Yesterday afternoon I had a sudden desire to buy some new plants, so I went off to Stratford Garden Centre, where my usual problem is keeping my purchases to the number of pots I can physically fit in the car. Surprisingly though, I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me, and came home empty-handed. So this afternoon I headed out in the opposite direction, to Evesham Garden Centre, where the choice turned out to be better. I came back with a car full of spring bedding and perennials, and my plant-buying itch thoroughly soothed. Which just left the small matter of doing the actual planting.
It was a heavily overcast afternoon, and there wasn’t much insect activity going on, so before setting to work I took a few insurance photos of the bursting buds on the goat willow (Salix caprea) I have in a large pot on the patio, to be sure I’d have something to post today. I then spent an hour or so tidying the other patio containers, and replanting them where necessary. I’d just sat down at the patio table with a coffee, and was smugly admiring my handiwork, when a Buff-tailed Bumblebee queen suddenly swooped in loudly and began feeding on the sallow, so I had to leap up again and rush inside to get the camera. The bee wasn’t amused by this flurry of activity, and flew away, but luckily she didn’t go far before circling back round to the catkins.
What with the perspective, and the distance, and the rapidly fading light, the photos I managed to get of her don’t please me as much as the main image, but I’ve added the best of them because a feeding bumblebee is always charming, especially when slathered in pollen. Goat willow is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers grow on different trees, and the pollen the bee has inadvertently collected from these male catkins will only be able to fertilise any female flowers she now visits. Personally I’m happy not to have a female tree, because I find their clouds of wispy seeds quite annoying, but if anyone else in the village does have one they’re more than welcome to my pollen.
R: L2, C6, D5.
