Bee Enjoying Tiny Lantana Flowers • (original @grow-pro photos) • Nature Photography + Fun Facts

in #nature7 years ago

Lantana is in the verbena family - I love it, bees love it, too!

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Look Who's Bee-Friended This Potted Lantana

This is one great perennial to attract the bees to your garden! The tiny flowers of this particular variety of Lantana really is a hit with the pollinators. Because of this variety's vivid colors (a vast spectrum of color) it attracts many bees to the garden. If you grow vegetables or fruits, then you want these bees to visit and frequently. Lantana is a wonderful way to reward the pollinators that come to visit.

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Since Bees Aren't On My Payroll, I Try to Reward Them With Plants They Love


I'm a tomato grower on a small scale operation and I can vouch for the bees and the need for them. For instance, they provide a great service for the flowering of my tomato plants. It is something called sonication or also known as 'Buzz Pollination', basically shaking the pollen from the anthers of the plant. This creates more tomatoes and more tomatoes are great for business. Bees are not on my payroll, but that is not to say they don't work as hard or even harder than I do in my garden!

The Bees Work These tiny Flowers For Hours

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Sometimes I sit and observe them in the garden and admire their tremendous work ethic. They have to have some real patience to collect from such tiny flowers. I get tired just watched them. If you are looking for some great garden help - plant flowers and attract the pollinators! They really help me grow some great produce and my kids and I enjoy watching them work, so we highly recommend the Lantana if you are in an area where it grows best.

What zone does lantana grow in?
The common variety thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 and 11, while some cultivars are hardy to zone 8. Lantana dies back if the temperature drops to 28 degrees Fahrenheit but is likely to regrow from the roots when warm days return. source

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All photos taken on Nikon D7000, shot in .NEF format / raw and no post processing other than reducing size - images are 50% or less of the full-sized originals / 20+ MB each. All photographs are original works taken by Brandon Holsey / @grow-pro and all rights are reserved. Use of the photos is not permitted without written permission from the creator.

This Has Been Another Certified @GROW-PRO Original

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Photo taken August 28, 2017 - hanging out with my employ-bees on the Velvet Queen Sunflowers

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I remember seeing these lantanas in abundance back in the Philippines. Wonderful to see them here! It's also beautiful to see you have bees buzzing there, not sure if I see some around here yet. It snowed yesterday morning here! I'm shocked.

It is snowing now here and was 80°f almost just days ago! So strange. It seems that Mother Nature has changed schedule without sending a meno 😂

The bees are safe in the wood shed for now. Forecasts say warm air is coming! We have quite a variety of bees here in Maryland and they are never far away here. I let them stay for free if they help in the garden. Even wasps and hornets are welcome -- and yes, I get stung often! If only they had the memory of birds.

I guess I would have to keep them in pots and bring them inside for the winter. I am zone 4 depending on the season. They are lovely for sure! The neighbors bees would be very happy I am sure.

They are hard to keep here unless you can regulate the wild weather, but I have some local growers that do these each year. They are really great flowers when the weather is warm and produce abundantly.

I keep them in pots so I can bring them under artificial light during the unknown seasons changes here. My tulips are about to bloom and it decided to snow, so who knows when spring will decide to stay! 😆

I'm zone 7 here, but I do believe there are varieties being bred for colder climates. With LED tech making strides, it's easy to keep plants happy during winter if you can make a little space for them. I kept 3 evergreen trees alive for 2 years in my garage with burlap and 5k kelvin LED, 20 watts.

I use lights here as well. My Christmas cactus decided to bloom again! Love the colorful blooms during the dreary season. I will be looking for these plants when I go to the valley again. They have some nice nurserys down below in the warmer country. I am going to get some blueberry plants that will live in pots. Last years grasshopper invasion has me worried about putting them out in the garden space. Everything was devoured last year. No canning at all! :( The lights are very inexpensive to operate as well. I hung white/black plastic in my winter grow area. Supposedly distributes light better than foil or mylar. Thanks for coming by.

The Lantana has such a pretty flower but here in South Africa it's considered an invasive plant, not sure why as we rarely see them!

I love lantana plants. I haven't grown them in years, so maybe this year I will plant some in pots. :-)

I had never grown Lantana until maybe 4 years ago, but it's grown on me. Blooms abundantly and for a very long time, so I try to keep it around. I keep them in pots since the weather is so unpredictable here.

Happy Growin'

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Beautiful flowers and it's no wonder the bees love lantana plants.
I love your photography of the bees and it is so good to see people appreciate the hard work these beautiful bees have to do.

Thank you, @joalvarez. Lantana is one of my favorites to keep around for color and the bees certainly seem to enjoy it when I put it out there. I think they are under appreciated because they really do a tremendous amount of work and get a bad rep.

Thanks for dropping by! Hope to have some garden updates soon (once spring decides to stay around!)

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Congratz, your post has been resteemed and, who knows, will maybe appear in the next edition of the #dailyspotlights (Click on my face if you want to know more about me...)

Hello @grow-pro! Well done. Will definitely share this. Thank you for posting.

i am upvote your post please back u

You got a 41.14% upvote from @emperorofnaps courtesy of @grow-pro!

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