The good, the bad and the ugly

10 years ago

First the good.
After all the news about the declining bee population I was very happy to see my oakleaf hydrnagea absolutely covered with honey bees.

Now for the bad and the ugly. I have a very large pine tree in my garden and it had two huge broken branches that I was afraid would fall and kill someone so I arranged to have them removed. I was disappointed to be scheduled while I was away, but I'd talked to the worker who assured my he'd be mindful of my plants. The good part is he did a very nice job on the tree, but I hate to think what would have happened if he hadn't been mindful of my plants.

At least 20 plants now have no scapes and probably a dozen more have some scapes broken off. Also many of the markers were knocked out. I was able to put back most of the damaged labels for the named plants, but many of the seedlings will be a mystery.

On the bright side I don't have as much deadheading to do.
Val

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Comments (9)

organic_kitten
10 years ago
Oh good grief! The tree man needs beating! I am so sorry, Val, and it is so unnecessary. Good on the bees, however.
kay
shive
10 years ago
So sorry to see what happened with the tree trimming. Poor scapes. On the bright side, the plants are still alive. I'm glad the bees have returned to your area. Do you, or anyone else reading this, know if bees can get drunk on nectar? I've noticed the ones working my butterfly bush have been falling on the daylily blooms and acting sedated or drunk.

Debra
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Nancy
10 years ago
I'm so sorry about your scape loss. Maybe you will get reblooms from those, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Debra, I have noticed lots of bees acting drunk this year, been wondering what was going on. I know when my pears start ripening, bees & wasps definitely seem to go on a binge.
Waitforspring
Original Author
10 years ago
Yes, I think bees can definitely get drunk and sometimes seem to almost pass out in the flowers. I don't know how many bees were on that hydrangea, but it had to be hundreds. So far this group seemed to be sober.

I do think most of the daylilies will survive, but I sure hate not seeing them this season. Maybe since they didn't get a chance to bloom they will put up rebloom scapes.
Val
nat4b
10 years ago
Oh, so sorry about broken scapes and fans. I totally know how you feel. Happened here last year. I wanna say a word for tree guys though. It is very hard not to break anything when daylilies have scapes already and are big. Our guys were very good (his mother is a gardener), and I was present, and yet.. some daylilies had to skip a season.
And you'll have more sun now!

LOL at drunk bees :) :) I'm glad you got them in your garden! Haven't seen those in years.
shive
10 years ago
Thanks for your bee responses. They are hysterical!
newyorkrita
10 years ago
I have lots of bees on my hydrangeas also so all that is very good. You should have deducted from the cost of your tree mans work due to all that damage.
Julia WV (6b)
10 years ago
Oh goodness. Good that you see the light side to having your plants trampled.
I love hydrangeas but not enough shade here to grow them proper.

Julia
Waitforspring
Original Author
10 years ago
Rita, if I deducted the cost of the daylilies he'd end up owing me money! I don't want to get him mad. He does good tree work and his price was the best I found. Normally I don't have tree work done in gardening season, but this was a dangerous situation. I think most of the daylilies will be fine next year.
Val