More Bees

When I first moved into this new home in mid-October, there were no bees present. Since I spend a lot of time in my landscape, I am certain that none were here. As I wrote previously, a southern blueberry bee rectified that about a month later and it visited a wall of non-native morning glory that was climbing the privacy fence that borders my neighbor to my north, but it was alone. I could count on seeing it daily during those first two months, but there were no other species present, though I had a few flowering plants that should have interested others. A dear friend had given me a key lime tree as a house-warming present and when it bloomed in early winter, I despaired that I would get any fruit. At my previous home that I had landscaped heavily with native plants, honeybees would have been all over it, but here none showed up to do the task of pollinating it for me. I eventually hand pollinated most of the open flowers hoping for a positive outcome.
The honeybees eventually showed up as the Spanish needles (Bidens alba) that I had left in various corners of my yard produced more blooms and over time a few other bees, butterflies, and other pollinators made an appearance too. It has been a slow process, however. Since those early days, I have been actively planting my wildflower area in the front yard and adding trees and shrubs to the back - some of them also being host plants for various butterflies. It has made a dramatic difference.
In the past month or so, the honeybees have again become rather scarce for some reason unknown to me, but the diversity of other bees and their kin has increased significantly. All together, I've counted at least a dozen species that are here on a somewhat regular basis and today I added two new ones that made my day. As late afternoon approached, I saw two long-horned bees settling in on the branch of one of my saplings and the first carpenter bee worked its way into an open hole in my rain gutter. Though it was supposed to use my bee box, I cut it some slack. It is welcome to use whatever it wishes.
If you spend as much time in your landscape as I do, you quickly learn that different bees are more prone to use certain flowers more than others. I have a very tiny bee that I have yet to identify that prefers my beardtongues (Penstemon spp.) - I have planted all three species native to Florida. The small sweat bees use my two tickseeds (Coreopsis spp.) more than anything else and they are one of the few that I can always see using the blooms of my shiny conefower (Rudbeckia nitida). Monarch butterflies are nearly the only pollinator that visits my blooming milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) though lately a medium-sized beetle is a daily visitor.
Diversity is the key to any landscape designed to provide real food habitat to the wide world of pollinating insects. It is not done effectively by relying on just a few species. In nature, they tend to segregate themselves on different blooms. It needs to be that way in a home landscape as well. Bare dirt and decaying wood to nest in and stems of different sizes to spent their nights in. 
Right now, I have the caterpillars of four butterflies eating the leaves of various plants. I've seen others lately and I expect that they will eventually decide to stay and lay eggs as well.

Creating a living landscape takes time, thought, and planning. I like to think I've done my homework in these regards, but time will tell. Life comes to even the most sterile areas if we give it an opportunity.