So. I was having company, something that I enjoy immensely. My friend Deepak brough his partner Slawek over for dinner and to see the gardens. Before they came I picked a pretty bouquet of Limelight Hydrangea with some hosta blooms mixed in. Fragrant HOSTAS!! Stained Glass is one of them, and a generic unnamed rather ordinary hosta sends out the most fragrant blooms. That hosta came from a friend’s front yard. It and its siblings were threatening to take over the universe, and at the time I was eager to fill a lot of empty garden spaces. It is now tucked next to the house on the west side. I rarely pay much attention to it. Silly me! Here I was thinking that I was providing it a decent home and I am graced instead by such a sweet fragrance. It is gracing me.
Though I’m not a bug person, I am at least a bit charmed by the variety of insects that are drawn to the gardens. The other evening I spied a huge cicada underneath a Brunnera. This morning I watched a carpenter bee nuzzle Tardiva. It was only a year ago that I heard the term “carpenter bees.” Like most people I assumed they were large bumblebees. As it turns out, they are not. Carpenter bees are larger, and have shiny abdomens. Bumblebees’ abdomen’s have dense hair. Basically, if it has a shiny butt, it’s a carpenter bee. They are so named because they create shallow tunnels in dead wood, beams, or, in my case, under the door frame on my garage. Carpenter bees are not aggressive and will only sting if highly provoked. So, don’t try and cup one in your hand. The males do not have stingers, by the way.
Carpenter bees make perfectly round holes entrances to their nests. It is the females who make these holes that branch off into tunnels. And though it sounds somewhat alarming to think of an insect, especially a bee, tunneling into the wooden facia of homes, they do not tunnel deeply and do very little damage. They aren’t like termites or carpenter ants. I rather like them. They are great pollinators and I love their drone. It’s bee music.
There was another insect on the Tardiva this morning. It has an almost Mondrian look to it, as if some mod designer was commissioned to create a beetle. I wonder if it is some variety of Milkweed Bug??
Garden 337 