The honey bee struggled, but couldn't free herself from a broadleaf milkweed blossom in our pollinator garden.  Had a predator nailed her? Or was the bee dying of natural causes? What was happening?

Two hours later we returned. The bee, now in a frenzy, was still stuck. We offered her sips of honey from a coated toothpick.

"Ah, with that flight fuel, she'll take off," we thought.  She did not. Closer examination revealed her foot (tarsi) stuck in a mass of sticky pollen.

We separated the bee from her floral trap by lifting her from the gluelike pollinia with the toothpick. Off went the pollinia and off went the bee.

“If you hang around that milkweed, you might be able to get a photo of a bee carrying pollinia on its foot,”  Extension apiculturist (emeritus) Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology told us. 

So, last weekend, armed with a camera and the memory of the frenzied bee, we waited. And waited. And waited. And got it. A bee flying off chained with golden pollinia.

Unlike most flowering plants, only milkweed and orchids produce pollinia, which is a sticky packet of golden pollen grains originating from a single anther. The  wishbone-shaped pollinia are in a nectar trough where insects--or parts of them--often get trapped.  This is a devious way for milkweed and orchids to force insects to “take me with you” and “help us reproduce.”  If you're a small insect and/or not strong enough to loosen the grip, you'll be lodged in that sticky mass and die. It's sort of like jumping into quicksand and you can't get out. Some insects manage to escape but their parts remain. That's probably one reason why you see "amputated" bumble bees, carpenter bees, honey bees and butterflies, no thanks to the Sophisticated Reproductive Habits of the Milkweed (and Orchids).

The milkweed plant is not only the larval host--and only larval host--of the monarch butterflies, but it's a nectar source for butterflies and for many other insects--including honey bees, leafcutter bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, syrphid flies and ants.

In fact, if you look closely at a broadleaf milkweed blossom (Asclepias speciosa), you'll see dozens of tiny pink flowers forming the umbel or umbrella-shaped structure. The corona, located on top of the petals, holds a circle of five hoods and five horns. Hoods and horns pointing the way. The hoods that hold that oh-so-sweet nectar beckon insects like a kid to a candy store. Each blossom has five vertical slits which house the reproductive organs.

So, what was happening? Ms. Honey Bee, seeking nectar for her colony, hit a sweet jackpot and repositioned herself to gather it. Then her foot slipped into one of the five sticky slits and she couldn't remove her leg. 

Ms. Honey Bee survived, thanks to a human being with a toothpick. Others are not so lucky. 

If you grow milkweed in your yard, you probably have some very special tenants, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). As just about every kindergarten student knows, milkweed (Asclepias spp,) is their larval host plant. Without milkweed, no monarchs. 

Carl Linnaeus named the genus for the Greek god of healing, Asciepius. The son of Apollo, Asciepius was a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology, according to Wikipedia.

For the past week, we've been watching a male monarch loop around our pollinator garden in search of females. Yes, it  "floats" just like the late Muhammad Ali said a butterfly does.  Several loops later and it needs more flight fuel. It zip-zags down, sips some nectar from the six-foot-high broadleaf milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), or drops down to the lower elevation of a Jupiter's Beard. Then it's off again.

It's like watching a work of art--an exquisite stained glass window--take flight, touch down, and feed. The adults will feed on many nectar plants but their caterpillars will feed only on milkweed.

Like to help the monarchs and plant milkweed? See the Xerces Society's Project Milkweed.

Who doesn't love the red flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata?

If the Fourth of July had its own insect, it would be the firecracker red flameskimmer. It's so showy and eye-popping red that it almost looks patriotic. Or at least it should be flying over an Independence Day parade while a band plays "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

On a breezy day in the late spring, we can usually count on a flameskimmer or two entering our yard. Of course it helps if you have a pond and a pollinator garden and some bamboo stakes. They hover over our pond, turn the pollinator garden into their dining room, and perch on the stakes to eat their prey.

