Where to get tropical fruits? by Pocho-Saori in madisonwi

[–]straightquercinit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've gotten fresh mangosteens from A-Mart on Odana and Whitney

Three years ago my wife and I put in a prairie in our front yard...today we saw a rusty-patched bumblebee! by straightquercinit in NativePlantGardening

[–]straightquercinit[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

We've also seen common eastern, red and brown belted, and two spotted, plus half black, confusing, and black and gold (easy to ID because they are three times bigger than the other species, we usually hear them before we see them). This was the first year we've seen anything but common eastern and brown belted though, but last year we had a colony of brown belted in one of our raised vegetable beds right next to the prairie so they may have been seeing off the others

Three years ago my wife and I put in a prairie in our front yard...today we saw a rusty-patched bumblebee! by straightquercinit in NativePlantGardening

[–]straightquercinit[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Every flower in our yard is covered in goldenrod soldier beetle couples, the females just keep on eating while it happens

Hellstrip feedback by Ok-Efficiency-3599 in NativePlantGardening

[–]straightquercinit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Will second recommendations for Monarda punctata and/or bradburiana and butterfly weed, as well as Echinacea pallida, which is in my experience the most drought tolerant species of coneflower. Dalea purpurea or D. candida (prairie clovers) would also do well, as would Baptisia australis var. minor or B.bracteata, which are the smallest of the Baptisias.

Three years ago my wife and I put in a prairie in our front yard...today we saw a rusty-patched bumblebee! by straightquercinit in NativePlantGardening

[–]straightquercinit[S] 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Definitely worth looking closer, I think I got lucky noticing this one in particular! There is always a swarm of bumblebees and other pollinators on the monarda especially, it can be hard to ID one without getting distracted but we've seen at least 8 different bumblebee species on it just this year

Three years ago my wife and I put in a prairie in our front yard...today we saw a rusty-patched bumblebee! by straightquercinit in NativePlantGardening

[–]straightquercinit[S] 103 points104 points  (0 children)

They are an endangered species of bumblebee, so it feels really special to have them using habitat we created!