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Author Topic: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)  (Read 12481 times)

Offline Judy in in

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #20 on: July 31, 2011, 09:31:44 pm »
SerenaSYH,

I love the roses! I like the fragrant ones, even if they don't attract honeybees. Unfortunately, they DO attract Japanese Beetles, so I try not to succumb to new roses.

Have you planted Lamb's Ears? They are invasive, but the bees love them too.

OH! Welcome to the forum.

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #21 on: August 09, 2011, 02:24:57 am »
Thank you specialkayme and Judy in in...

Actually it depends on the locale. Lamb's ear is one of the California favorites as accents for a rose garden because the drought keeps them contained.

I'm in Kansas and am enjoying a bit cooler weather of 85º as opposed to the 110º weather of last week. Lol! The coolest we got last week was 96 degrees, haha! Usually it's extremely hot and rainy in summer but not this time around. It's just plain H-O-T!

Judy in in, actually JBs only like certain kinds of roses. They love the pale-colored, very fragrant roses. Dark and strong colored roses they leave alone. And so far the bitter aromatic sprays and hot wax pepper spray seem to be working. So instead the JBs run off and eat the hollyhocks instead, haha!


Offline annette

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #22 on: August 12, 2011, 02:05:13 am »
Love the photos and have saved many of them. They make great desk top backgrounds as they are in the correct mode for this.

Thanks so much

Annette

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #23 on: August 17, 2011, 01:34:35 am »
Glad you like the photos Annette! I've also tremendously enjoyed your bee writings too!

As for photos, it's fun to share! I only freak out if people sell the photos as their own. Artists like myself do have to earn money so of course we get mad if people sell the photos as their own to others...lol! But other than that it is very fun to share, just like you and Michael Bush share some very special knowledge and expertise for "free". That is to me is of far greater importance and VALUE!!!!...I'm a bit flattered to know that you like the photos that much, Annette. Usually my roses I feel quite insecure about compared to my friends in England. They grow absolutely STUNNING ROSES! and have fancy lenses. I think truly if I were a beekeeper I definitely would invest in those very special lenses. Two rose gardeners I know have done so many gorgeous bee photos up close, but they are also professional photographers! In Europe, honeybees are very non-picky and so easy to catch on all kinds of flowers. Even though mine only do the Russian sage and the oregano, having the fuzzy loss of detail is quite frustrating to me. Honeybees and bumblebees can be breathtakingly beautiful! In Europe they also have this beautiful white striped bumblebee not to be confused with the cute but parasitic cuckoo bumblebee...

Maybe one of these days if I can get rehired back to my original career I can get those lenses, wouldn't that be great  :lol:

About roses, one of the best bloomers I've got is this very fragile and weak rose named Distant Drums, that I call Baby Napoleon because it's so tiny and because it smells like men's cologne too haha! plus it's quite the fighter! It keeps on blooming and blooming! in spite of its extremely short stature. I"ve already posted quite a few shots. But in my all-organics gardens every rose can fluctuate in its quality save for Distant Drums. It always looks nice!


Offline annette

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #24 on: August 17, 2011, 12:56:37 pm »
Yes, that is a beauty as well. I would never think of selling your beautiful photos to anyone Serena or using them without permission. I appreciate that you share them and I think they are professional quality just as they are.

I have never seen a honeybee on any roses out here so it is very interesting that they do visit roses in Europe. I have made this recent photo my desk top background. It is a beauty

Thanks Serena for your kind and gentle manner which is so rare in this day and age.

Sincerely
Annette

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #25 on: August 24, 2011, 08:50:33 pm »
Annette, you are a real Sweetheart, and uh, no, I"m not gentle or kind at all, lol! You are! with all of your very detailed special attention to forumers who have soooooo many questions, always having helpful things to say! You always have such interesting write-ups with the beloved honeybees! and ugh, I forgot to reply to the special honey celebration, you had written awhile back :rainbowflower:, but that same night I had some deadlines to finish and was going to come back to it, so now I have to refind the thread! Oh, never worry about the permission thing, Annette. ... Part of the joy is making people happy with the sharing :D

Me, I'm very tactless, blunt and a pain in the rear-end sometimes, always aggravating :ninja: my fellow-rosie gardeners, hehe! But bless them, they do put up with my shenanigans! The last writeup I had was telling them 10x over that their carpenter bees are not bumblebees. They kept showing over and over photos of their carpenter bees, loads of carpenters and not a single bumblebee, lol! And each time, bossy me, had to stick my nose in their beeswax and re-remind them that bumblebees can actually be a very rare and special sight in certain locales.

