Save the Bees Design Challenge - Finisher's Prize

Looking good but your hotel perhaps needs CCTV installing

I suspect that the wasp on the lettuce is looking for caterpillars and other bug type prey ?

I've currently got 'Dock Beetles' (metallic green) chomping holes in the leaves of the new Fuchsia plants and Sawfly grubs devouring the new climbing roses. (This tending to nature stuff is tricky !). The Fuchsia are already in heavy flower even in their first year and attracting bees. 

Some bumbles are showing interest in the flowering Oxalis plants now that the Alliums are nearing their end of flowering, so hopefully a stop gap until the replacement Salvia plants catch up and start to come into flower and provide interest into Autumn.

Just ventured into the front garden after all the rain and was surprised to find two of the new Salvia plants already in flower.

Another set of great pics!  Makes me want to get a TG-6, but somehow I think I'm lacking more than a good camera...

Your flowers look amazing.

The Backyard Habitat person dropped by last week and gave us a checklist and a yard sign.  We'll just need to add a few more native species, but my wife says that she doesn't want to plant them until the fall.  And we did get credit for a tree in the backyard being high canopy, but it doesn't seem like it's reached 30 ft yet.

The TG-6 is still working out well for me. There are a few ergonomic quirks perhaps but its close-up performance runs rings around my previous compacts and it's so much more convenient for spontaneous shots like this, than getting a D-SLR out and fitting extension tubes.

The Salvia flowers are much smaller than I had expected but they do have an interesting shape and vivid colours.

Convenient landing pad for bees when you see it from side on

Not sure what the 'kiss curl' is about though. I'm assuming that the upper bit flops down after pollination to indicate to wildlife that it's now closed for business.

The stems and flower pods have an interesting texture as well when viewed close up

Apparently they are easy to take cuttings from and it is recommended you do so in case of a harsh winter. They are supposed to be hardy but their roots may still need protection against a hard frost by applying a thick layer of compost to insulate over the winter.  

I have about eight cuttings saved from the transport damage, so currently seeing if they will root. Unfortunately the two varieties are a bit hard to tell apart from a cutting. I might have to go for random distribution rather than alternating colour. There are a couple of variants similar to the purple one (Amethyst Lips) which might be worth adding to the mix if all goes well. The red one here (Royal Bumble) is a different variety, it's shorter and is supposed to flower later in the year and I was aiming for both a colour changing effect as well as maximising the flowering period for the bees. The purple ones appear to be a little late in flower here but with the hard winter, the warmer spring and the cooler wetter summer, they may be a bit confused.

Great news on the Backyard Habitat front. I think I would get away with a sign that just says 'in progress'.

I guess that even 30' trees are at 10' and 20' at some stage in their life, so something a bit higher than average probably gets the tick box. It will also have to be considered with the surroundings I would have thought, not all backyard habitats can accommodate a 30' tree yet are still beneficial to the wildlife.

Looks like you are well on your way to certification though.

A lot can happen in 10 days when you leave it to nature.

4 of the cuttings have now rooted, and 3 have already had to be re-potted to larger pots as their roots were visible through the bottom of the original pot. The 4th has been potted up straight into the larger pot, as it decided to put out roots everywhere.   

If that's not productive, then one of them is already flowering.

...with a second flower well on its way

It's currently pushing that second flower out at a rate of around 1mm per hour. 

Interesting to note that it appears to have changed its colour scheme a little. A lot more white in the flower compared to the other plants and the flower pods haven't darkened. Not sure if this is nature conserving the 'expensive' purple colouring whilst prioritising rooting and flowering or if it is a permanent change as a result of the cutting. It may also be to do with the reduced sunlight available through the kitchen window. 

I could end up with bumblebees in the kitchen at this rate. At least I avoid the wind and rain this way

"...I'm assuming that the upper bit flops down after pollination to indicate to wildlife that it's now closed for business..."

Turns out that the upper bit contains a rather cunning engineering linkage referred to as the 'staminal lever mechanism'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia#Staminal_lever_mechanism

A passing Tree Bumblebee kindly gave me a demonstration of it in action yesterday afternoon.
(ok, perhaps it really was just after the nectar...) 

A liquid lunch with a back rub thrown in for free.

I found this video of the mechanism in action which helps demonstrate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZGs_s4JkEs&t=16s

It appears that the bee can feel the pollen being rubbed on, as it rubs its back with its legs before departing the flower and moving onto the next one.

How is the Backyard Habitat and the new insect hotel going ?

A few bees are still visiting here despite some low overnight temperatures recently.

In preparation for next year, I have just been out planting another 100+ Alliums to increase the 'bee buffet' offering. Giant ball varieties instead of drumstick this time. Hopefully the drumsticks will also have multiplied though.

How is the Backyard Habitat and the new insect hotel going ?

A few bees are still visiting here despite some low overnight temperatures recently.

In preparation for next year, I have just been out planting another 100+ Alliums to increase the 'bee buffet' offering. Giant ball varieties instead of drumstick this time. Hopefully the drumsticks will also have multiplied though.