HelpfulGardener.com

Lots of dandelions blooming, but the bees are not interested in working them. There is an apple tree in bloom and the bees are working those blossoms. There is an ornamental plum tree in bloom and not a bee on it.

The bees were out on the alyssum, honeysuckle, and Jamaican oregano yesterday. Today, the skies are ugly so I think they stayed close to the hive.

I have a southern magnolia tree that produces large flowers (both in size and quantity) this time of year; however, bees don't touch them, supposedly because the tree evolved flowers way back before bees and the tree evolved alongside beetles and various flies, which are the primary pollinators of this species of trees.

I've often wondered, if stressed if a bee could use this flower as a source of food.

BTW, they call the beetles and flies that pollinate the magnolia as 'dumb pollinators' and bees as 'smart pollinators'; however, they must not be too dumb, since this tree produces tons of seed pods every year and each seed pod has a ton of seeds. https://pollinators.blogspot.com/2011/06 ... ation.html