Hey, if you happen to see the most beautiful flowers in the world, share!

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival -- Skagit Valley, Washington

 

[.oldschool]

Here beautress.

 

[WinterBorn]

Like honey? Bees and Flowers make the sweet treat collected by very brave beekeepers.
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We had bees for a few years. All the flowers in the neighborhood thrived because of it. And the honey we harvested was far superior to what is sold in stores.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Any day now, with a little luck from warm breezes, we will be treated to seeing fields of bluebonnets, our state flower. A native of the state, I never saw bluebonnet fields until I was ten years old, when we drove from our Houston big city home to more northerly fields where we saw hill after hill, and field after field of the Texas State Flower. No wonder they picked bluebonnets. Oddly, you don't see them in other states, and here, we often see them mixed in with Indian paintbrushes on the roadsides heralded by First Lady, Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson when she encouraged wild flowers to grow along Interstate Highways from coast to coast. There are fields like this mainly in cow country, which is like ubiquitous in Texas. lol!

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Yep.
Everytime we drove to our weekend place on the south Llano river we'd look for the Mesquite to start greening up and for Bluebonnets.
Dont know if you've ever heard of Leon Hale was a writer for the Houston Chronicle and before that the Houston Post but he and his buddies would head out I-10 west to see if the mesquite was greening up which meant spring was here.
Another sure fire way to know that spring is here is when the pecan trees start putting out new leaves.

 

[beautress]

We had bees for a few years. All the flowers in the neighborhood thrived because of it. And the honey we harvested was far superior to what is sold in stores.

I am so delighted to hear that. They say local honey has a healing property called immunity, and who knows what you avoided getting while you had your own wonderful treat of honey that nutritionists now are very enthusiastic about! Once I knew that, I drove 50 miles to College Station to buy a huge glass jar of local honey. They have the same plants around as we, similar weather patterns, and it was gone in 2 years. We now have a store that sells only local products. I know just who to find. Thanks for the reminder. Now, to find a bee hive! Insects don't bother me much, because they respect a worker, who doesn't intentionally get in their road, when they see one.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

I am so delighted to hear that. They say local honey has a healing property called immunity, and who knows what you avoided getting while you had your own wonderful treat of honey that nutritionists now are very enthusiastic about! Once I knew that, I drove 50 miles to College Station to buy a huge glass jar of local honey. They have the same plants around as we, similar weather patterns, and it was gone in 2 years. We now have a store that sells only local products. I know just who to find. Thanks for the reminder. Now, to find a bee hive! Insects don't bother me much, because they respect a worker, who doesn't intentionally get in their road, when they see one.

Honey is incredible medicine! I wish there were enough fruit trees and gardens around to justify having a hive at my home. But then, I'm just about 300 feet from a cornfield and who knows what that farmer puts on his corn?

 

[beautress]

Yep.
Everytime we drove to our weekend place on the south Llano river we'd look for the Mesquite to start greening up and for Bluebonnets.
Dont know if you've ever heard of Leon Hale was a writer for the Houston Chronicle and before that the Houston Post but he and his buddies would head out I-10 west to see if the mesquite was greening up which meant spring was here.
Another sure fire way to know that spring is here is when the pecan trees start putting out new leaves.

I bought 10 pecan trees the first 2 years we moved here. Only two made it to still be alive 12 years later. Unfortunately, the birds are smarter than me. I don't really know when it's time to harvest, and when it's good and fall, I go out there, and some little thieves have taken all of them the night before. Someday, when the trees are bigger, maybe I can harvest them and bake a pecan pie. A 12 year old tree puts out, and it was probably 2 years in the plant nursery when I got them. It was just too dry until about 2013 for the ones that didn't make it, in spite of watering them daily. In the hot weather, you probably would be smart to run a ground hose that leaks constantly over their roots. But the weather has returned to normal now, and I'm grateful my 2 survivors are healthy trees. The pecans are the last trees to put out leaves around here. There were a lot of trees on my acreage, but not one single pecan tree. So I planted the first year. And the second.

