothered in flowers just now (one of the Eleagnus umbella trees is behind it in this photograph, slightly to the right.)
I do not want the blossom of the Malus to finish but it will eventually be replaced with small ornamental apples that were appreciated and completely finished by the birds in the winter.
The weather continues to seesaw from our recent summer-like temperatures to overnight lows near zero. We took our lemon tree back inside yesterday, we knew that the it would only be a short warm spell at this time of year. Still the frog was able to sunbathe in its leaves some of the days. Can you see it so perfectly camouflaged? (Hint, towards bottom left.)
At least we are having more sun than was predicted but when I look at all the blossoms and flowers I feel like shouting at the garden – Slow down you move too fast, you’ve got to make the springtime last!
We have a part of the small vegetable garden that we try to keep for herbs. We have several friends who prefer tisanes to black tea so I grow mint, lemon balm. lemon verbena, camomile and dry them to make tisanes. I sometimes make them for myself, as I would like to wean myself off black tea, but it’s taking some time to change my preferences. We also grow any other bits and bobs and young plants that need keeping an eye on.
It tends to get a bit overgrown with the lavender encroaching and some seedling trees growing faster than expected and the Echium turning into amazing self-seeders. So, with our incredible spell of fine weather I decided to put some order into the plot and get lots cut back.
All went well until late in the afternoon, when it was sunny and warm, I noticed some Ivy bees flying around the border I was trying to straighten!
They looked as if they were trying to find their nests! I had a sinking feeling that I could have destroyed their nesting site.
I marked the edge with tiles and decided that all that could be done would be to cover the area with cardboard and leave it for a year in case the burrows were left intact.
I still surveyed the area daily and then I noticed two burrows.
The first was near tiles placed perpendicular to the edge, so at least all was not lost. The other was not far away but nearer the edge.
When I saw one enter the burrow, I waited patiently and photographed her as she made her exit.
I have been fascinated watching her enlarge the burrow. The proportions of earth that she is removing compared to her size is amazing. The slope of the hole is her total length long.
Now that I know that there are at least two active nests in that area, I will take the greatest of care and protect them until next year.
The female ivy bee is laying her eggs with a supply of pollen and nectar to nourish the future larvae and the adult bees will not emerge until this time next year.
I did see cuckoo bees on the same day I saw the first bees and I took this photograph.
I had already seen two different sorts of Epeolus bees on the asters. These bees are cuckoo bees and target Colletes bees like the Ivy bees (Colletes hederae). They will enter the Ivy bees’ nests and lay their eggs so that their larvae will survive rather than the Ivy bees.
Nature is tough but I will guard my nests of Ivy bees as best as I can.
It was Tuesday morning (21 September) when Michel phoned and said his friend in Royan had a swarm of bees on his drainpipe. We were all surprised. Bees swarm in the spring. However, all three of us sprang into swarm catching action and we picked up Michel outside his front door and headed to Royan, thirty minutes drive away on the coast. This was the latest swarm Michel had ever come across in his years of bee keeping and we were regaled with bee stories until we reached his friend’s house.
The three of us were lost for words when we saw the “swarm”. There are not enough bees to form a colony that would last the winter. We could not assure that there was even a queen present.
So what to do? They were cold and not flying around. We presumed they would not last long. The ruchette was there so Kourosh picked them up in his hand and gently placed them inside. They accepted their warm polystyrene shelter with good grace.
Once we got them back to the garden we decided to look for a queen. Without a queen there would be no point in going on any further. To our surprise there was a queen! Can you see her?
Here is a clue.
Here she is close-up.
The weather was fine and they seemed to be making a go of it, so on Sunday, Kourosh cracked and stole a frame from one of our hives. It was a difficult decision to make as he took a frame with some brood and young bees which could leave the original hive short for their winter supply of bees.
The frame and young bees were powdered with icing sugar to confuse their odour and then added to the polystyrene ruchette with the queen and her small court. We closed the ruchette and kept it in an outbuilding for two nights in case the young bees wanted to return to their original hive. All was quiet and when we opened their door in the morning there were no signs of battle. They new girls had been accepted.
On Wednesday we were excited to see that they were making the best of the good weather and bringing in pollen. At a guess I would say that it is gorse pollen, there is plenty of ivy around and our other hives are bringing in some ivy and some of this lovely orange pollen.
Kourosh has reduced the entrance to make it easier for them to guard against robbers or worst of all the Asian hornets.
Then on Wednesday our friend Christian phoned to see if Kourosh could help with a swarm that had to be re-homed. The bees had set up home behind closed shutters in an upstairs bedroom with the window blind closed. This would have provided a good spot in the summer and they had gone undisturbed for two or three months as the house had not been occupied.
