Unseasonably warm weather during the past few weeks has pushed the button on some of our early bloomers. Redbud and wild plum trees dot many neighborhoods with pink and white blossoms, respectively. These woodland trees, while on the small side, make a dramatic statement against the otherwise drab background of winter gray.
Flatwoods plum (Prunus umbellate) is usually the first of the wild plums to bloom, just as the new finely toothed leaves are emerging. It is lightly fragrant and is highly attractive to honey bees and other insects. The blooms are all white instead of having the pinkish center many of the other wild plums have.
The tree I was observing this week was loaded with many hundred of bees. With more than 300 types of indigenous bees in Florida, plus our imported honey bees, it was impossible for me to exactly identify the bees that were there without capturing and examining one, and it seemed to me that there was more than one type there. Because most honey bees are defensive rather than aggressive, I am not exactly afraid of them, but I do have a healthy respect for the little critters, so I didn’t feel it necessary to get up close and personal.
Bee keepers, Don Peppers and his wife Joanne of Queen Bee Company, recently spoke to the Garden Club of Switzerland about their products. Don keeps Italian honey bees (Apis millifera). They are the most popular honey bee species in Florida because of their docile nature. Peppers said honey bees are especially important to our food supply because they pollinate approximately 130 agricultural crops in the United States. About 90 food crops in the world are actually dependent on bee pollination.
Honey bees are social insects, surviving in a colony and dependent on each other. It takes the nectar of approximately 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey so bees prefer to forage in areas where there are many blossoms instead of expending energy in flying from one flower to another. This is one reason why plum trees with their thousands of flowers are so popular.
Many bee keepers locate their hives near maple trees in January. As the season progresses, they might move them to areas containing blueberries, orange blossoms, palmetto, Black mangrove, cotton, tupelo, or even Brazillian pepper. All these blooms make good honey.