Bee Early

Every morning at this time of year the deep red petals of Papaver orientalis  ‘Beauty of Livermere’ unfurl  slowly to reveal a mass of purple black pollen coated stamens.  I say slowly but they have a slight look of sleepy unpreparedness  and I am not the only one drawn to them as they, and I,  are still shaking out the creases.  Sure, there are usually a few early morning visitors but we are always outnumbered by those whom the poppies are really trying to attract: the bees.

The Birds and Bees Walk was designed to include many plants attractive to pollinators and other forms of wildlife. The poppies however were planted for the bees alone.
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I have a confession to make.

To protect the innocent, I must omit the name of the involved party, in this case, a plant. A beautiful temptress of a plant. I was compelled to pull it close to my face to take a deep sniff of a gorgeous bloom. Alas, like so many beauties, there was no scent. But getting that close allowed me to see a glistening drop of nectar at the flower’s center, I just knew it was nectar – not as well as a butterfly, a bee, or a bird knows instinctively, but the temptation of the droplet was suddenly meant for me and my inner pollinator.

I turned to my companion and said “I really want to lick that flower, and
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Flowers Don’t Wave to Gardeners

Flowers don’t wave to gardeners. They grow, they bloom, they wave gently in the breeze, but they don’t wave to gardeners, even if gardeners wave first. They reserve their flirtatious side for pollinators. They only wave to catch the roving eye of insects.


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