The Bumbles Are Still Busy

By all reports it is a good year for the monarch butterfly migration, but I haven’t seen any at my house. I did see them at a park down the road, happily feasting on Georgia aster (Symphyotrichum georgianum).  Thank you to Marcia for donating those asters and to Richard for planting and nurturing them. Other folks throughout the Atlanta metro area are reporting sightings and it’s been marvelous to hear about it.

At my house, the tiny white asters (Symphyotrichum dumosum and Symphyotrichum racemosum) are having a very good couple of weeks and, as I stood outside wondering about monarchs, I noticed just how very popular they are with small bumble bees. The flowers on the plants gently moved up and down as bees in a variety of sizes quickly sipped and moved on. The tiniest of the bumble bees are my favorite.

I went inside for the camera, adjusted it for light and upped the shutter speed in order to capture some of them. The plants were covered in tiny blooms, and the bees found them all. As they swiftly moved from flower to flower, most of them seemed to be interested only in nectar. Only a few of them had pollen on their legs. A couple of carpenter bees were there too but they were quite sluggish. A single honey bee wove in and out.

My front bed is a sea of blue mistflower (Conoclinium) and white asters (Symphyotrichum)

A female gathering pollen and nectar

A male wants only nectar

As I drive around town these days, I often see the bright white of these tiny asters peeking out from roadsides. Some are tall, untouched by man or beast. Others have been cut down and they’ve re-sprouted. The flowers can be so dense and the plants numerous enough to be noticed at 45 mph. I pulled over one day this week to look at a large population near an apartment complex. An undeveloped field hosted scores of hairy oldfield aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum), lots of grasses, some bitterweed (Helenium amarum), dogfennel (Eupatorium capillifolium), and the occasional piece of goldenrod (Solidago altissima).

Late season flowers are so important to a wide variety of insects, from migrating monarchs to my tiny bumble bees. Be sure to plan for late season flowers, include them in your garden, and encourage people to leave wild edges in place. It makes a difference.

Here is one of the Monarch butterflies on the Georgia aster at the park that I mentioned in the beginning. These robust plants were protected from deer so they were bigger and more floriferous than any I have seen in the wild (or my garden!). And while I have found that the deer also might munch on the small white asters, those species adapt very well and manage to flower with abundance.