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Saturday 12 June 2010 Lovely sunny day. Lots of bees on the small leafed white hebe and hardy blue geraniums so time to get out the refractometer. A quick glance at the instructions suggests I calibrate with distilled water so a drop from the kettle will have to do. Place it on the slide - reading 0%. Perfect. This isn't going to be an exact science; I think I'll be happy with readings of +/- 5%. I think we just need to know if the sugar content is high, medium or low. I have been given 100 capillary sampling tubes so I mustn't waste them - a quick look on the web suggests they cost about 16p each. So my first attempt is on the hebe, which is just coming into flower. Poke, prod into open flowers and closed buds (I've seen the bees penetrate buds on the cotoneaster this way) but zero, zilch, nada - nothing in the capillary tube, although I wonder if I've managed to gum up the end with pollen.  Pause for thought; Jeff took his plants into the greenhouse so that the bees were kept away from the flowers for a while, presumably so the plant could replenish its nectar supply. Another look on the web suggested bagging with mosquito netting - not a lot of call for that in Harrogate - but I do have a rather nice organza drawstring bag in a drawer. That'll have to do. After an hour, I have another go. Still nothing in the capillary tube. What am I doing wrong? I need to check my sampling technique. I have a couple of the salvia plants we tested on Thursday and I know they gave a reading of 22%. They've been sitting outside but I decide to give it a try. Nothing. So what can I deduce from this?  1. I know this plant contains nectar so that isn't the problem So the first thing I need to establish is whether I can manage to extract nectar from the salvia and replicate Jeff's result. So the organza bag goes over one of the salvia plants and I'll try again tomorrow. Sunday 13 June 12.30pm: weather is cooler and cloudy today and bees are much less active this morning. The salvia flowers have been isolated inside the organza bag for 24 hrs, so time to test again. Result! No problem getting nectar out today and the reading was 28%. I'm more confident with the technique now, but does that mean I will need to bag any outdoor plants I want to test? That's not too bad in a garden but not so sure about trying it on West Park Stray! And I'm not convinced I'll be able to extract enough from tiny flowers such as those on the hebe. I need a clear testing strategy though. So, should I... 1. look at the Park's department current selection of bedding to see which are the most nectar-rich varieties? I'm not convinced I actually need sophisticated measuring equipment (or want to waste any of my capillary tubes) to do any of those. I think perhaps you simply need to watch which plants the bees etc. head for on a warm and sunny day. One aspect where measuring could be useful follows on from the observation that by lunchtime yesterday, I couldn't find any nectar in the flowers even though the bees were still trying to collect it. It must be like heading off to the shops after seeing the adverts and finding the product you're after has sold out. So the next step is to isolate part of the blue hardy geranium in the organza bag for 24hrs. I'll test those flowers first, and then those which have been accessible to the bees. It'll be interesting to see if I can establish a difference, because that would indicate that visible activity is not necessarily a sign that there's sufficient nectar in the plant for the bee population, ie. just having a nectar-rich plant in the garden may not be enough - perhaps we need to plant many more of them to ensure we satisfy the local population's nectar requirements. On the other hand, even if they are just rummaging around the empty shelves, so to speak, they will still be collecting and transferring pollen, so perhaps it's less of a problem than it might at first appear. Who knows, maybe the plants have evolved a 'Play it mean, keep 'em keen approach'! In fact, the more I think about that option, the more sense it makes. Looking at the bees currently crawling all over the hebe, they are having to visit many more flowers in search of nectar, which ensures that there is far more chance of pollination taking place than if their nectar requirements were satisfied more easily. Never mind clever bees...clever plants! I'm sure this is a case of stating the b****in' obvious to the experts, but as a newbie to all of this, I'm finding it fascinating. Monday 14 June 12.15pm: The hardy geranium flowers have been covered for just about 24hrs so time to test. It was difficult to collect a big enough sample but eventually I got a reading of 8% from the bagged flowers; no nectar found in the unbagged ones. I was quite surprised by this; the geranium is clearly the most popular feeding station in my garden at the moment but the nectar reading is coming in at only about 1/3 that of the salvia and 1/4 of the single- flowered dahlia that Jeff tested last week, so we could clearly make life much easier for pollinating insects by planting varieties with a much higher sugar content as Sarah suggests. I'm going to retest the geranium but will keep the flowers covered for a longer period this time. I could really do with finding another organza bag....! Thursday 17 June  Gosh, this is so frustrating. Lovely sunny conditions and the geranium flowers have been bagged for 72hrs...and I can't seem to collect a big enough sample to get a reading. Jeff made it look so easy! So I've given up with the geranium and have moved, like the bees, onto the hebe. The bag is in place (2pm) let's see if I manage to sample anything tomorrow. I'm not optimistic given the size of the