Hot spots in the garden

Oh my! We have never had so many Summer Long-horned bees visit any of our previous gardens, as we do now.

There are some native plants that I planted last November, that I had never planted before.

Our next door neighbor who has a huge mostly native garden, made some plant suggestions while we were shopping for native seedlings at one of our local nurseries. I thought I'd give them a try. And what results!

Two of the plants are the Seaside woolly sunflower Eriophyllum staechadifolium, and Coast gumplant Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla.

In the photo above is a Summer Long-horned male bee on a Coast gumplant flower.

Note its yellow mustache.

In the foreground of the photo is the Coast gumplant. It is growing wider and wider! Behind the gumplant - Verbena de la Mina (lavender colored blossoms), Purple Gleam poppy (strong magenta color) Eschscholzia californica 'Purple Gleam, and in the background Coyote bush Baccaris pilularis.

Flowerheads of the Seaside woolly sunflower are such a brilliant yellow, attracting bees all day long.

A Leafcutting bee on the Seaside woolly sunflowers, dusted with pollen.

If I had known sooner that these two plants attract so many bees, I would have started planting them years ago in our other gardens!