Some photos of the flowers I’ve seen out and about in Cornwall and in my garden over the last couple of weeks. I like to see what’s in flower and available for the bees.
Below is my miniature apple tree. I mainly see hoverflies and bumbles visiting this. Honey bees tend to favor large collections of one type of flower, so this wee tree is probably not worth it for them.
One of the first bees of the year I saw in my garden was the enchantingly named female Hairy-footed flower bee. I always see them on the deep blue flowers of lithodora, which they will visit all day until the early evening. I say ‘see’ them but I usually hear them first, as they’re noisy little bees and very fast, efficient movers – which is why my photo is blurry!
Female hairy footed flower bee
Below is the male hairy footed flower bee, which I first start seeing a couple of weeks after the females. They visit the lithodora flowers too.
Male hairy footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes)
Bluebells, daffodils and primroses grow in profusion in Cornwall. I can’t recall seeing as many primroses anywhere else I’ve lived in the UK. Most of the primroses are yellow, but there are some pink blooms too.
Bluebells and daffodils
Primroses
I went for a walk along the coast by St Mawes, where a variety of white flowers decorated the verges.
The ones below are not wild garlic, although they smelt very garlicky! Wild garlic flowers have a more star-like, upright shape.
Three cornered leek
Think these flowers below are three-cornered leek, which can be identified by the green stripes inside their flower. An edible plant which can be used like spring onions.
Three cornered leek
Below are stitchwort flowers, these grow along hedgerows and in woodland
Stitchwort
Sadly my bees, having survived the winter, somehow became queenless around March. I’m now bee-less for the first time in years. I will probably put out a bait hive soon as the bee year is beginning again. I still answer emails for my local association and the queries about swarms and bees in chimneys are just starting!
