Bumblebees!

just voted and added it to the stumbleupon site they had over 550 references there
your project reminds me of a royal visit in 1953.new zealand
she was to travel to napier along a 3 mile stretch of very uninteresting road to get to the city so they planted some wild flowers there and it was in full bloom and fantastic show.
i visited my home town 60 years later and had to travel the same route to the city and well the entire area of the road side was still covered in flowers that had self sown from the queens visit.

~ thank you Piersdad!

just voted arlene,support this great cause ,

http://media.growsonyou.com/photos/blog_photo/image/25175/main/bumble_be_in_cacti_flower.jpg

my cacti had a bumble visitor just minutes after it had opened
perhaps you could add it to your blog with an edit

~ hi Piersdad~ couldn't work out how to get that into my blog so added one of mine~thanks anyway!

Done :-)

Just voted for this very worthwhile project Arlene. After all without the plants and flowers there would be no life and without pollination there would be no flowers.
Who could imagine a summer without the soft drone of the bumble bees.

what a great project Arlene...i just added your plea to my facebook page....the bees are winning so far....;-))

piersdad thats a great story...;-))

Arlene, Do you know what the blue flowers are in that lovely pic? I though Bluebells at first but now I'm not sure.

I've voted, there were bees in one of my bird boxes last year ! I was told not to disturb them so haven't cleared box out yet. I hope you receive lots of votes.

Heron, think they are Chionodoxa, or Glory of the snow. Saw a stunning display at Kew Gardens last year.

~yes Megan I think you are right~ this was taken at Kew last March!

Thanks for this Arlene just voted so good luck a great project and hopefully raise awareness that we could all do a little bit in our gardens to help too.

Although not as rare we had some carder bees nest in our garden purely by chance I scarified the lawn and left moss seperate from garden waste .Apparently this ideal for them to nest in and our wide selection of weeds esp hedge woundwort one of their favourite food sources ..if you ever needed a reason to have a wild area of your garden lol

Read that although colonies die during winter queens hibernate Megan so you do right to leave suppose makes sense as queens must be born last year in order to raise colonies this year ? Is that right Arlene ?

~ I have just put a new blog with more info~ apparently the old queen bee dies off in the Autumn and the new queens who burrow into the ground for the winter, found new colonies~lets hope it hasn't been too cold and they have all perished!

Thanks Arlene.Suspected they must do as couldnt see how they could be raised breed and form their own colonies in one season . The bees constructed a wax chamber about the size of a melon not sure if last years queens hibernating in it but left safely just in case.

Thanks for this Arlene going to do my bit now .. :o)

Done ! :o))
And glad to see the bumblebees seem to have most votes so far.

~ yes I am pleased about that Hywel! fingers crossed!

Bonkersbon, I shall leave bird box alone, not just because queen may be in there , but also because screw attaching box to fence post has rusted solid !

Just voted for such a worthwhile cause. We depend on so many things in nature and as more and more are being lost we really do have to get serious about protecting them. Bees, all of them are so vital to everything.
Thank you Arlene for bringing this to us.

Done aswell.

Been there, done that. It's well in the lead at the moment, hope it stays that way!

Well done on publicising this, Arlene. :o)

catching up so sorry im late arlene, i found i had lots of bumbles in summer with having quite a few wild flowers growing and cottage garden flowers helped to, good blog thanx :o)))

~thank you for voting!