Re: Lavenders and bees

Anthony Lyman-Dixon wrote:
> Hullo Irene, Sean and everyone,
>
> I have just come back from an intensive forty eight hour honey
> tasting session in Kossovo and was intrigued by the  point  in your
> letter about "swarms of bees pollinating lavender flowers". I was
> talking to an Oxford-based apiarist there and she said that the bees
> ignored her Lavender. Unfortunately she was no gardener and wasn't
> sure what sort of Lavender she had in her garden Here at home too,
> the honey bees have totally ignored the seed raised "Dwarf Munstead"
> and gone for Borage  instead. Meanwhile the bumble bees (Bombus
> leucorum) have ignored the borage and crowded over the lavender. Both
> have shared the Pot marjoram in equal numbers. Why?.
>
> Do honey bees share human gardeners elitist disdain for what many
> claim to be a second rate lavender?
>
> Are certain varieties more accessible to honey bees tongues?....or
> perhaps taste differently
>
> Provencal historical records repeatedly refer to the inter-dependence
> of bees and lavender and these invariably seem to apply to Lavandula
> angustifolia, Do modern varieties of L angustifolia have different
> characteristics to the wild forms which make them less attractive to
> bees? What is the relationship  between bees and the modern
> Lavandins? I once bought some "Lavender honey" in a farm shop in  the
> Lavandin area of Provence, but it could have been fake or imported.
>
> All of which brings me back to my original question, why do my honey
> bees ignore the lavender hedge  whilst the bumbles go for it with
> relish?
>
> Then how do bees react to L stoechas? How do they get on with the new
> New Zealand varieties, do they prefer the wild form? I shall go and
> have a look at the Lavender tunnel tomorrow and see what is
> happening.

Anthony
I am afraid I have not been keeping a sharp enough watch over my
lavender bed, (which does include some L angustifolia cultivars) to say
whether honeybees do use it, but I certainly don't remember them being
particularly interested in the area at any time. However, bumbles in my garden are _extremely_ keen on L stoechas and definitely love the NZ varieties. I don't grow any but these now, so don't know how they would react to the wild form.

I do notice in the garden generally that the two types of bee rarely
feed on the same plants at any time of year. All social bees in NZ are
imported, indigenous bees being confined to a few very primitive
solitary species which do not visit gardens. I do recall reading that
when the first settlers came they did not initially bring any bumbles
and found their red clover was not setting any seed because honeybees do
not have long enough tongues for the job, though they service white
clover very effectively..The all-time favourite with the hive bees in my garden seems to be Brassica flowers which the bumbles seem to ignore completely.

>
> Incidentally, out of all the Kossovan honeys, it was that derived
> from chestnuts which got my vote as the most delicious.  Sadly I
> don't think that they will be exporting it for a very long time.

Interesting, never heard of chestnut honey before, but chestnut trees are rare here I am not sure why..

>
> Finally and probably wholly irrelevantly, someone at Sequim told me
> he always used honey instead of rooting hormone on his lavender
> cuttings, it's another of those ideas I keep meaning to try but never
> get around to.

I have heard or read this somewhere also. I find many lavenders do seem to root with difficulty (I take a lot of cuttings to get maybe one or two to root), so I am inspired to try it!

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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