Wednesday 27 March 2019


 Symphytum Hidcote has flowers of a blueish or pinkish tinge in early spring, and as I mentioned a week or two back bees love all Comfreys. This one makes good ground cover; it's semi-evergreen here in London and very hardy.
 I chose the photo above partly for the bumblebee on the flowers and also for the bee hovering slightly to the left- a Hairy Footed Flower Bee (they always appear in the garden at this time of year). NB click on the photo to enlarge for a better view.
  The male of the species devotes a great deal of energy to seeing off other bees by hovering ever closer then ramming them off the flower! This doesn't seem to do any harm to the bee that gets rammed which generally carries on foraging until it gets fed up of being repeatedly headbutted and buzzes off.
 There's something comical about the determination of Hairyfoot to guard his territory. I remember watching one getting more and more agitated at the presence of an enormous bumblebee doing the rounds. It was like watching a pocket battleship square up to a dreadnought. Eventually even Hairyfoot thought better of this unequal contest and gave up.