I am bringing in the New Year with another follow the bloom thread for the 2015 season. Hope all blooms come early ,produce heavily, and last for a good spell. Hats off to all beekeepers, new and not so new. :)
Thoughts of spring are upon many of us already as things way down south are starting already.Let the blooms begin.
lots pf different flowers here Hibiscus the others were to far from the road to recognize
oh and Mexican clover in the lawns it is raining today
Saw a small patch of white clover (ladino) blooming yesterday!
Elmore (zone 7a) & Montgomery(zone 7b) Counties - henbit has been blooming for a week or so. Also yellow looking flowers out in the fields of both counties. Maybe wild turnip?
Montgomery - wood sorrel for about a week now.
Of course the Camelia's have been blooming a while now.
Heather blooming, but weather too foul for bees.
Maple in bloom here. I have not seen it yet, friends have seen it. My observation hive is filling up with nectar and pollen, yea. They are even building new comb. the normal brood area is now filled in and with capped brood. Drone cells are being filled with honey.
Jim
It seems very early this year but my neighbors Cherry tree is blooming and the alders are putting out their pollen thingys. On nice days my bees are very active bringing in loads of pollen. I am concerned as this is easily a month early. I still expect another hard freeze before winter is really over here.
Yellow bells with only one or two blooms for about a week or two now.
Daffodils - Elmore County
White clover has been growing and blooming for a few weeks now. Other weeds getting going but I don't know what they are called. :shocked:
South Florida Salix Caroliniana male and female flowers being worked
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/03/32ff6174e214ecbd495dfe3221b08c58.jpg)
Here in Central Arkansas the weather is up and down. Yesterday high of 38 degree F and last night it got down to 21 degrees F and today suppose to be 50. Thursday high of 38 degrees F then 60's this weekend and mid 50's next week. The bees are bringing a little off white pollen from somewhere. I am feeding Ultra Bee pollen substitute until the pollen flow starts good.
I do have candy boards on all my hives.
The honey flow was bad here last season and alot of bee keepers are losing bees from what I believe is a lack of food.
One bee keeper had 1,000 hives and has lost 300 hives as of 2 weeks ago.
Another had 5 hives and now has 2 live ones and another lost all 10 hives.
Spiderwort starting to bloom. Some Spanish Needle and Bottlebrush bushes.
Cherry laurel prunus caroliniana are popping open and bees have been working one of the early blooming viburnums for about two weeks.
Silver maple is beginning to flower, but I haven't seen my bees bringing in any pollen yet.
Correction: They are bringing in a lot of light yellow pollen today!
Soon to be a sea of yellow Canola.
The red maple has buds that should be opening any day now. Happy happy.
The only bad thing about this thread is bloom envy! :cheesy:
Japanese Magnolia in Montgomery Alabama
p.s. - It'll be on the ground by this time next week. A couple nights in the low 20's and teens forecasted in a couple of days.
This is two months early here, but magnolia, fruitless plum, cherry, heather. Sugar maples, alder, hazlenut are throwing whatever those things are. Sure am worried about a hard freeze. We usually get one in March.
Henbit and some dandelions is what I'm seeing on the ground now. Not good at identifying trees yet.
Birmingham, AL
Red maple has been blooming for a month now, lots of wild mustard in the area and now cherry laurel is in full bloom. bees are ready for a swarm.
Quote from: Foxhound on February 16, 2015, 10:51:46 PM
Henbit and some dandelions is what I'm seeing on the ground now. Not good at identifying trees yet.
Birmingham, AL
Seeing the same here
Saw the first blackberry blossom today.
Bloom envy from cold crappy weather. For a change the winter here in the NW has been relatively warm and dry. This is evident, even before the end of February, apple and cherry trees are in full bloom. Crocus is up. Red maple is blooming. Big leaf maple is going off soon. Hazlenut in bloom. Various ground covers in bloom such as Vinca.
Sorry for your cold, but loving this warm winter here.
Wild blackberries in full bloom. A few bees on the yellow burr clover too.
I saw maple trees in bloom. I had to check real close because I thought they were done weeks ago.
Jim
I saw a peach tree with 3 blooms opened in Montgomery. Also about a week ago I saw some wood sorrel.
My little apple tree is in full bloom. Hope we get to eat some of the fruit. :grin:
Our pear trees opened up and is starting to put out blooms.
Laurel cherry is in full bloom, citrus is starting to bloom good and azaleas are still blooming.
I saw my first dandelion bloom of the year two days ago. I haven't seen another, but I'm excited. Pollen is coming in heavy.
I still have waist deep snow.
Henbit blooming :cool:
Black cherry.
I have noticed dandelion blooms about all winter here. My Red Buds are popping open. Early Peaches will be soon. d2
Here in central Arkansas the Elm trees are blooming,Red Maple, Cedar DeadKnettle and the plums are fixing to bloom.?
Chickweed has been blooming for a week, henbit is just starting, my crocuses started yesterday, Easter flowers are just starting to open up, and the elm trees are blooming too. My bees are busy bringing in whatever pollen they can find. :happy:
Red maple opened today in Louisa, VA.
Willow has been blooming this week here.
