Garden Photo of the Day

READER PHOTO! Busy bee

Click here to enlarge this photo.
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Philip Leveridge

Today we have another photo from East Side Patch, the garden of Philip Leveridge in Austin, Texas. He says, “I have a bunch of mist flowers in the Patch and when they bloom they are magnets for all manner of insects. I photograph a lot of insects so plant attractors like mist flowers, celosia and Fatsia japonica are coveted. This is a leaf cutter bee, a solitary creature (meaning that each mother takes care of her own brood). A few will form small colonies, but they are not truly social, they merely share the entrance to their nests. They nest in a variety of cavities in rotten wood or hollow stems. I like the monochromatic nature of the shot and how the antennae reference the bloom shapes…this was one busy little bee.” Thanks again, Philip, for sharing! We’ll feature one more photo from Philip’s Garden tomorrow. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can visit Philip’s blog here.

Welcome to the Fine Gardening GARDEN PHOTO OF THE DAY blog! Every weekday we post a new photo of a great garden, a spectacular plant, a stunning plant combination, or any number of other subjects. Think of it as your morning jolt of green.

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Comments

  1. ger13 01/11/2011

    What are 'mist flowers', please?

  2. ncgardener 01/11/2011

    I wish there was another shot so that we could see the flower in the garden bed to give some perspective. Nice info on the bees.

  3. bamboomary 01/11/2011

    Nice bee photo and interesting info. I too would like to have seen how this 'mist flower' relates to it's surroundings. I tried to find info on white Mist Flowers and came up with Eupatorium havanense. Not real hardy but it self seeds according to folks on Daves Garden.

  4. ESPatch 01/11/2011

    Hi all.

    It is indeed Eupatorium havanense. You can see some more in-situation shots of this plant in this post:

    http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2009/11/cut/

    Hope this helps. I have had these three "fragrant" (a relative term) mist flowers for some years now (zone 8b).

  5. LYNNBOLYARD 01/17/2011

    WHAT A GREAT PHOTO. CONGRATULATIONS.

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