What Bee Likes Surprise Lilies?

Can you spot the bee amongst the surprise lily flowers? 

What Bee Likes Surprise Lilies?

I don't even think about it when I do it, follow bees around my Missouri hillside garden to see what flowers have their attention.

It works well when visiting a garden center or nursery. Bees buzzing around a particular kind of flower, and better yet, packing pollen, is a good recommendation to bring that plant home. Although bees are supposed to favor blue, yellow and white flowers, it also depends on weather and what else may be blooming at the same time.

When walking through my garden, it's not as easy. Between birds, hummingbird moths, bumblebees, butterflies and bees, the place can be very busy with buzzing wings and moving parts. On this particular day, I saw a movement in the blooming surprise lilies out of the corner of my eye.

Since I knew if I moved I might chase off the visitor, I just kept shooting. When I reviewed the photos, there was my little winged visitor, right in the middle.

There it is, in the middle of the lovely scented flowers, cousins to the South American Amaryllis.

Now can you tell what bee was visiting the surprise lilies?

Here's a hint, it's one of Missouri's 400 different native bee species.

Now can you tell what kind of bee likes these flowers?

That shiny backside is a dead giveaway, it is a carpenter bee. Carpenter bees are solitary bees, nesting in wood. I have one living in the bottom of one of my bird houses. There are some 500 carpenter bee species worldwide.

Do you see carpenter bees in your garden?

Charlotte