CT Bumblebee Dad

Small pumpkin flower sort of blending in with cluster of black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia fulgida)

One of these things is not like the others. #nativeplants

Photo of not yet opened flower bud of Rudbeckia triloba aka brown-eyed susan or three-leaved coneflower. Bud displays fascinating precise geometric pattern similar to dahlias. Center of bud is greenish brown. Yellow flower petals stick out from center’s fringe in regular pattern but also haven’t opened and remain closed rods. An irregular ring of slightly hairy green small pointy leaves (or bracts?) surrounds the bud and petals. Opened flowers can be seen as partial unfocused images in background upper left and upper right.

Brown-eyed susan flower bud with stunning pattern
#nativeplants #bloomscrolling

Bumblebee (guessing male common eastern) hanging upside down under cluster of pink swamp milkweed flower buds that haven’t opened yet. Some open flowers in upper left with green foliage in bottom half of pic and in background. Bumblebee’s face is looking straight ahead and is visible in detail with large shiny eyes and distinct antennas jutting out to each side. Male bumblebees often can be seen sleeping overnight on flowers, especially in late summer, because they cannot return to the nest they were raised in apparently.

Bumblebee tucking in for the night under some swamp milkweed flower buds.

#nativebee #pollinator #nativeplants #nature

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In foreground are vivid purple flowers of wild bergamot along west-facing slope of dune with Lake Michigan in background. Slope has mixture of vegetation with sand visible among clumps of dune grass and wild bergamot and other plants.

This was a thrill to find. Dune slope dotted with numerous clumps of wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) in full flower. This is just a small sample. Lake Michigan in background. #nativeplants #nature #bloomscrolling

Pruinose squash bee resting inside brilliant orange yellow pumpkin flower. Early morning light hitting flower from side gives it a kind of glow. Bee has pretty fuzzy thorax, large eyes, a bit of a snout, longish antennas, and long hairs on back leg. Probably a female.

Squash bees sure are darn photogenic!

#nativebees #pollinators

Thank you!

Thank you!

To the left, yellow Freyr trellises in long cream-colored skinny raised beds with happy string-trained indeterminate tomatoes underplanted with two kinds of basil. To the right, two more long skinny raised beds with sweet peppers, cabbages, and salmon Callistephus in the front and establishing asparagus fronds, perennial Good King Henry, strawberries and magenta and deep blue-purple Callistephus in the back. At the fence, a huge clematis covered in white blooms with other plants beneath provide privacy from alley traffic.

Food & pretty are not mutually exclusive and we are never short on native #pollinators working hard for us as a result.

#gardening #bloomscrolling
#KitchenGarden #GrowFood #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #NoSpray #organic-gardening 🌱

Why Pollinators, Wildlife, and You Need Federal Public Lands Without our federal public lands, many invertebrates—and the plants and other animals that depend on them—would be in trouble. You cam help speak up for these incredible places.

Why are public lands worth fighting for? They help everyone! 🏞️🐝🦋🪲
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A beautiful orange and brown male Monarch butterfly with wings fully extended nectaring on spiky blue-white balls of Echinops blooms. Photo credit: Mr. CMG.

Mr. CMG saw Monarch this AM. Multiple Black Swallowtail #butterflies visiting all day. Measured our Scrophularia which is up to 9ft tall now. Chimney Swifts & #Dragonflies at cruising altitude nabbing sky bugs above our yard. 12+ native #bees zooming Veronicastrum. #gardening #inverts #UrbsInHorto 🌱

Thank you!

Thanks!

Great! We’ve been doing it in parts too.

that's excellent!

view of sidewalk (from bottom left corner of pic moving up to upper right portion). on both sides are (primarily) native plant garden beds slightly bumping out over sidewalk. beds filled with variety of flowering perennials, shrubs, even a few small trees. much larger trees fil the background. flowering plants include: yellow flowers of shrubby St. John's wort, orange coneflowers, blue spikes of agastache, smattering of california poppies and cosmos (the not-native to New England stuff). one columnar juniper in center background, with young native red bud just to the right of it. on right side at back is a young beach plum in the hellstrip (being trained into small tree form). at very back of hellstrip bed a utility pole is visible. the power line shadows lay directly over the new-ish sidewalk cement.

front yard garden hitting mid-summer form! mainly native plants.

going into year four for the right-hand side (the hellstrip) and year three for the left-hand side (a small berm).

#nativeplants #bloomscrolling

Yes! A thousand times this!

June 2025 was the third warmest June on record after 2024 and 2023 in the ERA5 dataset. It was approximately 1.3C above preindustrial (1850-1900) levels.

Thank you for this. I’m struggling with similar thoughts and keep coming back to the intuition that this will be a long fight. Like definitely past my lifetime. I don’t want to lock my kids into my choices, if that makes any sense. So I want to prepare them but also keep their futures open.

That’s the game that hooked my 11 yo on Michigan football. She also still asserts it was the real national championship game.

I cannot overemphasize how mind-bogglingly, brain-meltingly, galactically stupid it is to burn coal for electricity

It’s a fascinating feature of this plant! From what I’ve seen, ants and wasps love the extrafloral nectaries while bumblebees love the flower pollen.

So perfect

Yes! It’s amazing! About two years into our native gardening journey, we started seeing fireflies. And that’s just one example!

Thankfully no, not mimosa. Been growing Partridge pea for several years now in this garden. Moves around to bare spots on its own, like this patch.

That approach works great with natives!

You’re welcome!

Native plants are full of surprises!

Thanks!