beginning of July 2023

I often snap photos of bees but they move too fast and my phone camera does not focus well. So I was quite pleased to get this shot yesterday. The passionflower is growing on the railing next to the stairs going into the back garden so going past I saw a bee on one of the flowers and was able to stop and take pics pretty close without too much movement. 

bees are still visiting the giant scabious

centaurea dealbata and water figwort

the selfheal is in bloom and the sheep's bit still going - it's been amazing

pretty soon the globe thistles will have bees too, I can just see a hint of blue that they are changing colour into

I've been struggling to get a decent photograph of the small teasel, although this is a bit over-exposed, I think it's the best I'm going to get

I love echium, whether vulgare or Blue Bedder, this first is Echium vulgare, I usually buy small "wildflower" plants if I can find them, this self-seeded last year

this is Echium Blue Bedder I grew from seed a couple months ago, with a visiting bee

agapanthus, it hasn't flowered in recent years, last year was incredibly difficult with the drought and heatwave, thought it might have died but it's blooming

verbascum blattaria, moth mullein, a bee was on it at some point but it was one of those out of focus photos

nipplewort, photobombed by Rocky as usual

Lesser knapweed, according to wiki, "in the top five for most nectar production" and "the top producer of both nectar and pollen". I love all centarureas really. This one is so easy to grow from seed.

I have lesser knapweed in both my front and back gardens. This is the front garden which gets more sun and the knapweed is in bloom.

this is the back garden with only buds, no knapweed flowers yet

this is greater knapweed in the front garden, I don't have it in the back garden. I find it a lot more difficult to grow than lesser knapweed

greater knapweed buds

these are unknown seedlings, they self-seeded in my seed tray, rather nondescript, I'll let them grow and see if they become identifiable

caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyris)