Bee & Hummingbird Garden 6/29/23

[scarfguy]

Can't wait for Sue to bloom for us!

[lynnee]

The Scented Jasmine Alata is finally in bloom, and it smells heavenly!

The flowers close up during the day, so I wonder how they attract pollinators?

[lynnee]

56 days. Sue the Sunflower is almost as high as the 5-foot patio fence, and the bloom is starting to open!

[lynnee]

Sue's main flower is continuing to open.

[lynnee]

Main flower is open now. Sue has skinny petals!

[slw]

Beautiful sunflower, Lynnee.   I have wondered why certain plants are designed such that they can't bear their own weight... like mature sunflowers, gladiolus, etc.   If left to their own devices they always fall over under the weight of the blossom.   Another pointless pondering, haha. 

I have seen fields of sunflowers in the Texas Hill Country and they are stunning to see... just rows and rows of tall, beautiful flowers. 

[lynnee]

slw, in my ponderings, plants like Sue always evoke a sense of wonderment--all it takes is patience, and eventually your plant will produce a gorgeous, impossibly showy bloom.

[Shawn]

They all look wonderful!  I always say I want to plant sunflowers but with Piper I am afraid she will get stung

[lynnee]

Aug 28, 2023 11:44:52 GMT -5 Shawn said:

They all look wonderful!  I always say I want to plant sunflowers but with Piper I am afraid she will get stung

Sunflowers grow tall--Sue is at 5-1/2 feet. Do you think that Piper would be jumping high enough to bother bees visiting the flowers?

[Shawn]

I dont think she would jump but if they fly around she wil try to sniff and that is not safe LOL

[lynnee]

The Bee & Hummingbird plants seem to be attracting a few butterflies. Sadly, we don't see anything like the numbers of bees and butterflies that we used to.

Here is a photo of the plants in the front patio display box. They are, left to right and top to bottom: giant alba petunia, miniature marigolds, celosia; nicotiana, vanilla cosmos; nasturtiums, persian carpet zinnias, pinwheel zinnias. The second photo is a closeup of the marigolds.





The cosmos, nicotiana, and pinwheel zinnias are a little too tall to be grown comfortably in a Bounty. It could be done, but you get more leaves than flowers. The pinwheel zinnia flowers very quickly--well in advance of all the others--but the flower colors bleach when exposed to full sun every afternoon.

The nasturtium flowers are being eaten by something not human that prefers them to everything else.

[scarfguy]

Very pretty flowerbed, lynnee!

Do you have any hummingbirds where you live?   I planted a wall of honeysuckle about 5 years ago in hopes of attracting hummingbirds..  A couple of years ago, I had a few for a short time but haven't seen any lately.

[lynnee]

Yes, we have a few hummingbirds that are mostly dark green. They were around a lot in June and July, but I haven't seen them recently.

One of them perched briefly on a tomato cage of ours. I was thrilled, because I'd never seen a hummingbird at rest before!

[lynnee]

The Hummingbird Salvia has been blooming for several weeks, and is looking ratty now. The blooms never open up any more than this. Definitely not suitable for an AG display because of the height and lack of showiness.




The Agrostemma is finally blooming, but the flowers look like thistles and haven't fully opened. Way too tall for an AG display. The Hummingbird fennel behind it, looking like a cloud of smoke, hasn't bloomed.



Sue the sunflower is healthy, but isn't so pretty now. I added some support around the main flower. The stem was bending so much from the flower's weight that I was afraid it would bend in half and cut off the water supply for seed formation. Was this right, or necessary?

Sue has also produced three additional, much smaller flowers. Two are on suckers, and one is on the main stem beside the big flower.