Something? What do I talk about today?
The Bumblebees in my garden? They love my Mutant Marigolds. I call them mutant because I don't know what else to call them. I love marigolds, they are such an easy flower to grow, produce continuous flowers for months, and importantly are deer resistant. Deer just don't eat them, unlike almost everything else I've tried to plant.
This is a little bee video, not sure this will work.
So I planted one of the tall domestic varieties with the big puffy orange blooms one year (don't remember which brand) and collected the seeds. And I planted those seeds the next year and got the same flower, and collected seeds again for the next year. So by the time I planted the 3rd or 4th generation of seeds I expected to get the same thing but they started to change to something different. Eventually after another year or two this is what I have, my Mutant Marigolds that the bees adore.
This (below) is a sleeping baby bumblebee. The little ones show up later in the summer and sleep on the flowers overnight. I read they get pushed out of their nests when there are too many of them. Sort of sad. Nature is harsh.
But I really don't think these flowers are mutants. They seem to be going back to the wild. I found a paper that called it Feralization. But what do I know? I don't know anything about plant science. I just grow flowers. But I don't think they are done "going wild". They keep getting taller. I've had plants over six feet tall. And this isn't even a great spot for marigolds because it does not get sun all day. What would they become growing out in the middle of a field?
Something else. A lot of other bugs love these flowers.
Photo bombed by an inchworm.
Something else maybe going wild? Probably not.
This is my catnip.
Thanks for reading.
Aileen
I'm sure there is something else I can post later.
