Hi folks,
About 10 or so years ago I had a bright idea. (Well I thought it was at the time) My thinking was to plant a few gum trees that produce nectar in the late summer and early autumn to provide the bees with a pick and perhaps enough nectar to add to their winter stores. The tree that I chose was a bloodwood. It flowers every year at this time and often produces a surplus if there are enough trees within flying distance of the hives. Unfortunately, the nearest bloodwood tree is about 5km from my hives and there is very little chance that the bees would cover that distance to bring home nectar. I decided to gather a few pods, collect some seed and was pleasantly surprised that the seeds germinated a few weeks later. After potting them out for a few months, they were finally planted out and allowed to grow. Four of them survived the bushfires of 2019 and started to grow reasonably well in the poor soil that they were planted in. About a week ago I noticed the first bud on one of the trees which is now about 20 feet high. This is something that I?ve been waiting for for a long time. Hopefully in years to come all of the trees will begin to form blossoms and give the bees something to look forward to.