flowers. Sunday 20 June 12.30pm: lovely hot sunshine today so let's see what's there. Tiny flowers, but lots of them, so soon I have enough to put in the refractometer I've been using. Can't see any reading...but it's not the 'empty' dark blue either. I have been given two refractometers; one reads % sugar below 50% and the other reads above. Could it possibly be that the reading is too high for the refractometer 1? I manage to get another small sample and try again on refractometer 2. And lo and behold, I have a reading of 73%. I'm astonished. So much so that I'm going to have to repeat it in another couple of days to make sure I'm in the right ball park. But there are clearly too many variables to make this anything other than a very superficial exercise: So although it's interesting, I'm not sure it's really proving anything I can't deduce by observation. The only way I can see to test this meaningfully would be to keep the plants under strictly controlled conditions in a greenhouse. What is interesting is that the patches of red valerian which are now in flower in my borders are, by and large, being ignored by the bees - but if I Google valerian, I read that it's "very popular with bees, butterflies and moths ". Well, not in my garden, it ain't. Not with geraniums and hebes on the menu. And campanula. And heucheras. Tuesday 22 June 12.15pm: really hot and sunny today. But where are the bees? They seem to have deserted the hebe...and the rest of the garden. Taking the bag off and testing gives me a reading of 75%, so Sunday's result wasn't a fluke. But the hebe flowers are clearly past their best - maybe that's where you get the term "short but sweet". My next hunch is that the bees are going to go for the tree-sized cotoneaster that's just coming into flower as they went mad for the cotoneaster horizontalis earlier in the year so time to get the bag on a branch. But where have they gone today? Was it too hot or did they all find something more tempting next door? I'm amazed at just how many types of flowers they ignore...even the 'wild' ones at the edge of the garden. 5pm: Cooler now and the cotoneaster flowers have opened this afternoon...and yes, the bees are back! This one was bumble bee-sized but very shiny rather than hairy like the others I've seen. Any ideas?  Wednesday 23 June 12.45pm: another hot and sunny day. Testing the cotoneaster cornubia flowers gives a reading of 50% sugar. Although the flowers are tiny, the nectar was easy to collect - I could see it glistening at the base of the petals and the flowers smell of honey. My neighbour says the same of her buddleia globosa. Next for the bag treatment is the red valerian as I'm intrigued as to why that is being ignored. Thursday 24 June One of my Harrogate in Bloom colleagues, Tony, has been reading this blog and making his own observations in the newly replanted New Zealand garden in Valley Gardens in town. "I have just been up on a routine visit to the New Zealand Garden where several species of hebe are now in flower. There is a lot of insect activity. At an initial glance it seems to me that different insects have preferences for different species.... On the hebes there are hover flies, bees and bumblebees. I can see that lack of nectar made the insects move on as you suggest.... The cultivated hebe 'Lavender Spray' appears to be most popular. On the olearias I have only seen one weevil so far. It would be interesting to study the plant preferences of insects. Why New Zealand, a country with no native bees, has produced a native plant so popular with bees is thought provoking." Thanks for that, Tony. Other comments welcome: info@harrogateinbloom.org.uk Friday 25 June I had a look at the red valerian at lunchtime today as it had been bagged for 48hrs. But no joy at all getting the capillary tube into the flower. Once you take the floret apart, you see that there is a long very thin tube (about 1cm long) at the back and I guess if there's any nectar present, it's hidden in there. The cotoneaster cornubis continues to be dish of the day in my garden, with a bigger variety of bees and other insects on it than before. Looking closely, the flowers look very similar to a pyracantha which is also in bloom but not attracting any insects, so I've bagged that and will look at it tomorrow. However news of the day is that I seem to be able to detect high nectar flowers (ie over 50% sugar) by that distinctive honey smell I noticed on the cotoneaster. I spotted a white campanula and a white musk mallow (Malva moschata) which had just come into flower today and sure enough, both had the same strong smell. The nectar was very easy to extract as they are both much bigger flowers and as anticipated, the readings were high: 53% for the campanula and 71% for the musk mallow. Great result - I didn't have to bag these. Just needed to notice them before the bees! Saturday 26 June Pyracantha reading = 46%   Wednesday 30 June I met up with Jeff and his PhD student when I went to the National Plant Fair at Stoneleigh Park yesterday and the mystery of my shiny black bees (above) was uncovered. They are Pellucid hoverflies - volucella pelluscens - thank you, Hilary! Easy once you know what you're looking for, but seemingly impossible when you don't. Because of the dry weather, we're resisting the temptation to mow the lawn so I thought I'd show you a selection of what my garden currently has on offer in terms of 'wild flowers', other than the usual daisies and buttercups:      That orange one is Pilosella aurantiaca, and I was surprised to see that Andy Sturgeon had used it in his Best in Show garden at Chelsea this year, as I have to say I consider it to be a weed in mine. However it's enjoying a respite for the time being in the name of research.
