I can’t take credit for planting them, but I love the dependable, gorgeous colours my chrysanthemums bring to the yard each fall – white, pink, yellow, orange. Still covered in bees, these are not delicate flowers. The frosty temperatures we had last week didn’t harm their little faces at all! I haven’t done it yet this year, but I love to snip a short stem full of blooms and place them in water, low to the vase. It’s like a ready-made, elegant bouquet! Just make sure they aren’t covered in little bugs. I made that mistake last year!
I was reading advice in our forums the other day and one of the posts piqued my interest. A reader was having trouble with her tomato flowers dying before they turned into little tomatoes. “Beeman” came to the rescue and recommended vibrating the flower stem or spritzing the open flowers with a small hand sprayer filled with warm water to encourage pollination. Ten days later, “Crazy4Columbine” reported that the spraying worked! I thought I’d pass along this helpful tip and I might see if it works on my zucchini plant. Some of the flowers have been dying before I get a mini zucchini!
Yesterday during my mid-week holiday (Happy Birthday Canada!), I was able to get out in the garden for several hours. Amid the weeding and trimming and edging I noticed that a few of my tall, yellow wildflowers that seem to have bloomed overnight were a little bent over. As I tried to lift them, not one, but several little bees flew out. This made my day. And as I looked around, I saw bees on my other blooms, as well. I’ve been reading a lot lately about the importance of bees in the garden and about their alarming decline in Canada. Knowing that I’m attracting these vital pollinators to my garden makes me want to plant more bee-friendly blooms.
Here are a couple of articles on CanadianGardening.com about how you can make your home a healthy habitat for bees:
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