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.
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
Your garden is beautiful, looks so inviting. I am going to show my little boy those bee close-ups when he gets back from school today. Great pictures, thanks much, Gina
ReplyDeleteThe garden must be a real heaven to the bees, with wide range of flowers to rest and lick! ~bangchik
ReplyDeleteGina,
ReplyDeleteI had some reasonably decent bee photos before, that I was quite satisified with. I was sceptical whether a special lens would really make that much difference. Your little boy won't be able to do that with your point-and-shoot camera.
Very Beautiful...thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteShowed him the pictures, ( not to try to take some like them, just to see the bees up close ). He enjoyed them very much, he said , " There are bees in England ? " That seemed to impress him when I told him , " Of course." thanks !
ReplyDeleteYou've taken some great bee photos. I'm surprised to see tropicals like cannas and bananas in England...not what one would expect to find growing there. Can you take the alocasia bulb out of the ground and overwinter it indoors?
ReplyDeleteI just snapped a photo of the Purple Empress sedum in my garden...it's a plant that I brought back from up north when we visited my husband's relatives this past summer. My sister-in-law couldn't remember the name of it, and now you've just identified it for me. I figured out that it was a sedum...but did not know which one. Thanks! Your summer garden looks great.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI did bring the Colocasia inside last Winter, but that's not enough.
There's a difference between Alocasia and Colocasia. They are both elephants ears. The Alocasia ears point upwards, and Colocasia downwards. Alocasia like shade and well-drained conditions. It might work for them. But Colcasia seem to need sun and water, including during the Winter period.
Providing the sunshine during the Winter is especially challenging. Some people achieve this using flourescent lighting. I'm not going that far.
Well, I post all the editorials that I like, and the vogue paris calendar and pirelli are no exception.
ReplyDelete... because you like them. That's a very good reason.
ReplyDeleteIt's the reason why I have such a mixture of blogs in my Following List. There are no fixed rules. But they all have something interesting in them, now and again.
Thanks for the great picture of "keyhole surgery", and explanation. One of those fascinating bits of life in the garden that most of us never have the pleasure of noticing.
ReplyDeleteI have some snaps of bees doing the same thing with the red lobelia too, but the snaps look very similar.
ReplyDeleteThose lobelias have only been in the country since the 17th Century, so the bees seem to have made this discovery, and taught themselves how to do this, since then.
Thanks for a lovely tour through your garden! It looks fabulous, and there are still so many flowers in bloom. Surprised to see you grow bananas, but they fit in very well. I also love the Aphrodite statue, would really like to have one in my garden too.
ReplyDeleteLove the bee photos :) I know it is not easy to get good shots of bees, but yours are amazing!
Hope you have a nice new week.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe bananas and cannas won't grow outside, during the Winter.
They all have to be brought indoors, from October until next April/May. That's not too hard when the bananas are little, but each year they get bigger, and more difficult to handle.
Your garden is a haven for honey bees and bumble bees! This is so cute! I bet it is really satisfying when bees and butterflies visit your garden often because it just shows that your garden is really healthy and full of "treasures"(nectar) for the bees! LOL. Thanks for sharing these photos. Good to see bees up close!
ReplyDeleteThe flowers need the bees and the butterflies (for pollination) just as much as the bees and the butterflies need the flowers (for nectar). Neither group could exist without the other. We absolutely have to have all of them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that the flowers need the bees for pollinating. I also have bananas in my garden but I didn’t know what kind are they. They are tall and the fruits are long too for a banana fruits to be. Lol. I love your autumn colours and the Russian princess. All of your flowers are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't see any posts from Ann, and I thought I had thanked you for supporting my Garden Spot. Our next garden project will be to landscape the court yard to the front entrance to our home. I am quite inspired by your article on Feng Shui. I have had in my mind to do an Asian or Japanese inspired garden, now I have my inspiration and terrific ideas. Off to the library this winter. Cheers.
ReplyDelete