It's hot and sunny again today so why isn't my lawn swarming with nectar-seeking insects, especially with all that clover? The cotoneaster is clearly still proving far more attractive..but so is the purple hebe just coming into flower and also my rather beautiful deutzia (see right). Yes, that's next to be bagged. Actually, I find this quite reassuring as there are clearly choices to be made in selecting nectar-rich plants that mean you don't have to settle for weeds. Friday 2 July I've tested the deutzia and extracted some nectar really easily - probably because I had bagged a group of flowers when still at the bud stage. No strong smell but plenty of nectar readily available at a concentration of 33%. I also had a phone call from the production team - they want to come and film the organza bag on Tuesday. Looked up the weather forecast - light showers. Great...another bad hair day. Does that also mean I have to frantically weed the garden this weekend? Hell no, I've the perfect excuse - I'm keeping patches of wild flowers to see if I can tempt the pollinators away from the more cultivated plants! My husband must be the only man in England who isn't getting nagged to mow the lawn this weekend. Tuesday 6 July Thursday 15 July Lots of rain at last so hopefully that will perk things up in the borders. A truck-load of whilte-tailed bumblebees, Bombus lucorum, descended on the hebes yesterday and are still there this morning, but it's the white yarrow that's self-seeded amongst the perennials (and I must say looks quite charming) that's caught my eye today. I assume the rather attractive chap/girl (left) is a hoverfly, and s/he's clearly sharing the goodies with an ant. I'm still gob-smacked that I can get such good photos with my little digital camera. Interestingly enough, I walked along part of the Ringway footpath here in Harrogate a couple of days ago and was surprised to see how little there was in flower considering it's the middle of July. A few bramble flowers, nettles and bracken taller than me but otherwise an oasis of green. Very pretty but slightly worrying that what is clearly a good wildlife corrider on the edge of a town has so few wild flowers. I might be tempted to sprinkle a few (thousand) foxglove seeds around.
Wednesday 4 August Just tested the cosmos: 2%. The lowest result so far. That's a surprise. Sunday 8 August I wasn't convinced that cosmos result was right so I blagged a pot off a friend and tried again today - but this time I couldn't even get a big enough sample to get a reading on the refractometer. The antirrhinum in the same pot, however, scored a very respectable 23%, so I know which I'd choose! Wednesday 11 August Hello to everyone who's reading this - I now know who some of you are! What a nice surprise that was. The Britain in Bloom judges were in town yesterday as well as the BBC TV crew so it was a pretty full-on day. And of course this was the opportunity to assess the biodiversity beds that were planted on West Park Stray. Let me remind you of what I wrote on 1 April: " They (the BBC) were particularly keen to follow an in Bloom group to show that simply by making minor changes in the planting plans, eg replacing double begonias (nectar poor) with single dahlias (nectar rich), our famous floral beds would lose nothing in terms of longevity of flowering period or impact. " H'mm. There's difference of opinion but as this page is called Mary's blog, I feel at liberty to tell you mine. Did the revised planting attract more pollinating insects? Yes....eventually. Particularly the angelica in the centre and the dahlias. Was the longevity of flowering comparable to our more traditional bedding? No. Most of the plants weren't in flower until the end of July. And if there aren't any flowers, there isn't any nectar/pollen available. 
