How to make bees fat

[FatBeeFarm]

I'm obsessed with growing tomatoes but even before that I was passionate about growing flowers, especially for pollinators. When my wife and I moved to our little farmette seven years ago I looked around and told her, "I'm going to grow 10,000 flowers here". She didn't really take me literally. Hah. I thought I'd share some photo's of my ten thousand flowers - they're how I make fat bees fat! (they look fat when their legs are loaded with pollen). I apologize in advance, I'm a little OCD about flowers.

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[FatBeeFarm]

And some more

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[Seven Bends]

@FatBeeFarm, what a gorgeous, interesting, and well-tended garden! Really beautiful and pleasing. Are those standard impatiens in picture #7 of your second post? Do you not have impatiens downy mildew where you live? We haven't been able to grow them for more than a decade, and I'm still sad about it.

[FatBeeFarm]

Thank you! Those are bog standard impatiens I bought at Lowe's in May for about a dollar apiece I think. I didn't know that they got downy mildew, but so far, so good for me. I don't grow nearly as much bee balm as I would like because of downy mildew. Some of my honeysuckles get it every year too and I've had it on cucurbits before so I'm not in some special place, I just didn't know they got it. I grow most of my flowers from seed every year, but Lowe's had those impatiens so cheap I bought at least 24 of them.

[Mark_Thompson]

Holy smokes, good for you. That’s beautiful

[Seven Bends]

Thank you! Those are bog standard impatiens I bought at Lowe's in May for about a dollar apiece I think. I didn't know that they got downy mildew, but so far, so good for me. I don't grow nearly as much bee balm as I would like because of downy mildew. Some of my honeysuckles get it every year too and I've had it on cucurbits before so I'm not in some special place, I just didn't know they got it. I grow most of my flowers from seed every year, but Lowe's had those impatiens so cheap I bought at least 24 of them.

The impatiens downy mildew organism is specific to impatiens walleriana (standard impatiens) and doesn't infect anything else. It exploded across the country between 2011 and 2013 and has made it impossible to plant standard impatiens in much of the country anymore. I read somewhere that extended periods of temperatures below 5 degrees may kill the spores, so maybe that's why yours are doing okay up in NH. Or, if no one has planted impatiens in your garden and anywhere around you for a few years, there may not be any spores nearby. Hope I haven't jinxed them for you!

[FatBeeFarm]

Ah good to know. I'm Zone 5a, maybe lower, and we regularly see -40 Fahrenheit wind chills for days at a time up here during winter. I've lost so many special trees to that howling wind. Maybe the silver lining is that I can have impatiens.

[MissS]

I too love flowers. I have a large mixed bed of perennials and annuals just for the pollinators. My passion is the hummingbirds but I get tons of honey bees and other bees too. I am envious of your lupine. I just can not get mine to winter over and I really like them too.

I love your texture combinations. They are important too.

I'm sorry to say that you are not safe to grow impatience walleriana. I would only attempt it if you start your own plants from seed. Most greenhouses have been contaminated already and you would most likely just be bringing the disease home with you on your new plants. You best bet would be to stick to begonia's.

[bower]

Just a gorgeous place!! Really nice job with the flowers.

[FatBeeFarm]

@MissS

I too love flowers. I have a large mixed bed of perennials and annuals just for the pollinators. My passion is the hummingbirds but I get tons of honey bees and other bees too. I am envious of your lupine. I just can not get mine to winter over and I really like them too.

I love the hummingbirds too! And all the bees and butterflies, lol. I also did mixed beds of annuals and perennials. My lupines don't overwinter well either. Even if one comes back they don't look so great. What I've been doing to get them to work is starting them inside on January 30th, then transplanting them out in the last half of April. I do that with several flower varieties, including a variety of salvias.

[MissS]

Salvia's are easy for me. I just direct sow them. Even the big ones like Black and Blue will bloom for me this way.

Much to my neighbor's dismay because it ruins her view, the back of my garden is planted in milkweed. My garden is on a mound and I just allow it to run free on the back there.

[Gardadore]

@MissS do you plant seeds of the black and blue salvias? I just read they need to be planted from cuttings. They are an annual here so not sure if I should try seeds.

[MissS]

@MissS do you plant seeds of the black and blue salvias? I just read they need to be planted from cuttings. They are an annual here so not sure if I should try seeds.

Yes. I save seeds from my Black and Blue. They don't make a lot of seed, but if I feed them high potassium fertilizer, then I seem to get more seeds. Of course you need to have the hummingbirds around to pollinate them too. You surface sow salvia seed as they need light to germinate.

B&B is not necessarily an annual for you. You can get them to overwinter by growing them close to your foundation or by covering them with flakes of straw. They are late to emerge in spring but quickly catch up. I'm in zone 5 and I can get them to overwinter here.