Looking to attract more pollinators to your garden?
Consider blanket flower - in this case, the hybrid
Gaillardia x
grandiflora,
a cross between
G. aristata (
native to the Western U.S.) and
G. pulchella (
native across the Southern U.S. all the way from Arizona to North Carolina).
 |
| I believe this is a green metallic sweat bee (Agapostemon genus) |
 |
| A bumblebee visits a blanket flower. |
 |
| A small bee and an even smaller bee share the same blanket flower. |
 |
This big guy (or gal) is a carpenter bee - like a bumblebee, only bigger, shinier and buzzier.
See those fuzzy balls in the background? Those are the spent flowers! They're so adorable that there's no need to deadhead. And besides, I believe the seeds are attractive to little birds (e.g., goldfinches). Blanket flower has a reputation of being a little short-lived, but in my garden, I've found that it reseeds gently , which helps it persist and even expand over time. |
