Honeybees on The Red Poppy Flowers

Honeybees on The Red Poppy Flowers




Meet the Honeybees that were on these Poppy Flowers of August 1, 2014!



We do seam to be a stopping point for many pollinators during the peak blooming time of the year. This is now March still and we are getting the flower beds ready for 2015 flowering season by pulling weeds, seeding,waiting on a tuber delivery, working the soil, still needing to run the tiller and the chipper since we have piles of brush here and there from last year! Everything is taking off early this year!







You can see from the photographs above, there are two different poppy flowers! These are both from Red Poppy Flower Seeds, though the one Poppy Flower has more of a orange tint to it!



By August I spend a lot of my time outside if you can imagine! A lot of work to do and this is the busy time of the year here at home and all over Central and Eastern Oregon!



The Honeybee's photographed here start arriving early in the morning when sun starts to warm everything up. The honeybee's stick around until evening time.



Since the Poppy Flowers are so delicate of a flower, over head watering is a no go. The Honeybee's are found at our ponds or the other hardier flowers getting drinks from the mud we provide. Honeybee's like other insects do not drink water as you and I do, then back to work they go!



Every dang time I get visiting people here they swat at the bee's! These Honeybee's are more then likely from the shipments of Honeybee's we get from California to pollinate the big farms. Though since we have many species of bee's visiting us at any giving time at the peak blooming season, it is not wise to swat at the bee's. Some bee's do not like this!



Our place just hummmmms with the sounds of the Honeybee's doing their thing and I kind of like the sounds!



A place with Honeybee's is a healthy place! I worry when I see no Honeybee's in a location!!

Thank you for coming by and checking out the photographs from August 1, 2014!

Honeybee On A Ozark Sundrop Flower

Honeybee On A Ozark Sundrop Flower




This series of photographs is of a Honeybee working on this Ozark Sundrop Flower!



There was more photographs to this series then I showed here. This Ozark Sundrop (Ozark Sundrop is not the scientific name by the way), is one of several plants of this species we had growing in 2014. This Ozark Sundrop was growing in our driveway! This was not even part of the flower bed, though several species of flowers wanted to grow in this rocky, dry nasty soil so I let them! Who am I to argue with something that wants to live so badly.....



The Ozark Sundrop is in the Primrose family and has a striking yellow bloom that really stand out! Guy and I were speaking of this flower this morning and think we got this four or five years ago from perhaps bird droppings?? We are just not sure how we got this Ozark Sundrop growing here?

In the front in this nasty, rocky soil the Ozark Sundrop grows short like a bush. Somehow (birds?), we got this in the back flower bed in which this Ozark Sundrop grew taller then our six foot dog fence and wide!! Fighting for the sun in the flower bed which the soil is better taken care of. That larger Ozark Sundrop spread rapidly!! I cut the lower branches off, and pulled out the plants that grew from the roots. I also dead headed the blooms that rapidly produced seed pods to control the spread of the Ozark Sundrop in this location.



As you can see from my photographs the honeybee is heavy with yellow, sticky pollen! So much of this yellow sticky pollen that the honeybee at times was under stress when trying to fly. The photograph above shows how much pollen was on this honeybee.



You can see in the photographs how well this Ozark Sundrop flowers! Many pollinators are attracted to this bright yellow flower blooms! Unlike other flower blooms that pollen is light and can be carried by wind, us who have allergies know of this all to well! The Ozark Sundrops pollen just seams to heavy to be carried by the wind...... I dont seam to sneeze like crazy around the Ozark Sundrop blooms anyways....



The Honeybee sure did not feel it had to much pollen on it.... the honeybee kept coming back!



You can in the photographs while the Honeybee is in flight the Honeybee has a bit of this pollen on it.











Then back to the bloom the honeybee goes!



The Honeybee I did watch for a time as well as photographing the Honeybee's behavior. The Honeybee to me appeared to be to heavy to fly..... though I am not a Honeybee so....







The Honeybee kept going back to the Ozark Sundrop flower !



The Honeybee in the above shot flew to another bloom so I figured I had enough photograph of this happening and went on to another happening here in our garden. Our garden can keep me busy for hours just all the activity going on here!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs I take in my part of the High Desert of Oregon, and / or reading my observations I write along with my photography.