We still have enough snow to cross country ski and snow shoe. It is still about a foot deep in most places. That said the maples (I don't know the variety but not sugar maples) are starting to get buds.
My neighbor said there are honey bees all over her crabapple trees. Dogwoods and red buds are at peak; beautiful.
Sarvis is in full bloom, Redbuds are close to opening, first Burford pear blossom opened today, Bradford pear waning.
Dandylions have been popping up everywhere this week and my bees were all over my plum trees today.
i've got hen bit, clover, blackberry and privet all blooming at the same time. i'e never seen this before.
Gallberry is opening and looks like palmetto is about to.
New York City -
The croci and daffodils are blooming, no dandelion yet, a few tulips, a few ornamental pear trees. Nothing that a bee would use, I'm thinking. The weather (50's days/40's nights) with a wind off the ocean is keeping it cooler.
maple, willow have been going strong, dandelion just started, its a nice slow start for spring (normal in Wisconsin) just got the packages in today so they will get a majority of the bloom this year. I have a feeling its going to be a banner year here, fingers crossed!!
I have had maple and willow too. Yesterday I finally saw an on rush of Dandelion,and lots of tulips are out.I see the black locust finally starting to show some sign of life,although nowhere near thoughts of bloom.
Tupelo, and gallberry in bloom, palmetto is getting close.
Jim
Tulip poplar is open at Maymont in Richmond, but not in Louisa yet.
Elaeagnus umbellata [Autumn olive] going full blast here. Smells like heaven.
Tulip Poplar opened today in Louisa.
We are getting rain today,and nice weather tomorrow. I expect that will push out my apple blossoms.
My peaches opened two or three days ago.
Apples are in full bloom as are other fruit trees, dandelions are going strong now, oaks are just coming to life, haven't seen the black locust do anything should soon with the hit and miss 80's, 50 degrees today
Tupelo is still in bloom. I have a trees out 50 feet from my workshop that I am building and I had to check out where the loud buzz was coming from. Palmetto is still in bud.
Jim
Saw bees working tallow yesterday!
Native holly in full bloom, bees going nuts, lindens on deck.
St. John's Wort and the bees are packing the pollen away like mad.
Black locust and black cherry in bloom, but cool weather to set in the next couple days. :sad:
Lows in the 40's high in the sixties. Not too far from normal, but not as nice as we have been having the last week.
Bees were working on popcorn trees ( Chinese Tallow). Not a lot of activity at the hives but the trees were full of bees.
Jim
First linden opened today. No bees yet.
Bees on white clover.
Could you post a photo of the linden tree bloom?
I can snag some pics tomorrow, the tree is 20 mi up the road from me.
Here's one off the web in the meantime.
(http://treepittsburgh.org/sites/default/files/styles/66percent/public/images/events/treepittsburgh_bees_linden.jpg?itok=axGWQx12)
I'm starting to see crape myrtles open here. Saw bees on them 2 weeks ago in downtown Jax. Odd enough there are a few stands of goldenrod with some blooms open too. A little bit of palmetto seems to be around still.
Black locust in full bloom here. Iris buds are starting and blueberry bushes are in bloom.
In Baker county, the commercial beeks pulled the supers off of their hives. They will probably remove them this week. Usually that means that everything is done until fall but the popcorn trees are in full bloom with lots of bees on them.
Jim
The Sumac and multiflora rose blooming now.Different wildflowers are starting to pop out. The noneybees and bumblebees are crazy about the flowering fronds on the asparagus too,.
Chestnuts, white clover full blown and Sumac getting ready to pop. G
Lupine has been blooming for a while but I saw some Joe pie weed and milkweed with buds today.
I have a few milkweed flowers open but lots of buds on the rest of them. I also have a lot of clover in bloom.
A big sumac I saw bees on last year has been blooming a week or so.
Summer in the Keys....Royal Poinciania is in bloom, Coconut and other Palms, my Macadamia Nut tree is blooming in the front yard, the secondary Gumbo Limbo bloom is on and as always the ever blooming Jatropha trees are covered from dawn until 10 am every day. The girls are presented with a rainbow of pollen colors and judging by what they are bringing back they are hitting a little bit of everything. All is well in Paradise :-)
KLB,
I don't know about Key Largo but there is a beekeeper in Tampa Bay area that has documented pulling 100# of honey per hive, 4 times a year. That is right, 400 pound per hive per year. He only had 4 hives. His income exceeded the $15,000 per year limit for hobbyist beekeeping. The inspector told him not to worry about it.
Let us know if you end up seeing anything close to this.
Jim
I'm seeing Goldenrain trees starting to bloom. No Brazilian pepper yet.
The blackberry's are starting to come into bloom, we have 100's of acres of wild blackberry's in our area, also the white clover is well into bloom.
Yep plenty on blackberries here. And prickly box ( hopefully till end of january) guess that depends on rainfall as to how productive they'll be.
Quote from: Flycaster on December 23, 2015, 05:26:09 PM
Yep plenty on blackberries here. And prickly box ( hopefully till end of january) guess that depends on rainfall as to how productive they'll be.
Where is "here," please?
Key Largo, that's a fine picture you've added.
Tasmania. Australia 😊
Thanks Dallas....my sis is a whiz with graphics programs ;-)
Old man winter has failed to bloom down here this year