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Plant of the Day
Tuesday 11 April 2017
Prunus japonica (dwarf flowering cherry, oriental bush cherry) is a deciduous shrub that reaches 1.5 m. Here it was flowering by a path in the contemporary Japanese garden, Kishin-en Garden, Setagaya City,
Japan.
Jill Raggett
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A large ruined castle set against a forested hillside in North Wales by Forgotten Heritage🌹🏰
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For the Bees Masterpost
Hey y’all! As I am sure most of you have heard, we seem to be witnessing an alarming decline in our little buzzing friends. As of right now, seven species of bees in other countries have been added to the Endangered Species List. However, the bumblebees were officially announced as being Endangered around two weeks ago. This, my dear friends, is especially scary because these little fuzzy friends are very close to home.
Leading causes to the destruction of bees is the use of pesticides on crops, bee-feeding parasites, and a global decline in wildflowers. Meaning: bees LOVE wildflowers.
If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, mankind would have no more than four years to live.
So what can we do to help our pollinating pals?
Enter here this masterpost!
-Set up a bee bath! This little trick can literally just be a bird bath with sugar water instead of normal water and stones! (Do not forget the stones, as the bees rest on them when drinking to prevent drowning) Honey bees can travel very far just to find nectar and water. They usually go as far as a radius of 4 miles covering 32,166 archers around their hives, but some bees have been known to go as far as 17 miles or even 30 to find what their hive needs. At 30 miles the honey bees will start to lose more ‘weight’. (-8.6 pounds of honey) Sugar water will help keep these bees healthy and happy! PSA: if you see a rather slow moving bee, give the little one some sugar water and they’ll perk right up!
-Build a bee hotel! The truth is, many species of bees are solitary - they do not live in hives but instead construct their own nest. This is because in these certain species every female is fertile and this would not make for comfortable communal living in a hive.
-IF you get stung - Bee stings are acidic on the pH scale. If you add baking soda to them, it neutralizes the sting! #SCIENCE
-Flowers that our bumblebabies fancy: Thyme, lilac, snapdragons, goldenrod, wildflowers, sweet william, English lavender, bergamot,lilac, sage, ivy cilantro, burage, fennel, hollyhock, crocus, buttercup, snowdrop, geranium, aster, calendula, sweet asylum, poppy, zinnia, sunflower, heliotrope. Okay, bumblebees LOVE goldenrod. When goldenrod goes into full bloom, the pollination from the flowers ACTUALLY contains chemicals that make the bees drunk off their little bee butts. It’s amazing.
-Fruit trees are great too!
I could go on and on about the bees, but this post is already a lot longer than I originally attended.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me at any time! I’m a licensed beekeeper and I love my bees very much. We need the bees, guys. If they go, they’re taking us down with them.
Educate yourselves, educate your friends and family.
Have an absolute wonderful day!
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