Hee-hee, now I'm back to carousing and stirring up nonsensical questions at our forum once again... :-P and being my usual "obnoxious" self, haha!




Offline annette

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #26 on: August 27, 2011, 12:38:48 am »
Thanks Serena for the kind words. I hope one day you can become a beekeeper along with the rest of us.

Annette

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #27 on: May 21, 2012, 10:10:06 pm »
This year of 2012 I was so looking forward to a new 2012 Year of More Honeybees. I was going to celebrate with more bee photos and some really fun wonderful photos of my dog, the roses going full-blast this early spring and with how wonderful Life Is! Instead, I am sad to report after 2 weeks of flowering from my Russian sage, it is not looking good. The feral hive that would immediately arrive after just one day of the first flower, none can be seen. My Lavender has already been in bloom for a month, no sign either. Honeybees are not that crazy about my Lavender but while waiting for the Russian sage they will visit it from time to time. This spring someone terrible was going door-to-door trying to sell this human-safe insecticide spread along the house and perimeters of the home that if any insect grooms itself or lands on this chemical, it will die on contact. It is also being promoted as being completely "safe" to apply near flower beds and vegetable gardens near the house. My guess is that this evil substance is a form of Carbaryl or Sevin. Nurseries are of course lining the shelves with this product and it also includes the brand new groundcover that goes on the lawn. I am so hoping I am dead wrong and that the beautiful girls have somehow survived and are just delayed....but it's still a shock not to see any sign of them...Even when the RS is so thick and so lush and still nothing! I will reconfirm after a month has passed. I don't know what to say at this point....
« Last Edit: May 21, 2012, 10:28:34 pm by SerenaSYH »

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #28 on: June 05, 2012, 11:38:23 pm »
Folks a bit of a crazed rollercoaster ride. Some up and downs. Honeybees were delayed almost a month after Russian Sage bloom time. The first honeybee came just 4 days before Memorial Day, but their visitations have been a bit erratic. Most seem super strong and healthy  :rainbowflower: but then I noticed some with very oddly pale, almost translucent bodies which is a bit alarming. So I will try to get some photos later! This group of honeybees are very shy so it's hard to take photos! On overcast days I do not see the honeybees.

Here is what I've got so far. Here are the typical Healthy ones:



Now that things are looking significantly better, I can relax and post some of my favorite Rose Garden photos and a little celebration photo of my border Collie Eluane and her 1st Place Finish in Excellent A at AKC.
May is a great month! Eluane's birthday, roses and finally! the honeybees!

Eluane's birthday visit to her favorite plant nursery where we bought oregano for the honeybees too!


Lincoln Hybrid Tea


Cornelia Hybrid Musk


Royal Sunset Climbing Rose


Anna de Diesbach Hybrid Perpetual



Clementina Carbonieri Tea Rose (not to be mixed up with Hybrid Tea Rose)

Distant Drums Shrub Rose

Viking Queen Climbing Rose


Troika Hybrid Tea

America Climbing Rose



Eluane and her puppy Competition Rosette




Final set of roses
Penny Lane Climbing Rose:


Folklore Hybrid Tea:




NOW IF ONLY I COULD GET AS MANY VARIETIES OF HONEYBEES IN MY GARDEN lol!

Offline annette

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #29 on: June 06, 2012, 11:17:28 pm »
Serena

Are these your roses?? They are so beautiful I had to copy a few of your photos to my desktop to use later on for wallpaper

Annette

Offline SerenaSYH

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #30 on: June 07, 2012, 01:52:36 am »
Awww, thank you so much Annette. Yes, these are all my roses. The sad thing is that I badly need a micro-lens especially to take photos of the honeybees! The honeybees do not have the clarity of the rose photos and that is very maddening, and quite disappointing. I think honeybees are every bit as beautiful but I can never do them justice :( They are always blurred out and completely lack the sharp detailing too. But neither can I afford the $1000 micro-lens (sigh)...

These are the best I could manage in terms of the honeybees. But tomorrow I'm going to try to re-shoot....I actually took around 45 photos for documentation but only about a handful are viewable. Once the documentation photos are taken I can revert back to custom camera settings for better visual effects....





Oh, I forgot to put in my favorites for you in the later half of 2011...




And one more for this year...


Offline annette

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Re: Hi from Serena (an organic rose gardener who loves honeybees)
« Reply #31 on: June 11, 2012, 02:49:33 am »
What a beautiful hobby. Although I love my bees and want the best for them, I am not a gardener. I have some bee plants planted around the house, but not a whole lot.

Thank you for sharing these photos. I hope you can have some bees of your own one day Serena.

Sincerely
Annette