Flowers – Fortnight Lily

The Fortnight lily goes by many names, including African iris, butterfly iris, Wood iris, and scientifically Dietes iridioides. The name Fortnight lily is based on the blooming cycle of the flowers, where new blooms come up approximately every two weeks. Spotted in Santa Monica, California.

Fortnight Lily

Flowers – Bee on a Grevillea Flower

Grevillea Moonlight, a stunning shrub blooms all year in some climates. A fast grower, its large, moonlight-colored flowers and finely divided, gray foliage are a must for any southern-temperate garden. Frost and drought tolerant once established, it attracts bees and hummingbirds. Captured in Santa Monica, California.

Bee Attracted by Grevillea Flower

Visiting Sunflowers

Not only bees and butterflies, but also people visit sunflowers.

First planted by the City of Raleigh’s public utilities department in 2010 along the Neuse River Greenway Trail, a beautiful five-acre batch of sunflowers blooms each year between early- and mid-July. For 2019, they once again called Dorothea Dix Park home.

The sunflowers serve a purpose beyond just acting as a fun summer photo hot-spot—the City harvests the sunflowers to create thousands of gallons of bio diesel, which is then processed into fuel to run tractors, trailers and farm equipment. The flowers are also excellent pollinators—the field serves as a massive pollinator habitat for bees and other species.

 

Visiting Sunflowers

Field of Sunflowers

Sunflower Field