Sorry about the quality of the photograph, but Kourosh’s flash did not go off.
This was a different proposition and Christian was prepared with frames on which he could fasten the already formed brood nest. The frames were placed in a ruchette and left until nightfall for the colony to enter. In the evening of the same day the ruchette was brought back to the garden, and we are now the adoptive parents of this colony until the spring when they can be moved. Christian will be away for six weeks and the colony will need feeding and protection during this time.
So this is Christian’s ruchette (it will be secured to the poles in due course to protect it from high winds).
And this is the tiny colony. Will either of them survive the winter? The chances are low – approaching zero for ours, much better for Christian’s. It will depend on the weather. At the moment our weather has changed from sunshine and mild temperatures to rain and cloud. We will see.
We don’t have a big vegetable garden. I like to have plenty of tomatoes for eating and also for freezing as sauce. This year they are very behind. It is the same tomatoes that I have been growing for some years but they are about a month behind their usual growth but it is the same for everybody else nearby. Instead, we have plenty of lettuce this year – just one cucumber plant grown from seed but you can’t win them all.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have sown parsley without success, so far (any hints gratefully received). I have planted my leeks for the winter as I am already thinking of winter soups.
It looks as if we are going to have at least one butternut.
I also grew some Uchiki Kuri plants from seed as I thought they were the same as the French Potimarron. I was also in search of the fragrant pumpkin flowers I raised in the garden one year. So far, I have not noticed any perfume from these flowers but it is very fleeting and maybe I was not around at a propitious time. I’ll keep sniffing them as the season advances.
Kourosh has always fancied a climbing grape vine. A friend brought us this vine and assured us it was a type that would climb. It looks as if we may get our first grapes from it this year.
The vegetable garden is hard work. I would rather be watching the Megachile bees building their nests in the bee house. These are leaf cutter bees and they seal off each cache of egg and pollen with either a piece of leaf or chewed bits of leaf. You may see some suspicious circles on your plant leaves as if someone has been at them with a little hole punch. I hope you don’t grudge them these little bits of leaf as it does not harm the plant.
This is my favourite bee in the summer. It is like a fluffy, grey teddy bear but it is also the speediest and is a remarkedly fast flyer. I think it is an Amegilla but I would have to catch it to be certain. It is worth growing Verbena bonariensis just to watch it but it loves lavender too.
Actually, it is tough to have favourites as I love finding the Tetralonia bees still asleep in the summer mornings tucked inside the flower of a Hollyhock.
Some years ago I planted Allium cernuum bulbs and loved the flowers but larger plants grew over them and they perished.
A year ago I decided to plant seed and keep them in a pot. This is the result of the second year of my half packet of seeds. They came up so well that I decided to plant the other half of the seeds this spring – but I forgot to stratify them with a cold period. The second sowing has not germinated so I better look after these bulbs!
They are also called Nodding Onion and you can see the family resemblance in the papery covering of the flower bud.
Of course I grow them to watch the bumblebees that love them.
I love her heart-shaped pollen load!
The pot stays on the steps so that we can watch the bees from the living room.
I noticed that my blue geranium was not looking too happy and I decided to release her from the pot. The temperatures are shooting up this week to 35 degrees Centigrade (95 F) so I am starting to reduce my pots if possible.
It was a bit of a struggle to get the pot bound plant out of the small top of the pot (bad design!) but as I struggled I noticed things falling on the earth!
I think these are lizard eggs. A number of years ago I found similar eggs and kept them inside in moistened vermiculite until they hatched – and they were lizards. This time I have just covered them with soil and hoped for the best.
At the moment the Philadelphus and the Linden tree are competing for most perfumed plant in the garden.
We have several Philadelphus in the garden, all very beautiful and all very perfumed but none of them attract the bees; strange.
The fledged Redstarts have flown the nest and we see them in the back garden but Kourosh noticed that a redstart was visiting the nest box again. On the first of June he tried for a photograph and found one newly laid egg!
On the fifth of June he tried to see if she had more eggs but – oops, she was in residence. On the eight June she has a clutch five eggs. They are a prolific pair as the last chicks had only left the nest a few days before she started laying again.
Our excitement this week was that our Melia azedarach tree has flowered for the first time. Kourosh planted seeds he had collected from beautiful trees we had seen flowering in Girona in Spain. We did not know what they were and it was only through help on this blog we found out what the tree was called.
There are not many flowers on the tree yet but it is a start.
a french garden 