The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

Last week I received some replacement bees that I ordered back in January. I needed them for the hives that were lost earlier in the year.

You can purchase bees from various bee supply stores. They are not sold by the dozen or by the gross, instead you buy them by the pound, usually in 2 or 3 pound packages.  I bought the 3 pound size (about 12,000 bees).  It makes sense that the more individual bees you start out with, the quicker you can get your beehive up to optimum working strength for nectar collection and honey making.

The packaged bees are raised and then shipped from Florida. They make it to their new home in Michigan in less than a day by truck.

The shipping container is a wood frame box covered with window screening.

By prying open the top cover you can see that the container includes a can of sugar water for the bees to eat on their journey north.

A small screened cage that houses the honey bee queen is suspended inside the bee package as well. Keeping the queen in her own protective cage keeps her safe during the journey.

I had to take out the sugar water can so that the bees could be released through the opening.

Then the queen cage was removed.

The queen cage was hung between a couple of hive frames. The frames are what holds the honey combs in place inside the hive.

The fun part is when you shake the bees out of the container. I shook a few over the frames.

 The rest were poured out near the front entrance of the hive. They started up into the hive right away. The queen bee gives off a special scent that lets all of her worker bees know where she is at all times.

I added some sugar water in a plastic feeder and closed the whole thing up with an empty hive box.

Tomorrow I’ll check the new hives to make sure the queens are still alive . If so, then I’ll be pretty sure that the new hives have gotten off to a good start.

Bob

Our Monroe County Consumer Horticulture Educator, Jenny Stanger, will be hosting a Live Chat on Tuesday May 5th beginning at 11:30 am.

Jenny is your direct link to all of the horticulture resources at Michigan State University, so this will be a good chance to get your specific gardening questions answered right on the spot in real time.

Bob

I have found that there are two different groups of people when it comes to caring for an Easter lily after Easter.

One group of  simply let their Lily “run its  course” and then toss it away after it starts to fade. Most of these folks probably water the plant once or twice and then let it go.

On the other side of the equation is a group of people who would like to keep their Lily blooming as long as possible and maybe even save it for next year. Since you are reading this post, I’ll assume you belong to the second group and are interested in getting the most out of your Lily.

Easter Lilies like to be in a cool bright spot when they are inside a house. So, if you have a choice where to place it, choose the cooler spot away from any heating vents jut as long as it gets light from the window. Don’t worry too much about it though.

More important than location is watering. Since most Easter Lilies come with a pot wrapper, it is easy to kill a Lily with too much water.  The wrapper will trap water and not allow it to drain away, this will cause the roots to become water-logged and eventually die. This is the most common mistake people make in caring for their Lily. Be sure to dump out the excess water that drains into the wrapper after watering.

Cut off the blossoms as they fade. Once all the blossoms have come and gone, just care for it like a house plant. Feel the soil with your finger to get an idea how dry it is. The top of the soil should look and feel dry before watering again. 

I also like to pick up the pot and feel how much it weighs, a dry pot will feel quite a bit lighter than a wet or damp pot.

Sometime around Memorial Day, plant the Lily into a flower bed or other area with good soil and sunlight.

Sometimes the existing stalk will die back. When this happens, the Lily bulb will send up a new shoot and continue growing through the summer.

Then in the following year your Lily will surprise you with blossoms in July. They always surprise me because I usually forget that I planted them there until they bloom.

They don’t naturally bloom during Easter, we have to give them special conditions in a greenhouse to force them to do that. Forcing Easter Lilies is a complicated procedure. We force over 200 Lilies every year. It’s fun but also a challenge because Easter Sunday changes from year to year!

There’s no Federal law saying you have to save your Lily (at least not yet ;))  but it is easy to do and a lot of fun.

Bob

The economy and auto maker bail-outs have dominated the news so much that some of the stories that would normally be reported don’t get much coverage.

We have heard so much in the past about the White House Rose Garden, but are you aware that other plants are grown in the Rose Garden as well?  The White House gardeners have almost unlimited resources when it comes to plants and other gardening related items.  Many exotic species can be found growing there.

Several days ago, one of the more unusual plants caused the President Obama to have a some-what embarrassing moment.  Apparently he had a minor altercation with one of the Giant Venus Fly-trap plants growing in the Rose Garden. He suffered some minor scratches but shook it off in a good natured manner.

You can read the entire account by clicking here.

The last time I visited the White House I managed to snap a photo of one of these remarkable plants:

I’ll try to keep up with other newsworthy Presidential plant related articles in the future and share them with you on this site.

Bob

We put up the 4th week of our spring Exhibit at the Gardens.  My volunteers look forward to doing it even though it is chaotic.  We have to take out the past weeks old faded bulb flowers and put in new fresh ones.  Seeing  the cheery  daffodils, beautiful tulips, elegant bleeding hearts and vibrant  hyacinths that one of the other horticulturists grows for the exhibit, is so refreshing at this time of year.  Especially on a gray darkish day like we sometimes have in March.  It really gets our hopes up for spring!

If you receive or buy a potted tulip or hyacinth or daffodil for Easter, you can save it and plant it outside to bloom another year.  The simplest way is to plant the whole pot in the ground after danger of frost is passed.  Another way is to care for the bulb foliage in the pot, giving it light fertilizer and partial sun.  Once the foliage has turned yellow , cut the leaves off and take the bulbs out of the soil and store in a mesh bag, hanging it in a dry place like the garage.  Tulip bulbs are especially prone to rooting  if they stay too moist all summer.

Then replant the bulbs in the fall. Bulbs that have been forced used up a lot of energy so they will not flower again the next year.  It may take 2 or 3 years of growing and storing energy from the sunshine before they have enough energy to bloom again.

A lot of tulips actually don’t come back well.  Species tulips and old varieties are more likely to come back again.  Hyacinths usually come back and bloom again and daffodils come back very well.  You can even get daffodils to naturalize very well.

Enjoy your beautiful flowers this Easter and then enjoy them for years to come!

Happy spring,

Judy