posted: Jun 3, 2008

In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day.  No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.
  - Aldo Leopold

Many of our flowers are bursting on the plot, and that means the pollinators are coming out!  The yellow flowers in the foreground of this picture are Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum) and the blue in the background is taper-leaf penstemon (Penstemon attenuatus) One of my favorite things is walking through the rows of penstemon and listening to the buzz of pollination happening.  These bees are amazing and there is quite a variety of them that visit the beautiful blue flowers.  I'm told that the largest yellow and black striped bumblebees could be queens gathering energy to create their nests.  Sphinx moths (also known as hummingbird moths) are also common visitors to this flower.  I'll look forward to more and more pollinators frequenting the plot as the days get warmer.
-Brenda





It took a while to capture a bee on the penstemon.  They sure move quick!