Was the impact comparable to our traditional bedding? No. Again, with no flowers, it's been a boring bed of leaves and stems for weeks. (see photo above) NB: the marigolds round the edge weren't part of the biodiversity planting scheme! Back to the biodiversity beds: the rudbeckias had just about come into flower by judging day, but they're too tall so tower over the dahlias and hide the lobelia and monarda, so overall, even when in flower, the beds don't look great. I KNOW we could have chosen different varieties, and I KNOW we could have sown them sooner...but we didn't. And you evaluate an experiment on the results, not on what the results would have been if only you'd done x,y,z ...etc etc. This may all seem a bit harsh but I would like to make one thing very clear. I'm really really pleased we took part in this project. OK, the results weren't what we hoped for on this occasion, but it was an experiment and you can learn as much from failures as successes sometimes. It has undoubtedly influenced the way we will look at Harrogate in Bloom initiatives in the future and I can honestly say we are 100% behind Sarah's mission to improve the lot of our pollinating insects. So much so, that we are already talking about biodiversity projects for 2011 and beyond. Watch this space! *** Back to the saga of my cosmos. It's been bagged since Sunday, so I tried to get a nectar sample today. Still nothing. So I've gone for it's jugular. It's now sweating in my brand new conservatory in full sun, well away from insects. That'll teach it not to co-operate. Sunday 15 August I think I may have completely traumatised the cosmos (oops!) so I've dead-headed it and will try again when the new buds open. It's been a busy week for us with the Britain in Bloom judging on Tuesday and our New Zealand garden rededication on Thursday, so today's been the first chance i've had to have a leisurely wander round outside. So what's to report? I have several varieties of crocosmia in flower, ranging from the tall red 'Lucifer' to a little bronze-leafed buttery-yellow one and these are awash with hoverflies. As is the solidago and the marjoram. The white yarrow flowers are past their best but are hosting a party for lots of seven-spot ladybirds and the few bumble bees seem to be concentrating on the rudbeckia and some scabious they've found in a pot by my door. Lots of butterflies too, but I can't seem to get close enough to them to work out what they are. All in all, it's looking pretty busy out there today. Wednesday 18 August I've started to lose interest in the scabious. Despite bagging at the closed bud stage, I'm still not able to extract enough nectar to confirm a sugar reading; I THINK it's around the 40% mark, but quite honestly there seems to be so little nectar present, if I were a bee I'd be looking for easier pickings elsewhere. We've been away for a couple of days tidying my mother-in-law's garden. If the BBC team wanted to film biodiversity in an urban garden, they should have gone there as it gets very little attention between our visits (if you're her 'gardener' and you're reading this, you should hang your head in shame). But it's a real eye-opener into what Nature would do in a garden if left to its own devices; you have to pity the poor prince who tackled Sleeping Beauty's castle - I hope he had a stout pair of gloves and long sleeves. Anyway, I digress. The garden was becoming overwhelmed with brambles and bindweed, the latter snaking across the patio and shrouding shrubs in a rather sinister web. The bits in between were chock-full full of aquilegia seedlings and a little hairy leafed plant with yellow flowers that I can't identify, and there was a magnificent display of rosebay willowherb in the far corner just going to seed. So, dear reader, I must confess, I reached for the glyphosate spray. It is a salutary lesson in garden maintenance. It's all very well encouraging us to be a little less tidy and a lot more relaxed about 'wild flowers' but Nature is brutal and unless you are prepared to spend your time containing the weeds, they will very soon colonise any available space. So I'm even more convinced that ever that the best way to reconcile the needs of gardeners and garden wildlife is by finding a compromise. Let's get gardeners planting nectar and pollen rich plants in their gardens - but only ones which are ornamental and well-behaved. Message for Doug: we need that logo!!!! Message to everyone else: I'll explain what that means later! Clockwise from top left. Mary testing monarda in Valley Gardens, begonias on West Park, Valley Gardens, West Park
    Tuesday 3 August I've come to an agreement with the gardeners in Valley Gardens that they will ignore the organza bag if they see it in a flower bed. They did warn me that I should still try and hide it as much as I can though, as it is likely to prove an irresistible attraction to any passing two and three-year olds. So we now have some readings on the bedding: I can't get any nectar out of the Rudbeckia Prairie Sun - bagged or unbagged - maybe the flowers aren't mature enough yet as they're only just beginning to open. I've also bagged a pink Cosmos I spotted in Valley Gardens. Sarah was keen to use this but it didn't fit in with the colour scheme at West Park, so it'll be interesting to see it gets into the 20+ range. I'd added pictures showing some of the Harrogate beds in full glory - I think it's important that we remind ourselves what this project is all about. Can we recreate the visual impact of traditional bedding using nectar-rich plants? For blocks of colour, pelargoniums, double