Coneflower Blooms

Coneflower Blooms




Hope your weekend went well! Meet the Coneflower and visitor from the photographs from July 25 2014 I am working on this morning.



As you can see by the end of July the Coneflower are not at their peek. These Coneflower were placed in a spot facing the southern sun in front of the Iris Patch several years ago. The Iris flowers have outgrown the Coneflower and the Coneflower need to be moved for several reasons, or separated planted in other locations.



The Coneflower have grown, bloomed in this south location. However this location gets pretty hot! As you can see from these photographs the blooms just do not like this heat from the southern sun. I say the Coneflowers are easy to grow! The Coneflowers are forgiving.



Forgiving is the Coneflower, however as you can see from these photographs the Coneflowers are compromised. Such plants are vulnerable to pests, and other attacks that we may or may not see under the ground. What we can not see is where all the good stuff really goes on! The flowers are what we see! This is why we all love flowers! The pretty colors, shapes, sizes and fruit that some plants produce. Truly though, all the real action is where we can not see. The roots!

Why these Coneflowers in our garden need moved, or since they are growing in this location separated if can be and moved elsewhere. I am thinking the Coneflowers need more shade. Protection from the triple digit temperatures of the High Desert? As I have said we have had these for oh, three years now? This in no way makes Guy or I experts at growing Coneflowers.



Here in the High Desert we are supposed to be zone 5. Everyone lives in a zone. You have a zone you live in too! However some people can live in more then one zone, like we do! Guy is very good at this zone stuff! Guy really is, and he is my teacher about growing here in the High Desert. Someone down the road can grow a plant that we can not. Though we have found places on our small piece of land that the people just right down the road have issues with. This of course is a topic of conversation with the neighbors and I. "How did you grow that", or "How come the frost killed mine and not yours"? Now this is the fun us gardeners have, figuring out what grows where!

Zones, it is good that you find out what zone you live in. Plant accordingly. This does not mean you can not grow whatever, just is a starting point. I found a zone chart if you want to check it out , United States Zone chart

Keep in mind the zone charts are just a starting point. I doubt to many people are going to guaranty you that nature does not change. Many things goes into determining the zones, weather patterns for what year... moon phases on and on and on!!



Honey Bee's ( Honeybee ), are one insect you will find on the Coneflower Blooms! One of these photographs I took, lets see if I put it up..... does not look like I had. Spider mites like the Coneflower. Nasty little bugs that drain the plant of liquid. Turning the host plant into a dried up, nasty looking mess!! Spider Mites will encase the host into a web for the younger spider mites to feed on. What if you see five spider mites I read where you have a infestation! There are several insect that will eat the Spider Mites, Lady Bugs or Lady Birds is one insect you want in your garden!! If you have to go buy Ladybugs!! Make sure if you feel the need to buy Ladybugs that you buy them from a company that does not ship you dead insects!! Buy locally if you can and keep in mind when you get the Ladybugs home give them a drink!! Spray the area down with a hose before setting the insect free, or soak a cotton ball in water is one way if you are setting them free in a inclosed area. Keep in mind, insects do not drink water as we do!

I personally have not seen aphids , or their caretakers the ants on the Coneflowers of ours.

I have seen as you can see in the photographs Honeybee's really like the Coneflower! Wasps, Carpenter Bees, Bumble Bees and more like the Coneflowers! I can not seam to recall if butterflies like the Coneflowers. I have seen the Hummingbirds near the Coneflowers however we grow several flowers in groups.... The color could attract a pollinator then the said pollinator may not want to work on said colored flower but go to the neighboring flower. This is our philosophy of growing. Not everyone does this! We just choose to.



You can see the Honey Bee doing its thing......



Here the Honeybee is really getting into the center which is rather spiny when you get right in there!



This Honeybee is done and flying off. I for one do not know if I want to speak about the medicinal uses for the Coneflower for I just do not want the responsibility of someone reading something I wrote and putting it into their body......

Thank you for coming by looking at my photography and reading my rambling of the Coneflower Blooms!

