Dear Helen: In a neighbourhood where I was visiting a few weeks ago I saw a large shrub covered with big, deep golden flowers that were attracting much bee activity. I’ve not found anyone who could identify the plant. Any ideas?T.G.
The shrub could be a Fremontia. Your description reflects this plant in my garden, which has put on an especially splashy show this spring with blooms clustered thickly along the branches. It grows at the front fence, beside the gate. I’ve noticed people walking by stop to get a closer look, and every visitor has asked me to identify the plant.
Bees have been busy in my Fremontia too. I took a little time to observe them in the plant and noted a certain etiquette in their activity. If a bee spotted another already in a flower it was heading for, it rapidly retreated. They all looked like honey bees, and were probably working as a community.
Fremontia, also known as Flannel Bush, Fremontodendron californicum and California Beauty, does best in a sunny, well drained site and is fairly drought tolerant once well established.
Dear Helen: In previous years, we have routinely pulled up chairs to enjoy watching dozens of bees, of different types, working over an enormous sage plant in our garden. This year we have seen only a few bees occasionally in the plant. Can you offer any comments on this?
P.P.
Yours is a story often heard these days. Dramatic reductions in the numbers of bees can be traced to one or any combination of several factors: the loss of nearby habitat to shelter and feed bees; pesticide use; parasites. Malnutrition in bees as a result of monoculture crops in areas near agricultural lands, and even changing weather patterns, could also contribute to a decline in numbers of bees.
We are all encouraged these days to plant bee-friendly gardens, with a broad diversity of flowers rich in pollen and nectar. Some even act as medicine for bees. Cilantro, for example, contains an essential oil that helps to repel mites that infest bees.
A newly published, absorbing and highly useful book titled Victory Gardens for Bees (Douglas & McIntyre) is designed to help us help the bees. I’ll be describing it in detail soon. The book provides lists of the best bee plants, by plant category, and even offers “bee garden” plans.
Another way to help boost bee populations is to support local organic growers who nurture bee habitat on their farms. At my local farmers’ market I was interested to see jars of honey appear on the table of one of my favourite growers. I’d long admired the quality of the produce from that farm, and I found the honey to be absolutely exquisite.
When I thanked the grower for her delicious honey, she told me that her bees flourish feeding off plantings of buckwheat, a superb bee plant that also attracts and feeds beneficial insects, acts as a warm season green manure crop, and produces nutritious seeds that can be ground into a gluten free flour.
Dear Helen: Can you identify the enormous plants in the attached photo? The tall flower spikes have an almost extra-terrestrial look.
B.W.
I think your plants are Eremurus robustus (Giant Eremurus, Giant Desert Candle). The common name for Eremurus is foxtail lily.
Though, as a species, E. robustus is variable in flower colour and height, the flower spikes can grow up to three metres high, with hundreds of tiny flowers in variations on pink. The plants grow very fast, up to 15 centimetres a day in spring.
The roots are like giant spiders, whose long arms spread out to support the hefty flower stalks. The plants grow a new root each year and eventually form a multi-stemmed clump. They can be lifted and pulled apart in the fall.
Foxtail lilies thrive in sun with a fertile, well-drained soil and little water in summer, after the flowering period. It is best to remove the flower stems before they set seed.
GARDEN EVENT
Lily meeting. The Victoria Lily Society meets tonight at 7 in Abkhazi Garden, 1964 Fairfield Rd. Members will tour the garden and have a pre-Lily Show meeting.