begonias and marigolds are going to take some beating! as a complete beginner to all this botany malarky, it's difficult to know where to find the nectar. I tried prodding about in the little apertures at the base of the flower, but nothing. Then amazingly, a tiny white-tailed bumble clearly decided she was having some of this bagged flower too and as I was poking about unsuccessfully with my glass capillary tube on one side, she was happily feeding from the other side of the same flower. Amazing confidence ... and absolutely entrancing. However, she did show me where I should place the sampling tube. I presume the brown bits at the top are the anthers and below that the pollen-covered stamen are poking out from little disk florets - you can see there are about three rows of them on the photo above. Plenty of nectar in them with a very respectable reading of 55%. If the variety in the West Park beds has a similarly high content then our town centre pollinators are in for a treat! Sunday 1 August I paid a visit to the council nurseries on Friday and picked up one of the Bishop of Llandaff dahlias that are planted in the biodiversity beds in town. They've just started flowering but I'm not sure I can bag one there. Two days later I have a reading - 13%. Not very inspiring, but I suppose better than nothing. They didn't have any spare Rudbeckia Prairie Sun, which are also in those beds, so I decided to examine the rather taller rudbeckia I have in my garden. This is the first one I've managed to grow - perhaps as it's 5' high, it's too much of a challenge for the slugs. You can see a closeup of the flower head - it's rather interesting. As I've said before,   A main new area of interest is my patch of Crocosmia 'Lucifer' which is now in flower. For the last few days it looks as though it was being patrolled by what I'm pretty sure were wasps, but I'm pleased to see that there are honey bees on it today. What were the wasps doing? Looking for other insects to eat or nicking the nectar themselves?
Friday 23 July Not a lot in flower at the moment: the hebes are beginning to fade, as are the foxgloves, and the lawn has now been cut after all the rain. However I had a quick stroll round at teatime today and caught this wonderful hoverfly apparently feeding on pollen on a day lily. I'm getting quite fascinated by hoverflies - I couldn't have told you what one looked like until a month ago. You can get really close especially when you know they can't sting you. Isn't it a beauty? Tuesday 27 July There's been a lot of activity around the marjoram (no idea if it's the wild, sweet or pot species - I was given it years ago by a friend) these last few days, primarily, hoverflies and bumbles. Test result today - a very respectable 24% and oodles of liquid from these tiny flowers. Probably the easiest to sample so far.  It's also interesting to see how similar the yarrow florets are to those on the cotoneaster and pyracantha (see 25 June), albeit much smaller
 I'm trying to embrace the idea of allowing the weeds a greater presence in the garden, but it's really not going to work. We're fortunate in that we have quite a large garden with a woodland area at the bottom so we're happy for it to look a little ragged round the edges. But it's impractical to let the weeds take over the flower beds; even more so in a smaller space. It would seem to be a much better option to plant ornamental nectar-rich flowers. The lawn hasn't been mown for a week now so it's covered in white clover, prunella, buttercups and the odd daisy. At first I thought nothing was visiting these flowers but in fact there are quite a few of the smaller bees gently grazing (or should that be imbibing?). The bigger bumbles are still on the hebes but not in any great numbers and I've spotted a few different butterflies around this weekend - small tortoiseshell, what my book suggests is a ringlet (or it might be the meadow brown that Andy caught on Tuesday) and a really pretty white/pale yellow pair that I can't identify 'cos they won't stay still for long enough for me to take a photo. One thing I am aware of as I'm tidying the borders is that I'm also probably destroying some poor creature's natural habitat. But where do you draw the line? A garden has to be a managed space otherwise it just becomes a piece of land; mine would be overwhelmed with brambles and ash trees within a couple of years. I really seem to having my own version of Springwatch going on in the garden. A rather large hole has been excavated overnight leaving a few rather despondent looking bees crawling aimlessly about, digging around in the dirt like earthquake survivors. My Guide to bees of Britain suggests that's a red-tailed bumble bee, Bombus lapidarius, but I'm quite willing to be corrected on that. Do they live in holes in the ground and would it be something like a badger or fox digging them out in search of the honey? Or is Pooh Bear alive and well and living in Harrogate?   Wednesday 7 July Highest sugar reading so far on a self-seeded purple hebe - 76%; practically off the scale! Sunday 11 July Fortunately there was no rain and yes, I confess, I did try and smarten the place up a bit. I am my mother's daughter after all. But Andy, the director, ignored the tidy areas and went straight to all the weedy bits. However, his enthusiasm for the white clover and the purple flowering stuff (Prunella vulgaris, apparently) currently covering my lawn was contagious and I stoutly -and genuinely - defended my more liberal attitude towards weeds, sorry, wild flowers, this year.
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