insects – GWENNIESGARDENWORLD

July 27, 2025

A FEW FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN

I took a few pictures in my garden this week, June and July are the prettiest month’s of the year over here.

A half dubble hibiscus syriacus, the bees love to visit the flowers. The red flowers in the back are crocosmias.

The same flower from another angle.

Hens and chicks are also in bloom at the moment.

Crocosmia lucifer, always performing abundantly every Summer

Hens and chicks with a few visitors; a yellow little violet who selfsowed in this pot.

This beauty is called mirabilis jalapa, always a succes, they have black seeds in the form of a pea, you put a seed in a small pot or straight in the garden and a few weeks later you have a lovely bushy plant with beautiful flowers, there are several colors, in a cold climate they die down in Autumn after the first frost but when they stay alive underground they form a big root who will turn into a bigger plant, you can try to dig up the roots before the first frost and keep them frost free, then plant them in the garden after the frost is gone.

Have a great week ! I hope you all have a lovely Summer. Take care.

June 12, 2023June 12, 2023

DO YOU SMELL THE ROSES ???

My roses were a few weeks later in bloom than other years cos of the cold and wet Spring we had, but now they are in full bloom and my garden smells of roses at the moment.

Rambling rose, rosa Guirlande d’Amour, I have it in my garden for almost 25 years and each year it blooms like this, we do not feed it nor do we water it. What you see now is the first bloom, after we cut all the faded flowers, it starts blooming again but not with as many flowers as you can see here, but it blooms till the first heavy frost. This rambler doesn’t grow as tall as the other ramblers, and it’s thorns are not as sharp as those of the other ones.

Rambler rose Francis E.Lester, a lovely rose, we cut it back last Winter to a few inches and it has grown again to 5 or 6 meters now , you can see all the buds, so it blooms for a long time, in Autumn it gets lovely orange rose hips for the birds. You can’t see it here but the thorns on the stems are horribly sharp, you really need very strong gloves to handle it.

Rosa Francis E. Lester.

This is rambler rose Seagull, a close relative of the rose Francis E. Lester, this one has horrible thorns as well. Ramblers use their thorns to climb in trees and bushes, normal climbing roses need to be tied to a bow or something else, they have long flabby branches who need a bit of help to climb. This one gets orange rose hips too, their thorns are equally sharp as the one’s from Francis.

Mind you, if you don’t cut ramblers back each year they’ll grow 10 to 20 meters high in a tree or over bushes.

The birds love climbing roses as they use them to hide from predators and to nest in them and in Winter they provide food. The roses are buzzing with all sorts of bees at the moment.

How many roses do you have in the garden ?

Have a great week and enjoy your garden.

September 7, 2020

DISASTER IN THE GREENHOUSE

I have a big grapevine in the greenhouse and it looked very promising for a long time, I never had so many big bunches of grapes as this year. But ofcourse they need time to ripen. Now that they all finally ripe and ready to eat they are attacted by hundreds of wasps eating away all my lovely grapes !! It is just dangerous entering the greenhouse at the moment. The also eat away the bell peppers and the tomatoes, not as bad as the grapes, but they are damaged too. The only veg they didn’t attack are the hot chilli peppers.

It is a problem many fruit growers have at the moment over here in Europe, they are everywhere where there is lovely sweet juicy fruit. A disaster for the professional fruit growers, more than for me ofcourse. But there is not much you can do apparently. I looked it up on the net.

**THIS IS HOW THE GRAPES LOOK AT THE MOMENT, YOU CAN SEE THE WASPS SITTING ON THEM. THEY JUST SUCKED ALL THE JUICE OUT.** (the picture is bad but I had to get out fast !!)

Well I suppose there are worse things in life, but it is such a waste of good fruit.

Have a great week you all and keep safe !

April 26, 2020

SILENT SUNDAY

IMG_3038 (2)

WHITE DIGITALIS (foxgloves) WITH DRAGONFLY

January 8, 2020

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

October 31, 2019

I AM THE LAST ONE

Hello, I am the last one in bloom of a bunch of sunflowers who got a chance to grow in October cos the birds in our garden dropped a few seeds and the weather cooperated also with warmth and rain .(see my post : “a late present” I posted earlier this month.

**THIS BEE IS ENJOYING THE SUN WHILST HARVESTING SOME POLLEN.**

Have a great day !

May 27, 2019

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN

Now that the weather is warming up the ticks are comming back to life and they are not picky; humans, mammals, birds, as long as it can take blood, it’s ok for a tick.

My husband breeds birds as a hobby and the other day he needed some help as he noticed one of his birds had a huge tick next to it’s eye and I am the tick destroyer in our household as I have a few dogs and grandkids and a husband of course. And as ticks can be life threatening I check for ticks every day.

I removed the tick on the bird and the bird is ok now.

Have a great week and look out for ticks !!

August 15, 2017

FOUND A BEES NEST

I was working in the garden the other day and I saw a small heap of cut leafs so I wanted to flatten it and all of a sudden the heap began to buzz !! Then I saw the bee’s. That was 2 days ago, by now they are rebuilding the heap but it is not yet as high as it was. I looked them up in a book about bees and they are farmworm bees (colletus daviesanus).

THIS IS THE FLATENED HEAP MADE OF CUT LEAFS

THE ENTRANCE OF THE NEST IS UNDER THE YELLOW TWIG, ALAS THEY WERE TOO FAST FOR MY CAMERA TO GET A PHOTO OF THEM

Have a great day !

June 8, 2017June 8, 2017

LOOK WHAT I FOUND TODAY

This morning when I was doing my round in the garden I saw a little white spider on one of my fuchsia plants, I think it is a crab spider.

CAN YOU SEE THE SMALL CLUMP OF BLACK ON ONE OF THE SMALL LEAFS ? COULD THESE BE HER EGGS ???? NORMALLY SHE IS WHITE BUT SHE CAN CHANGE INTO BRIGHT YELLOW ON A YELLOW FLOWER ! SHE NEEDS 10 TO 24 DAYS TO TURN YELLOW AND ONLY 6 DAYS TO TURN WHITE AGAIN.