Honeybees and more honeybees!

The sunshine and mild temperatures this weekend brought a lot of bees to our garden! They were all over the lavatera shrub, like the honeybee in the photo above, feeding on the nectar in blossoms. There were carpenter bees, honeybees, bumblebees and little flower fly bees.

Our English lavender plant, which grew into a huge hedge, is another favorite, especially with the honeybees. This is the time of year when the lavender has very fresh leaves and the whole hedge looks its best, getting enough ground water after some winter rain. So there are lots of new lavender flowers with delicious nectar.

And now that our wonderful Ray Hartman Ceanothus, the "bee magnet " is blooming, there is even more variety of food for our pollinators. I spotted some honeybees there, including the one above. Hmmm... interesting isn't it, that all of these flowers are lavender or bluish in color? Apparently that's what attracts them the most. The lavender and ceanothus definitely have very strong fragrance, the ceanothus blossoms smell almost like honey!