For a couple of years now I have been growing the semi-double dahlia, 'Fascination'. It's a beautiful plant with dark reddish leaves, rigid stems, and a good sized, vibrant-pink flower. As we get sub-zero temperatures here in West Yorkshire, I overwinter my three dahlia tubers indoors and this
spring I planted the tubers into pots of fresh compost to give them a head start. As the roses are taking over the border, I was surprised at just how big the tubers now are. I even had to transplant them into bigger containers when the spring-flowering bulbs had finished and the containers became available. It's a bit inconvenient storing the tubers indoors over winter but its worth it when I see them flowering right through summer and late autumn - and the bees love them. I rarely see honey bees in my garden for some reason but I have endless visits from the beautiful bumble bees and today one allowed me to get up close and personal to take a photograph while it was have a wonderful time stomping around in the pollen of one of the dahlia flowers.
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| Bumble Bee in 'Fascination' Dahlia |
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| Semi-double 'Fascination' dahlia in pots |
In an earlier post I mentioned that
bumble bees like geraniums. Since I began my present garden I have come to realise that although double flowers of all different types can be incredibly beautiful, they are not easily accessible, if at all, by bees. Fortunately, many of my roses open right out and provide pollen for bees.
Bees can be quite determined all the same and although I did once read that the pollen of honeysuckle flowers is difficult for bees to access but it would seem that the
bees in my garden are attracted to my honeysuckle, Lonicera Periclymenum Scentsation. All the same, I have noticed that bees do generally ignore the double flowers in my garden.
So please, if you can, spare some room in your garden for single flowers or semi-doubles that have lovely pollen-loaded centres and
save our bees. Thank you.
