Flight of the Bumblebee, er, uh, Plight of the Bumblebee! Maybe not. This should be named Plight of the Gardener. Oh heck! FLIGHT OF THE GARDENER. That more truthfully tells the story.
I have huge flower beds. I’m a crazy, avid gardener. I love to watch all things green and that have flowers. Enjoyment comes by the bucketloads when I see what was a seed last season, grew, matured to the flower stage, and then, finally, advanced to the seed stage so the process can start all over again. I collect seeds each year so I can always start plants in new areas.
Well, this past fall I scattered Cone Flower seeds all around my beds. Hundreds came up and my, what a display they did put on! The butterflies and bees loved them. I could walk right into the thick of them and have butterflies light on me. There were 3 or 4 different varieties of bees that visited daily.
Since I use no pesticides I always see critters climbing all over the plants: gekcos, blue tailed lizards, 3 striped skinks, toads, frogs, butterflies of various kinds, bees, beetles, ladybugs, and an occasional snake. All have been in happy existence with one another (Oh, right, survival of the fittest and all that!) but basically all have been in happy existence with ME until last week.
The cone flowers had had their glory and were, for the most part, in their final stage of life as far as the flowers go. I had purposely let them go to seed. They now had black seedheads that were not very attractive, plus, if these seed heads are cut back, new flowers will come on for a fall display. Out I go with my trusty clippers and red garden hat. It was Texas -August- hot so I had on shorts and a tank top. Armed and ready I stepped into the plants toward the back of the border and commenced clipping.
All of a sudden I realized that my hat was being hit by something. Glancing up to see what it could be, I encountered a smaller version of a bumblebee. Apparently he doesn’t like red! About that time I had another one hitting my green tank top. He doesn’t like green! (Yeah, I’m very colorful when I go out to garden). These suckers have worked out a battle plan that calls for attack from opposing flanks! And I am the enemy!
As I look around me I realize that many of the coneflowers are already starting to open new flowers down below the dried seed heads. Although much smaller than the first flush of blooms these new ones are loaded with pollen. They are covered in various insects doing their thing. I have obviously disturbed the balance of nature and at least two bumblebees take it upon themselves to rid their world of this giant intrusion.
My first line of attack was to just stand there without moving, telling myself to keep the adrenaline levels low……..no pheremones or whatever those things are called that produce scent….just stay cool, Texie. Uh! Apparently that wasn’t working. Then one guy hit my face! That did it! I took off my nice red garden hat and swatted the heck out of him. I saw him land in the lawn about 4 feet away. While I stand there watching, he gets back up, flutters his wings a bit, leaps up and comes right back at me. I swat at him with the bunch of seed heads still on the stems. I do notice a shower of seeds scattering into the grass. He manages to pass right between them and comes straight at my face. I throw the bunch of stems out onto the lawn, yank off my hat again and am swinging like a crazy person trying to protect all parts of my body.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I hear my daddy say,”When you’re working with bees, stay calm. They can tell if you’re afraid of them. Just procede to work and ignore them.” This bee never got to hear my daddy, obviously, so it was going to be his way or the highway! I took the highway! Leaping over three foot tall coneflowers I hotfooted it into the screened-in-porch. My plan was to let him go home or calm down then I would return and finish my job.
I waited about 20 minutes and went back out. As I gathered another armful of seed heads he came back. He definitely knew what he was doing this time. He popped me on a finger and was making a bee line for my face. I surrendered totally as I threw another bunch of coneflower seed heads onto the lawn in the other direction and headed back into the house.
It was at this point that I see the action in my mind! Throwing seed heads of anything into your lawn is not a good plan. I visualize those thousands of individual little seeds as they fly through the air and land in the grass.
One good thing has come out of this Plight of the Gardener. Oh, no! That was FLIGHT OF THE GARDENER: I will have a new, ready-made flowerbed next spring where once was lawn. So much less mowing!!! So many more bumblebees!
