The Walden Effect: Homesteading Year 4. Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Virgin's Bower and Bees

Honeybee on a Virgin's Bower flower


The fall flowers are starting to bloom, so I wandered outside to see which plants are attracting the honeybees.  Our worker bees seemed to be flying right past ironweed and wingstem and making a bee line directly toward the Virgin's Bower.

These pretty white flowers are relatives of the cultivated Clematis you might grow in your flower bed, but around here Virgin's Bower grows wild in open, weedy areas.  The vine is currently twined around several spots which I plan to "clean up" this winter --- knocking down the wild plants to make way for some extra berries.  Given Virgin's Bower's attractiveness to the bees, though, I wonder if I should move some into the forest garden to act as a nectary.



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