If you're thinking about adding more bee friendly plants to your garden but you're concerned about the drought, the UC Davis Arboretum has the answers. The arboretum will host its public spring clearance plant sale on Saturday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Female Valley carpenter bees are solid black--except when they're foraging around passion flowers. Then they're black and yellow--the yellow being the color of the pollen transferred to their thorax. Beautiful? Absolutely.
Whenever you look at the Matilija poppy, you think of a fried egg. White, crepelike flowers (the egg whites) circle a cluster of gold stamens (the yolk).
What a perfect match when a Gulf Fritillary butterfly touches down on a blanket flower. They're both reddish-orange and showy. Last weekend we spotted a Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) land momentarily on a blanket flower (Gaillardia), in our bee garden.
