Wandering around the garden with the camera late this afternoon I was struck by the stand-out effect of a rather gaudy Acer lighting up a shady corner. I had forgotten the name of the variety, so I went closer to check the label - Acer palmatum 'Shirazz'. While I was there I suddenly became aware of a great deal of insect activity nearby - a shrub positively buzzing with life!
This was great to see - insect numbers building healthily after a bad winter: but what was their chosen food source? This is an interesting question, because some very vocal gardeners here and elsewhere insist that native wildlife will starve unless you only plant native species of plants.
Now 'native species' is a pretty 'iffy' term. What could be more 'native' than snowdrops? Or nettles? But both were introduced by the Romans, so can't really be called 'native'! So, had these insects found a patriotic native shrub amid all our nasty foreign ones?
The focus of insect excitement this afternoon was a Cotoneaster: we have around 30 species of this genus round the garden, all from China and neighbouring territories - we planted them early on to thicken the shelter-belt and to provide autumn interest.
The flowers of Cotoneaster are tiny (berries are the real interest for this genus), but they draw insects from miles! This C. divaricatus was busy with bees, wasps, hornets, and smaller flies.
I hung around to try to get a picture of the flowers to show you, but it felt a bit risky with all the coming and going, so I soon left them to it.
Either our garden has been invaded by insects from the far east, or else the native species enjoy nothing better on a Saturday evening than a tasty Chinese Takeaway!
'Now, which flower shall I try next....?'
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