We managed to capture a few images of this one last weekend as it helicoptered from bamboo stake to bamboo stake. It "posed" against a shade-cloth fence, a pink background of Jupiter's beard, and with a little aperture changing, against a black background.

It stayed for a couple of hours.

More than enough to strike up a band to play "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Sometimes when you walk through a bee garden, you feel Mother Nature tugging at your arm, pulling you from one breathtaking area to another. You resist the tug and want to linger, to admire the diversity of bees, to marvel at the colors and patterns of the flowers.

That's how we felt when we recently visited the one-acre pollinator bee garden of Kate Frey and her artist husband, Ben, in Hopland, Mendocino County. It's magical.

Kate, a world-class garden designer, and bee expert Gretchen LeBuhn, professor in the San Francisco State University, have just co-authored The Bee-Friendly Garden, an educational, enthusiastic and inspiring book that will help you turn your own garden--large or small, rural or urban--into something magical.

Among her many honors, Kate Frey twice won gold medals at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London and received a Silver Gilt award in 2003. She met Queen Elizabeth, who admired her work. Currently Kate directed and taught at Sonoma State University's Sustainable Landscape Program with Extended Education, and consults for various wineries and residences around California, including  The Melissa Garden in Healdsburg (privately owned and now closed) and Lynmar Estate Winery in Sebastopol.  Her website, http://freygardens.com, offers more information about her and her mission. It's all about the pollinators and how to attract them!

Gretchen LeBuhn is interested in “both the evolutionary ecology of plants and the conservation of their pollinators,” she writes on her website. “My lab focuses on the effects of climate change on bumble bee species in alpine environments as well as the effects of urbanization on wildlife.” She directs the Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science project designed to evaluate the effects of landscape change on pollinator service in North America.

The Frey/LeBuhn team says it well in the preface: “Bee gardens make people happy. Whether you enjoy a brilliant chorus of saturated color, a tranquil sanctuary from the busy world, or a hardworking edible garden, there is a glorious, flower-filled bee garden waiting for you.”

And dozens of pollinators await. “Bees are a critical link in the global food chain,” they write. "Bees are the world's most prolific pollinators...Over 70 percent of the world's plants depend on the pollination of bees, including many nuts, fruits, tomatoes, peppers, or berries."

They cover:

• The Benefits of a Bee Friendly Garden
• Our Friends, the Bees
• Plants for Your Bee Friendly Garden
• Bee Friendly Plants for Edible Gardens
• Bee Garden Basics
• Designing Your Bee Garden
• Beyond Your Own Backyard: Becoming a Bee Activist

Their book also contains resources, and regional plant lists for the Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest regions, Rocky Mountain/Intermountain West Region and the Northeast/Midwest/Mid-Atlantic Region.

They spotlight a wide diversity of bees with text and photos and delve into their habitats, floral resources and other needs. In addition to listing plants that draw pollinators, they also list plants that are unattractive to bees. They include ferns, Gazania, day lily and Sago palm.

The Frey/LeBuhn team recommends that you “keep a notebook throughout the year and write down the names of plants and which bees are visiting them. This is a fun and informative exercise wherever you go—from your home, to visiting friends, to walks around the neighborhood or anywhere you go in the world,” they write. “Much information can be gleaned this way, much discovered and much shared. Everyone can be a local expert.”

We love the photos of pollinators and gardens in the book—many taken in the Frey garden and in the Melissa Garden.  They also focus on small-scale gardening—you don't need a huge space for a bee garden. (The urban Garvey garden is an example!)

Laurie Davies-Adams, executive director of the Pollinator Partnership, says that “this book will make bees happy and healthy in gardens across the country.” 

Yes, and people, too!

(Note: The Frey garden will be open June 18 for the Garden Conservancy Open Days Program. See https://www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/garden-directory/frey-gardens. Here is the entire schedule:  https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/all-events/mendocino-county-ca-open-day-3)