Honeybee Arrival In Jefferson County Oregon

Honeybee Arrival In Jefferson County Oregon




This is a typical bigger Honeybee operation that goes on in agricultural areas such as ours. These Honeybee's arrive by train. This area is a holding lot. Much like a cattle holding lot, however these are Honeybee's. You will not find this quantity of hives in someones backyard!



I do not advice anyone who is allergic to these insects to do such a thing as I did as far as visiting this holding lot.

First I called up and spoke to the scientist who is, was (?) doing a Honeybee study at this location. Then calling up the land owner to ask for access to their property. Then of course walking on over to the location. I would have loved to be a onlooker when getting these photographs haha!!

Keeping in mind, smoke can be a good thing!! Lighting up a cigarette kept the stings down to just one. Keeping in mind these Honeybee's are not wild per say, however they just arrived at this location. Tired, thirsty and cranky!



Somehow as I picked out the photographs to show you the photographs copied themselves so the photographs are a mess if you go to the album to look around!





These hives get shipped to different farms around our town where this is all located. If you happen to be walking down one of these farm roads, or even driving by with your window rolled down, well you may just get to meet some Honeybee's personal like!

Carrot seed is huge in our area. Someone has to grow it for your favorite garden store to sale to you, right?

We are known for many other crops, however the carrot seed is a big one around here where the Honeybee's help is priceless! Can you imagine hand pollinating something like the carrot seed!?



I also walked over to where the Honeybee's were getting their drinks at. Any insect who has traveled pretty much in any manor is going to be thirsty! I am one who will buy insects to have them shipped here to home. Insects such as ladybugs,praying mantises, some others. The last shippment of ladybugs arrives half dead. So, I stopped buying from that business. If you know of anyone else with a better live arrival rate, and better customer service, can you let me know? We are in Oregon.



I was much more comfortable at this location. The water is not where the Honeybee's live so they are much more docile!! No reason to protect something that is supposed to be for everyone.....



I may have even shown these photographs before?? I recall being at another location that I have permission being at and WALLA Honeybee's were drinking at that spot too. Not sure why I was surprised? Perhaps I was surprised for that other spot was really just a big mud puddle! A mud puddle made by farm equipment and pick up trucks.





This to is one reason why our garden just hums with the sound of Honeybee's as well. Our town is not huge and this holding lot is not a far walk. Honeybee's are supposed to like to stay and work one kind of flower, however we have a big infatuation to our garden when the Honeybee's show up!

I also notice the Honeybee's that come to our ponds, garden are sickly. Because of people using these killer chemicals? We know the Honeybee's come to our garden so they should be going to other peoples gardens..... "My brothers keeper", is something that seams to come to my mind. I sarcastically joke about, "not being my brothers keeper",  for most folks do not care about anything but themselves. Who cares if the Honeybee population dies out, right....... Not here to preach and this is a subject I can get real passionate about. Guy humors me and just lets me rant haha



Just joked with Guy about my ranting. Saying you heard it all before (my rants), but dogonit these people may not have! We both laughed and Guy says to you all,"Sorry about your luck", haha! Keeping the wording clean for some of my younger readers!

In the shot above a couple Honeybee's are gathered for drinks. I like to watch the Honeybee's communication between each other, doing jigs and what not! Predators have a field day with the Honeybee as well! Picking off the Honeybee one by one. No wonder they stay in groups! While I was here the birds staid away. The other insect did not......

I think that is enough photographs. I do have more photographs in the album I made just for this post, though like I said they are kind of a mess.... Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs and reading! Even if some of my ranting came out in the process..... See you on Monday with whatever else I came up with haha

Life on The Columbine Flower

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Life on The Columbine Flower




Meet the Columbine Flower and the pollinators the Columbine attract to your garden!

Many of us gardeners are getting ready for the season of outdoor flowerbeds and vegetable beds. We are no different! The excitement of colors, smells and the visitors can get overwhelming for some of us! Specially those who are dealing with snow and cold weather.



