Waiting For Bees

My key lime is starting to flower
In the past few days, my new key lime has started to flower. I've been anticipating this day ever since I planted it. In my former home, my tree produced large numbers of fruit and I relish them.  To me, having fresh key limes is one of the best things about living here in Florida. The tree will serve as a larval host plant for any giant swallowtails that might eventually make an appearance, but to be truthful this plant is here for me first and foremost.
Like so many flowering plants, my tree will need to be pollinated by bees to produce fruit and I remain anxious about whether any will visit.  To date, I have seen honeybees only twice in my landscape and only for very brief times. I have yet to see one now that the flowers have opened on my lime and I have watched for them periodically over the last few days since these flowers have fully opened. None of the native bees are visible either and it may well be that I do not get limes this year.
I am living in a virtual desert right now from the perspective of pollinators. Actually, that is not fair because a desert would have them. A honeybee may travel over a mile to reach a good nectar source; most native pollinators need to be much closer. The fact that none have yet to visit my lime tells me that I have a longer way to go before my landscape can support the life I seek.
Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators need habitat to exist and that requires much more than flowers to nectar from. They need a place to raise their young and they need land not routinely sprayed with insecticides. The honeybees I seek require a safe place to establish their hive, bumblebees need a decaying mulch/brush pile or a shallow excavated cavity, and many of the others need open soil to excavate their own. I have created some areas of mounded open soil for the green metallic and the leafcutter bees and I have built a small bamboo nest box for the mason bees, but they have not yet found me. It will take a lot for them to do so as my landscape is surrounded by sterile yards devoid of nectar plants and, I suspect, largely treated with insecticides for lawn insect pests.
It takes time and forethought to create a real oasis for pollinators. Over time, my landscape will have most of the host plants the butterflies in my region of the state require and it will contain many more flowering plant species. Right now, it is a work in its earliest stages and so I wait and hope that my lime will bear fruit before I have to wait until next spring.

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 7, 2019 at 2:01 PM

    While reading this I thought of this: "Dotted horsemint (Monarda punctata), or spotted beebalm is Florida's version of a genus widely used in wildflower gardens throughout North America. It may not be quite as showy as some of those other species, but it is just as fantastic in bringing in a huge assortment of pollinating insects. When in bloom, you will see species of bees and pollinating wasps that you never knew existed in your area and it is a show not repeated by the use of any other wildflower." http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/11/dotted-horsemint-monarda-punctata.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. YvonneFebruary 17, 2019 at 3:58 PM

    Your post tugged at my heart strings, for the barren landscape and for my friend who years for both pollinators and limes ♡

    ReplyDelete

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