 

[beautress]

Honey is incredible medicine! I wish there were enough fruit trees and gardens around to justify having a hive at my home. But then, I'm just about 300 feet from a cornfield and who knows what that farmer puts on his corn?

Ask him! Meanwhile, I asked my search engine if bees pollinated corn. It answered positively: "Corn is usually described as “wind pollinated,” but honey bees love to gather its pollen to take back to their hive to feed to their babies. As the bees rummage through the corn tassels, they release clouds of pollen that drift away to land on the silks of the female flowers."

You would be better off asking a local agricultural school the same question of the agricultural botanist in the school, but I have a hunch between your flowers and your farmer neighbor, both would benefit from a hive in productivity and increased yields.

 

[beautress]

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival -- Skagit Valley, Washington

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That is totally beautiful, OPJQ. Thanks for sharing that happy field picture.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I bought 10 pecan trees the first 2 years we moved here. Only two made it to still be alive 12 years later. Unfortunately, the birds are smarter than me. I don't really know when it's time to harvest, and when it's good and fall, I go out there, and some little thieves have taken all of them the night before. Someday, when the trees are bigger, maybe I can harvest them and bake a pecan pie. A 12 year old tree puts out, and it was probably 2 years in the plant nursery when I got them. It was just too dry until about 2013 for the ones that didn't make it, in spite of watering them daily. In the hot weather, you probably would be smart to run a ground hose that leaks constantly over their roots. But the weather has returned to normal now, and I'm grateful my 2 survivors are healthy trees. The pecans are the last trees to put out leaves around here. There were a lot of trees on my acreage, but not one single pecan tree. So I planted the first year. And the second.

You sure it wasn't squirrels that were the culprit?
It takes three to four years for a pecan tree to put out nuts.
We were lucky that our pecan trees were fully mature when we bought our riverfront property in Junction
I picked up enough of them for our personal use and used the rest to bait the squirrels in for some good eating.
Harvest time is when the outer shell starts to split and they start dropping from the tree.

 

[beautress]

Here beautress.

Thank you for the awesome videos on Australian wildflowers and their amazing diversity. One of the shots reminded me of a drive we took through west Texas one spring probably 30 years ago or more in springtime. Different flowers in your 2 videos, however, and so beautiful. I recall our views were yellow flowers on the low-growing prickly, and the pink ones on the mound type of desert succulent. And one day, we witnessed the march of the tarantullas. They were everywhere, crossing roads, all headed the same direction. Deserts each have their own surprises you remember for a lifetime. The beauty of Australian dryland plants is phenomenal, although I've never been down under. Thanks so much for sharing the flowers that grow there.

 

[beautress]

You sure it wasn't squirrels that were the culprit?
It takes three to four years for a pecan tree to put out nuts.
We were lucky that our pecan trees were fully mature when we bought our riverfront property in Junction
I picked up enough of them for our personal use and used the rest to bait the squirrels in for some good eating.
Harvest time is when the outer shell starts to split and they start dropping from the tree.

I have no idea the culprits, but they must have worked magically to get them off my property overnight. And not one single hull was left on the ground, each and every year. Those little twits. Hopefully, they planted some trees close to the lake that supports a family of elegant Great white egrets every summer. The great birds come and are long gone by pecan bearing time, as I recall.

 

[WinterBorn]

I am so delighted to hear that. They say local honey has a healing property called immunity, and who knows what you avoided getting while you had your own wonderful treat of honey that nutritionists now are very enthusiastic about! Once I knew that, I drove 50 miles to College Station to buy a huge glass jar of local honey. They have the same plants around as we, similar weather patterns, and it was gone in 2 years. We now have a store that sells only local products. I know just who to find. Thanks for the reminder. Now, to find a bee hive! Insects don't bother me much, because they respect a worker, who doesn't intentionally get in their road, when they see one.