The Columbine that we grow is the "old world", species. That is they have beautiful spikes. The new hybrids do not have these spikes. However we have noticed the hybrids do have more colors. We chose not to grow the hybrids due to Guy. Guy rejects every species of Columbine seeds we find that do not have the long "spikes". Once you get the Columbine established you really do have to keep them under control in some places.



insects. Aphids like the Columbine!! Can not express this enough! Ants of course use aphids as we use cattle. The ants you can watch them take the aphids placing the aphids where ever the ants want the aphids to feed on what ever plant. The ants care for the aphids just like people care for their milking cattle.

We overhead water the Columbine to deal with the aphids. Of course this is not a full prof plan! One drop of water can kill a aphid or any other small bug for that matter. The aphids are nasty creatures, ladybugs can and will eat a enormous amount of aphids. Being organic, we do come up with all kinds of things to battle such things as aphids ........ There are other things that attack the Columbine but aphids are our main concern.



Yellow appears to be the natural base color for us anyways? We have a lot of yellow Columbine, even if they start out another color. Yellow tends to be dominant.... to my observations. We do have wild red columbine here in Oregon that are smaller flowers, smaller plants.

Our Columbine reach are oh three feet give or take. Typically I dont even bend over to clip off the seed pods.



I went ahead and put in several shots of the life on the Columbine Flowers in this post.



Our Columbine are in several places in the garden. They do not seam to care for full sun here in the High Desert. Of course watering is a must for anything one grows here.....



The White Columbine seen above with the Hoverfly was impressive in 2014. Big blooms, long spikes. Flashy blooms.



The Honeybee's really like the Columbine!! Like I said though you got to control those seed pods!! The photograph above shows a seed pod! The seed pods dry up and SNAP!! You can hear them SNAP! The seeds fly!! Walla, another plant or two or more start growing! Like any living creature the Columbine flowers are no different - they want to take over the world!

Noticing the Columbine will also give off these very long flower stems. These flowers will produce seed pods which can fall over reaching pretty darn far for a flower. SNAP, the seeds go flying even further away from the main plant.



Along with the flashy flowers, the pollinators the Columbine flowers attract, the Columbine have great foliage. Or we think so!

The clover looking leaves stay green for a long time!! When the flowers get done just trim back the stems! Walla you have a nice bunch of clover kind of looking, green leaves!



Bumblebee's , oh my goodness do the Bumblebees like the Columbine! In the shot above you see the red Columbine, along with the Yellow and there is a seed pod in these shots.

We have many pollinators here at the house, thus we get a lot of seed pods.



The soil where these Bumblebee shots and some of the others has been fortified with cow manure we get for free at one of the many cattle places here. Not every year of course do we have to feed the soil. Every oh , two to three years we notice it needs done again. You just have to feed flowers ie plants or well you are not going to have them!

We also do something that is a HUGE no no, I do not recommend anyone to copy this and no one should do this in the part of the garden where you or your family will consume what is grown. We throw the dog poop right into the soil! We have a shredder, and that is thrown in there. We also have a mulch pile that too is thrown into the flower beds. People ask us how do you get your flowers to grow like that!! Well, we just laugh..... if folks do not stay on the walking paths, guess what they get on them haha

Of course we add other things, we have a lot of birds here that do there thing, then we buy such things as basic "top soil", and soil places sell in bulk and Guy is afraid some day of coming home from work and seeing a dump truck here unloading soil additives haha! The cattle "stuff", is not "clean". Meaning if you choose to go this route you really do not know what is going to grow!! Talking of weeds, and the bugs! Though really , we do not have to do this every year.

If you are going to add meat eating animal dung into your garden, we feel it is "dirty", to add this kind of stuff into the area where you will eat what is produced. Why it is considered a huge no no..... I could get way more into this topic but you get the idea?



In this post I wanted to show a couple pollinators. SO many more show up here on the Columbine!! You can see some of the photographs I have uploaded so far over on the insect album here

Since we do grow many of the flowers I photograph it is rather easy for me to talk about them. I also do my best in the insect photography album to say what flower which ever insect is on. I also photographs the wildflowers. At times I am invited into other peoples gardens (where of course the gardener gets photographs for allowing me in), and I do on occasion visit commercial business's. I do believe in the barter system hint hint hahahahaha

All in all our property is not huge by no mean, however with a little planning. Some work and money thrown in (how much money spent really depends on you), anyone can grow such things as the Columbine flowers!