RSVP's

Wild plum trees are blooming on the pond bank for the first time in about 4 years, their delicate blossoms wafting their sweet fragrance on the air as an invitation to pollinators, but it's so cold and damp that the bugs aren't even returning their RSVP's.

Raspberry Pollinators

Raspberry Pollinators

A few years ago, Don built a small raised garden with railroad ties in our back yard, and it now contains a pretty good patch of raspberries.  Those sweet morsels happen to be my favorite food, so I like to keep a good eye on them.  Last week they were just starting to bloom, and Saturday I thought I'd take an inventory of the pollinators. There was one wheel bug, perched menacingly on a leaf, a few wasps, and only one bee.  I watched the bee for a few minutes, and it was behaving like no bee I had seen before.  It was flying very quickly from one blossom to another, just long enough to inventory them.  My friend Virginia, who knows such things, reminded me that this was a scout bee, collecting information for the rest of the hive.  Sure enough, the next day the patch was swarming with pollinating bees, for which I am very grateful.  Can raspberries be far behind?