North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[piper33@verizon.net]

Yesterday morning I took a walk around my garden in Seattle. It was lightly raining and 40'F. I have many plants in bloom. Too cold for honeybees. I have mason bees, but I have not seen them yet this year. The only hard working pollinator I saw was a yellow jacket. It was visiting blossoms on my ORUS8 black currant. Amazing at such a cold temperature. This is the first time I have seen this kind of wasp helping to pollinate any of my fruiting plants. Later in the day it warmed up enough for the bumblebees to buzz around, but only the yellow jacket had the ability to take flight in the chill of the early morning.
-Mark Lee, Seattle, grape buds starting to open