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Mint Condition
When the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven's grand opening celebration takes place on Saturday, Sept. 11, visitors can expect to see scores of flowers, including the ever-popular catmint (Nepeta).
Honey bees love the mints. So do bumble bees, carpenter bees, butterflies and assorted other insects.
The event, sponsored by Wells Fargo and co-sponsored by Annie's Homegrown, takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The half-acre bee friendly garden is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis.
What else is in the garden?
Well, among the plant growth: acacia, almond, apple, artichoke, basil, blackberry, blueberry, broccoli, cape mallow, eggplant, elderberry, hawthorn, honeysuckle, Mexican hat flower, oregano, peppers, persimmon, plum, purple coneflower, redbud, salvia, Santa Barbara daisy, seaside daisy, strawberry, watermelon, wild roses and scores of other plants.
The key goals of the garden, a gift to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, are to provide bees with a year-around food source for the Laidlaw facility bees, to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees, and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own. It's also a research site.
The grand opening celebration will include speeches (to start at 10:30 a.m.); rotating garden tours; children's activities; and a bee observation hive. Experts on honey bees, native bees, plants and the beautiful art work in the garden will be there to answer your questions.
You'll want to see the fabulous 6-foot-long honey bee, "Miss Bee Haven," sculpted by noted artist Donna Billick and funded by Wells Fargo. You'll marvel at the the colorful ceramic tiles beneath the sculpture and the two bee hive sculptures that grace the entrance, all by the UC Davis Art-Science Fusion Program, directed by Donna Billick and Diane Ullman.
The winning design team, from the Sausalito area, will be represented. The design is the work of landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki.
Cagwin and Dorward Landscape Contractors installed the garden, which was planted last fall. Häagen-Dazs will serve free ice cream, and Gimbal's Fine Candies will provide free samples of their popular candy.
Joining Wells Fargo as the main sponsor of the grand opening celebration is Annie's Homegrown, maker of Honey Bunny Grahams.
Check out the website for more information. You can download the PDF of the design plan, which includes the concept, plant list and layout.
More information? Contact Chris Akins, coordinator of the grand opening celebration at (530) 752-2120 or crakins@ucdavis.edu.
Bee and Catmint
Nectaring
Let Them Bee
If I were in charge, the praying mantis would eat only aphids, flies and stink bugs.No honey bees. Let them bee.
This week we watched a praying mantis slide beneath a purple coneflower (Echinacea pupurea) at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility of University of California, Davis.
Its body camouflaged, the mantid looked like one of the coneflower petals.
Not!
Within minutes, it seized an unsuspecting honey bee.
Death beneath the purple coneflower.
Camouflaged
Honey Bee
Close-Up
Heaven Scent
The wild roses planted last fall in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, are both "heaven sent" and "heaven scent."
The fragrance is delightful.
Basically, only wild roses--not the commercially grown roses found in our gardens--attract bees, according to Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Also in bloom in the half-acre garden, located on Bee Biology Road on the west end of the campus, are salvia (sage), lavender, artichokes, seaside daisies, Mexican hat flowers and purple coneflowers, among others.
The grand opening celebration, open to the public, is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11. Folks planning to attend may RSVP to Nancy Dullum of the UC Davis Department of Entomology administrative team, at nadullum@ucdavis.edu. (Insert "haven" in the subject line and indicate how many in your party will attend.)
Wild Rose
Close-Up
Sharing a Cone (Flower)
It's fun seeing little children sharing a cone...an ice cream cone.
But have you ever seen a bumble bee and honey bee sharing a cone (coneflower)?
Around 9:30, a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) and a honey bee (Apis mellifera) buzzed in to forage among the coneflowers.
The coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), also known as the Eastern purple coneflower or purple conflower, generates a lot of insect excitement. Metallic sweat bees, bumble bees, honey bees and butterflies all try to claim a spot atop this petals-down, cone-up flower, a carnival ride at rest.
Meanwhile, officials are gearing up for the grand opening celebration of the garden, set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11. The garden is a year-around food source for bees and other pollinators, and an educational experience for visitors.
And a meeting place for a bumble bee and a honey bee.
Coneflower
Two Visitors
Touching
Victory
Just Bee-Cause
The honey bee sculpture that graces the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis is bee-u-tiful.
It's the work of nationally renowned artist Donna Billick, based in Davis. Indeed, the bee sculpture is so unique, so creative and so detailed that you can almost hear it buzz.
You'll get a close-up look at the bee at the grand opening celebration on Saturday, Sept. 11. The time: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The place: Bee Biology Road on the west end of campus. The event will include speakers, honey tasting, children's activities, and tours of the half-acre bee friendly garden.
The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, planted last fall, is designed to be a year-around food source for bees and other pollinators; a teaching resource and field research site; and an educational experience for visitors. "It promises to become a campus destination," said entomology professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Kudos to Haagen-Dazs for its generous gift.
Kudos to the winning design team from Sausalito: Ann F. Baker, landscape architect; Jessica Brainard, interpretive planned; Chika Kurotaki, exhibit designer and Donald Sibbett, landscape architect.
And kudos to the construction team that put it all together: Cagwin and Dorward Landscape Contractors.
A very welcome addition to the haven is the colorful art created by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, founded and directed by entomology professor-artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick.
The ceramic art tiles on the bee "pedestal" are the work of undergraduate students and community residents involved in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.
Donors making gifts or pledges of $1000 or more will have their names placed on ceramic art tiles--and on the website of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Pledges can be paid over five years, according to Jan Kingsbury, director of major gifts, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.The deadline to contact her in order to have these tiles in place before the Sept. 11 opening is July 20. "We are just about to finish the art work for this set of tiles," Kingsbury said. (She can be reached at (530) 304-4327 or jkingsbury@ucdavis.edu.) Donors, however, can make contributions year-around to the haven or to the honey bee research program.
Indeed, the declining bee population is troubling. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) continues to wreak global havoc. This winter was the worst ever, the nation's apiculturists agree.
Meanwhile, plans are shaping up for the grand celebration of the haven. Those planning to "bee" there on Sept. 11 should contact Nancy Dullum of the UC Davis Department of Entomology at nadullum@ucdavis.edu and insert "honey bee haven" in the subject line. The body of the text should indicate the number of visitors.
Bee Sculpture
Donna Billick
Diane Ullman
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