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Author Topic: Videos of Good Nectar Plants  (Read 28705 times)

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #20 on: July 25, 2010, 10:22:17 pm »
Clethra alnifolia "ruby spice" Summer Sweet

Clethra alnifolia. Don't let this video of 3 bees on this shrub fool you, it's just the best I could do given the weather and the plant placement. I have two of these shrubs planted next to each other out front, they smell great even from a distance, but they're right under the eves. All that snow we had this past winter bent the branches downward so it doesn't look that great. Here is a http://www.google.com/images?q=clethra%20alnifolia&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=587google image search to help my case here.

Anyhow, this shrub gets to be about 8 feet tall and, when it's that big I've seen plants swarmed by bees.

VA De Md Deer Resistant Shrubs... Clethra Alnifolia Summersweet Sweet Pepperbush 215 651 8329
Here's some plant nurseries Ad for the plant and you can see bees love it. It's native to the eastern US, and best of all it's one of the very rare shrubs (sun or shade!) that blooms in mid summer. 

"Ruby Spice" is a cultivar featured here that has pink in the flowers. The true species has solid white flowers.

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #21 on: July 25, 2010, 10:27:15 pm »
Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium (part 3)

This isn't necessarily a "good" nectar plant. I've never seen a honey bee on the thing and I'd even say it's rare seeing bees pollinating it. Somehow or other this plant gears towards wasps, specifically wasps that are specialized predators. Scoliid Wasps that specialize in grass root eating grubs, and Hunting Wasps that specialize in hunting spiders are just a few that this plant attracts.

Offline Irwin

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #22 on: July 28, 2010, 12:22:58 pm »
Don't know what it but the bee's love it.


Movie_0001.wmv bee's
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Offline Shawn

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #23 on: July 28, 2010, 01:04:17 pm »
Irwin, that looks like Russian Sage.

Offline DavesBees

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #24 on: July 31, 2010, 01:26:31 am »
I have a video of my girls on Borage going nuts!!  But its a really long video of my whole garden and don't know how to shorten the video.  Any ideas?
I use windows movie maker and find it easy to use.
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Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #25 on: August 28, 2010, 04:44:47 pm »
Wow we are in such a drought right now. Is anyone seeing bees working anything?

One plant I believe that is flowering now that should be covered in bees is Sanguisorba canadensis. Canadian Burnet. But I don't know anyone with this plant.

New England Asters are just starting to open, and I'll hopefully have a video of them soon.

Offline Shawn

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #26 on: August 29, 2010, 01:43:22 pm »
I still have bees on my cat mint. The clematis is just starting to bloom and the bees are already trying to get to the nectar.

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #27 on: September 06, 2010, 07:54:47 pm »

Offline greenbtree

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #28 on: September 13, 2010, 01:40:27 am »
Great videos, keep them coming.  I have bought a couple of native wildflower ID books lately just so I can look up stuff I see blooming.  Then I go around in the late Fall and collect seeds.  I was doing that even before getting the bees as I was (and am) trying to reestablish prairie on areas of my property.

I started along my road, I must be successful because little "prairie plants, do not spray" signs popped up along with the flowers this Spring! :-D  (Our state has a roadside prairie planting program, so either someone was nice or the guy with signs thought the state did it.  In either case I love the signs!)

JC
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Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #29 on: October 07, 2010, 06:14:21 pm »

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #30 on: October 17, 2010, 01:04:21 pm »
Apparently when I posted the Liatris ligulistylis I offended the author by correcting their ID. I received a nasty letter saying "YOU ARE WRONG" and now the video has been taken down by the author. Oh well, thankfully over the past year plenty of people have planted Liatris ligulistylis and put up their videos. This plant seriously is a Monarch magnet. 

monarchs
Blooms mid to late summer.

Offline Apis_M_Rescue

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #31 on: October 17, 2010, 01:28:01 pm »
Have this video of neighbors cactus flowering that was attracting all sorts of honey bee action weeks ago. Not sure what kinda cactus, maybe someone in southern California or SW states might have as well? Also having Queen Palms blossoming & attracting the bees now. Still working on getting better video.

Early Morning Cacti Flower Bee Forage
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Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #32 on: October 17, 2010, 09:11:02 pm »
New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (part 2)
This is a New England Aster a little bit past it's prime but still getting lots of attention.

Tall Goldenrod, Solidago altissima
What I've identified as Tall Goldenrod, Solidago altissima, if finally blooming out in the yard. This years theme seems to be tall perennials falling over and this Goldenrod, (10' tall!) is no exception. This is probably the latest plant to start flowering (short of a heather of some sort) and it's getting lots of attention.

Bumblebee queen on Solidago altissima
I also noticed a few Bumblebees that are likely next year's queens.

Offline Acebird

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #33 on: December 21, 2010, 12:30:12 pm »
Quote
I have a video of my girls on Borage going nuts!!  But its a really long video of my whole garden and don't know how to shorten the video.  Any ideas?

You bet they do.  We believe Borage is what has made our honey so delectable.  Once you get it going it grows like a weed.

If you can send me a file I might be able to chop it up for you.  I have some video software.  Let me know if I can help?
Brian Cardinal
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Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #34 on: December 21, 2010, 05:24:31 pm »
Bees

Dalea purpurea (purple prairie clover). I've never seen this plant get that big before or grow that dense. I'm guessing this is multiple plants all growing together.

Offline DavesBees

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #35 on: March 15, 2011, 09:31:53 pm »
Coltsfoot - One of the earliest forage plants in Zone 6 Ohio.

Coltsfoot

Video was shot on 12 March 2011
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Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #36 on: April 25, 2011, 02:20:43 am »
Apple Tree Buzzing

Really any tree will work provided it's not wind pollinated. Even then some trees like Willows are still raided for pollen as it hangs freely for the taking. I'm unsure about nut trees though. I know Honeybees are great for Almonds but how do they fair with other nuts. I believe Acorn trees have both male and female flowers on the same tree but the more commonly eaten varieties seem to keep the genders separate. Regardless of the tree, having an orchard or forest certainly helps. 

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #37 on: May 03, 2011, 02:07:47 am »
I am just dropping by to thank MrILoveAnts for posting this special thread. I am extremely appreciative. Chasing after Diva honeybees has made me pretty exhausted after averaging $300 every year trying to buy so-called bee attractive-rated plants for my rose garden and failing miserably, lol! I am looking forward to more upcoming videos from everyone. Someday I need to take video of the honeybees that swarm my local nursery's English holly or any other decorative gardening plant that has the beehive potential without being an invasive plant in of itself. I am testing out a self-pollinating holly bush hybrid because a "true" holly would get too large for my garden. But that is a different issue that I'll bring up in a different thread (the concerns that overhybridization can lessen bee attraction). So far I've been quite unlucky in that at the time my newly bought holly started blooming we were attacked by rains and honeybees are very afraid of rain. It takes about 2 days of clear weather it seems before the honeybees start to arrive to a new bee magnet plant. I had just one clear day, and indeed a honeybee came, so hopefully she hasn't forgotten me and will bring the rest of her sisters.

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #38 on: July 30, 2011, 10:24:46 pm »
Wasps on Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum sp. About a month ago this plant consistently had about 4 honeybees at a time. It's a standard 3 gallon pot. As with most mint plants, I find honeybees lose interest after the first month that they flower. I'm not sure what draws their attention away.

Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata, normally this plant has multiple stems so it was odd to find this single stemmed form. Everything looks fatter than normal. There were other A. incarnata plants growing in this field that had more stems or were a mix of the two. Very different than what's sold in nurseries.   

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Videos of Good Nectar Plants
« Reply #39 on: July 30, 2011, 11:59:14 pm »
I was at a nursery today and stumbled upon a strange plant that caught my eye.  It was a cultivated milkweed; Asclepias Incarnata ‘Milkmaid’.  It was a tall scraggly plant with fairly non-descript white flowers.  Nothing to write home about.  The nursery had 2 of these plants for sale. 

What immediately caught my eye about this plant was not the looks, but the fact the thing was COVERED with monarch butterfly caterpillars!  I mean covered.  The one plant had just about all its leaves chewed up.  I bought the other plant along with about 6 monarch butterfly caterpillars that were feeding on it.  I’m just amazed the dudes and the nursery hadn’t noticed all the caterpillars before. 

Don’t know if it will attract any bees yet, but is sure attracts the monarchs!