A few photos from my garden for September, mainly rudbeckias, lobelias, and couple of late season lilies.
And lots of friendly bees. I've been using a new close-up lens to take some of this month's bee shots.
This shot shows a honey bee on Echinacea White Swan.
Summer is drawing to a close.
The odd splashes of yellow in this shot come from Rudbeckias, and there's some purple Verbena in the shot, plus a few roses having a weak second flush of flowers.
Bees
We'll start with the bees.
First, a couple of photos, taken with my standard camera lens.
This is a honey bee on a gold variant of Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy.
This is a honey bee working on Lobelia Russian Princess.
There's also another honey bee behind the petal at the right. You can just see him peeping at us.
This is a bumble bee, also on Russian Princess.
Three honey bees on Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria.
One bee, center, is just landing, and two are the behind the petals, lower left, and at right.
This is a honey bee working on Lobelia Tania.
These Lobelias originate from the United States. They have a very long narrow tube (corolla), and are normally pollinated by hummingbirds or specialist butterflies.
These tubes are too long for a honey bee's tongue, and too narrow for the bee to climb into. So the bees perform keyhole surgery to get at the nectar.
Three honey bees on Sedums.
The plant in the foreground is a purple variety of Sedum, Purple Emperor.
Purple Emperor seems to come into flower a little bit earlier than the standard variety, which is just behind, top left, and not quite out yet.
This is a honey bee on Purple Emperor. This photo, and the following photos, were taken with a proper close-up lens. All the photos on this page enlarge to almost full-screen size by clicking on them.
The camera manufacturer calls this lens a '60mm Micro'. Some other manufactuers call these lenses 'Macro' lenses.
This is The bee at the centre of the Cosmos.
Using a special purpose close-up lens does make a big difference to the images.
This is a honey bee in a Gaillardia.
Gaillardias carry a lot of pollen. When working in Gaillardias, bees normally have their windscreen wipers and headlights on.
Finally, two honey bees, both on Goldsturm.
Even using a proper lens, these shots are still quite difficult to take. Focusing is very difficult, because the depth of field is very shallow. Also, bees gathering nectar, are moving their body parts very rapidly.
Lilies and Lobelias
This is lily Mambo.
Mambo is a very late flowering variety, and it looks a exotic too, though I'm not actually growing it with the other exotics.
Mambo is in a little corner with Cleopatra, and some tall late-flowering lobelias.
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| Lobelia Queen Victoria |
These Lobelias are also semi-exotic.
This is Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria, a very bright red. There's a wider shot below.
Lobelia Cardinalis comes from the Eastern United States. It has a long flower tube (corolla) which is not naturally accessible to native English bees. But that's no problem, as we shall see!
Just below are two purple Lobelias.
Below left is Tania, and below right is Russian Princess. The flowers of Tania are very similar to Russian Princess.
The main difference between the plants is that Tania has green foliage, and Russian Princess has purple foliage
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| Lobelia Russian Princess |
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| Lobelia Tania |
This shot shows, from left to right, Tania, Victoria, Cleopatra, Russian Princess and Mambo.
There are a few more photos of these lobelias, showing bees in them, a bit further down the page.
Rudbeckias
The colour in the cottage part of my garden during September comes mainly from various Rudbeckias.
This shot shows a couple of patches of golden Rudbeckia Goldstrum, some white Yarrow, and some tall mauve Verbena.
The mauve haze is the remains of Wallflowers (Erysium) which have been flowering all Summer, since April.
The strappy leaves are Hemerocallis, which is long past flowering.
This is Rudbeckia Goldsturm.
Goldsturm is bright and colourful even on dark and rainy days. It manages to survive Winter on my heavy clay soil without any protection. It's sturdy and needs no support. It has quite a long (late) flowering period too. Goldsturm is a very good plant.
This is my favourite Rudbeckia, Autumn Colours.
Autumn Colours is not as robust as Goldstrum and definitely needs Winter protection. But the flowers are larger and the colours are more interesting.
This is Rudbeckia Berlin, rather similar to Autumn Colours, but the blooms are not quite as large.
This is Rudbeckia Prairie Sun.
Bright and with large flowers, though a little plain.
This is Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy.
In England Cherry Brandy is sold as an annual, and I raised all these plants from seeds sown this March.
I don't know whether this plant might be perennial in milder climates.
The same packet of Cherry Brandy seeds actually produced quite a range of shades.
I don't know if this was a mistake by the seed merchant. I quite like some of the variations.
This one is a slightly darker shade, and has recurved petals.
And this is one has streaks of gold in it.
Photos of My Garden in Previous Months
My Garden in August
My Garden in July
My Garden in June
My Garden in May
