Bee City USA Lynchburg

08/24/2026

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08/24/2026

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08/24/2026

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08/24/2026

This is an all black longhorn bee on my Japanese anemone in Lynchburg. Look at back feet!

08/24/2026

Walk around a grassy field or yard this time of year and you might spot a female Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia). This common spider often holds its legs in pairs, forming an X. Another common name for it, the Writing Spider, comes from the white zig-zag found across the middle of its web. This structure, called the stabilimentum, helps stabilize the web and deters birds from flying into the web. In addition, it may reflect ultraviolet light that attracts insects.

Legend has it that if the spider writes your name with its stabilimentum, you’re going to die soon. Fortunately, I’ve never seen anyone’s name written on a web, but I also don’t know anyone named WWWWWWWWWWW. But perhaps we’ve had it wrong all along. Maybe the spider is actually trying to write down an Internet address. After all, it is on the web. 😆

08/24/2026

The fall planting season is arriving, and we are happy for the recent rains in our area! We have a wide variety of plants available (plugs and quarts) and hope to get them to homes this fall where they can create habitat and help support the local pollinator and wildlife populations. If you have an unused space on your property and you want to create a haven for wildlife, September and October are a great time to plant natives!

We will have plugs available through the first week of October and will continue to offer quarts until the end of October. Appointments to visit our nursery can be made on our website: https://www.hummingbirdhillnatives.com/

Here's a photo of a plug tray that we recently customized for a site with well-drained soils. Species that were included in this tray are listed below and have a variety of heights, colors, and bloom times.
-Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)
-Godfrey's Thoroughwort (Eupatorium godfreyanum)
-Small's Ragwort (Packera anonyma)
-Narrow-leaved Tick Trefoil (Desmodium paniculatum)
-Hyssop-leaved Thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium)
-Purple Lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis)
-Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
-Early Goldenrod (Solidago juncea)
-Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)
-Upland Ironweed (Vernonia glauca)
-Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
-Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa)
-Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor)

If you are interested in your own mixed plug tray for your site, you can find more information here: https://www.hummingbirdhillnatives.com/habitat-corridor-plug-trays1.html

08/24/2026

https://www.thenewperennialist.com/natural-high/

It’s early June in Southern Ontario and the flat strip of roof right outside my picture window has already launched into th­e first stage of a five-part micro-superbloom. The hyperreal colour palette of the multispecies sedum matrix shifts through the spectrum from an orange glimmer, acid yellow,...

08/23/2026

Growing flowers is more than a job for Joe Hricko. It is something he has been passionate about since he was a teenager. ⤵️ Find a link to the story in the comments.

08/22/2026

08/21/2026