They were a joy to watch and work. Sadly, the hive split and one half swarmed away, despite us putting another hive in the yard. Mites got the remaining hive. We did not replace it.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I have no idea the culprits, but they must have worked magically to get them off my property overnight. And not one single hull was left on the ground, each and every year. Those little twits. Hopefully, they planted some trees close to the lake that supports a family of elegant Great white egrets every summer. The great birds come and are long gone by pecan bearing time, as I recall.

It was probably squirrels.
They're sneaky little shits.

 

[beautress]

It was probably squirrels.
They're sneaky little shits.

Demons, they are! And ungrateful, too. I have a centenial acorn-bearing oak tree out front that has accompanied a bazillion birds, but only a handful of elusive little demon squirrels. I think they invade the pecan trees once and only once per annum, which is the day they ripen. I think they invented the blitzkreig that tortured Europe in the forties of last century. They ARE demons if it's them, that is. The little boogers should stay in the oak tree.

 

[beautress]

They were a joy to watch and work. Sadly, the hive split and one half swarmed away, despite us putting another hive in the yard. Mites got the remaining hive. We did not replace it.

I'm learning Spanish, and they have the perfect saying for such a tragic loss as was your loss of a hive--"lo siento" (I'm so sorry or it's a sad feeling) It's probably a lot of work, and the bees likely get pissy on take out day. Maybe you're better off, but your immune system isn't unless you have a friendly neighbor you could barter a quart of honey off of him, even a pint would be good for your cold season when micro bugs hang out to invade a human body with low immunity skills. I toast the bees:

​

 

[beautress]

Rockcress

 

[WinterBorn]

I'm learning Spanish, and they have the perfect saying for such a tragic loss as was your loss of a hive--"lo siento" (I'm so sorry or it's a sad feeling) It's probably a lot of work, and the bees likely get pissy on take out day. Maybe you're better off, but your immune system isn't unless you have a friendly neighbor you could barter a quart of honey off of him, even a pint would be good for your cold season when micro bugs hang out to invade a human body with low immunity skills. I toast the bees:

​

Actually, it wasn't much work. The bees do what bees do. We harvested honey 2 or 3 times during the season. It wasn't bad, since we have bee-suits and smokers. Probably the worst thing was processing honeycomb and honey. You know how when you eat pancakes or waffles and you get a little syrup on you? Then suddenly there are sticky spots everywhere? Multiply that and you have an idea of the number of sticky spots in our kitchen.

 

[beautress]

Actually, it wasn't much work. The bees do what bees do. We harvested honey 2 or 3 times during the season. It wasn't bad, since we have bee-suits and smokers. Probably the worst thing was processing honeycomb and honey. You know how when you eat pancakes or waffles and you get a little syrup on you? Then suddenly there are sticky spots everywhere? Multiply that and you have an idea of the number of sticky spots in our kitchen.

Did a little research about "cleaning sticky honey" and came up with the answer to all my sticky kitchen problems, too! How Do You Remove Sticky Honey - SeniorCare2Share

Most all the cures boil down to hot water and vinegar, but there are exceptions. I really like gingerbread, so I always keep a jar of Grandma's mollasses in the kitchen, using it for other things, too. They even had a quick spick-n-span idea for that, too. Again, very hot water, covered by 2 paper towels and a layer of saran wrap, set for a few minute, voila! The search engine also showed several commercial products, like green something and well, a lot of solutions..

 

[beautress]

A couple of years ago, I planted something called "knockout roses" One is red, the other, yellow. They were really pretty the first year. The second year, I got the surprise of my life. They had 4 or 5 "seasons" and they bloomed like there was no tomorrow. I can't say fabulous enough timeknockout" group. , they've added colors to the "knockout" group. They make life for a dismal farmer like myself a somewhat undeserved joy, considering how hard life has been with the one-after-another issues of aging have stricken. Pain can sure kick a hole in your plans for attacking the weeds. *sigh* But inspite of their neglect, they really did good last summer. It was close to Christmas when the last surprise of 3 or 4 dozen blooms per bush dominoed the otherwise spent garden out front.