​In August I had the pleasure of attending Erin Zagadailov’s garden party and learning about her wonderful apiary and cut flower farm right here in little Grantham, New Hampshire.  When Erin and her husband moved here from Chicago, her friends laughingly called her ‘Lady Grantham’ after the Downtown Abbey series. When deciding on a name for her bee business, Erin remembered her friends’ good natured teasing and thus ‘Lady Grantham Apiary’ was coined.
 
Erin and her husband Pavel decided what’s really important and took the risk of taking a hiatus from their high paying, stressful jobs to dedicate their lives to their family and to raising bees. Since that daring decision, they added two children to their hectic, happy days.
 
With no experience raising bees but armed with lessons from books and information from successful bee keepers, they tried their hand at keeping bees only to be unsuccessful for five years. Undaunted, they learned from their mistakes and made improvements and were thrilled to have three hives survive last winter. The colonies are doing well and going about their busy bee business of mostly foraging for pollen and nectar. Even baby bees help out cleaning the hive, nursing larva, and attending to the queen. Erin pointed out baby bees doing figure eights near the hive to practice flying.
 
This is the first year Erin has taken any honey from her hives. Her policy is not to harvest any honey unless a hive has survived the winter and is doing well.  Selling honey is not part of the plan. At the garden party, I enjoyed a honey tasting test with three types of honey—store bought, some from a neighbor’s hives and from her own bees. The store bought honey was dark and thick and had a decided after-taste, while the harvested honey was lighter, thinner, and delicious. Bravo Lady Grantham’s and neighborhood bees.
 
The bees head back to the hive before nightfall which is quite wonderful to witness. Erin timed her party so her guests could enjoy the very zen feeling of watching them fly home. Erin reads the bees activities and can tell how they’re feeling. She had brought an observation box of bees onto her shady deck so we guests could get a closer look. Later, when we toured her garden, Erin remembered the container and reported that the bees in the box and in the colony would all be unhappy if she didn’t put them back soon.
 
To support her apiary, Erin grows extraordinary cut flowers which she sells to subscribers who enjoy bouquets each week. Selling edible flowers may be added to her growing business. Erin invests all the proceeds from her flower sales into the honeybee colonies. The bees pollinate the flowers and the flowers provide pollen, nectar, and income for the bees—a very nice arrangement.
 
Along with her honey bees, many other pollinators such as bumble bees, butterflies, flies, and hummingbirds visit Erin’s garden. She pointed out multiple mud dauber wasp nests on the side of her house. Instead of calling a local exterminator, she’s happy to have these mud architects live there and enjoy the pollinator utopia that she and her husband have created.
 
Erin has graciously agreed to come and speak at the January 13th garden club meeting. Her topic will be ‘Creating a Backyard Pollinator Haven.'  Mark you calendars. 

While photographing flowers up close and personal over the past three years, I have noticed many similarities between different types of flowers. I guessed they were related but didn’t understand the connection. Now, thanks to master naturalist Mary Anne Borge I learned that they are all in the same family – the aster family.
 
New Grantham Garden Club member and knowledgeable plant person Marty Gearhart is a huge fan of Mary Anne Borge and invited me to listen to Mary Anne’s September 22nd presentation All About Asters. Mary Anne’s credentials include freelance writer, nature photographer, editor of NABA (North American Butterfly Association) magazine Butterfly Gardener, and author of The Natural Web blog www.the-natural-web.org. I learned so much from Mary Anne’s talk and want to share it with you. 
 
Asters are composites made up of tons of disk flowers all crammed together in the center surrounded by ray flowers whose job it is generally to attract pollinators. The disk flowers usually start to bloom around the diameter and gradually bloom closer and closer to the center over a course of weeks. This gives the flowers more opportunities for pollination while giving the pollinators a consistent source of food. There are more than 23,000 types of asters. Instead of blooming only in the autumn as I once thought, there are asters blooming throughout the growing season.
 
Mary Anne cleared up another mystery for me.  Last month, I watched in fascination as bees visited a patch of wood asters that consisted of what I now know were white ray flowers surrounding either yellow or pink disk flowers. The bees only visited the yellow disk flowers while ignoring the pink ones. Mary Anne explained that when wood aster disk flowers have been pollinated, they turn from yellow to pink. Bees are red-color blind and ignore the pollinated flowers making the job more efficient for the bees and protecting the developing fruit. The natural world never ceases to amaze.
 
Some asters have only disk flowers such as blazing star, joe-pye-weed, and New York iron weed. An example of an aster that has only ray flowers is the dandelion.  All the flowers in this blog are pictures I took in Grantham Garden Club members’ gardens, and all are in the aster family.
 
If you would like to hear Mary Anne’s delightful talk and learn more cool facts about asters, go to  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO15gpY8O7M (Initially, There will be an ad, but you can skip quickly to get to All About Asters)
 
Thank you Mary Anne for sharing your wealth of information to our garden club in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire.