We are getting lots of concerned visitors worried about the bees that are feeding off the nectar from the Eryngium giganteum, commonly called Miss Willmott's Ghost!
The bees are very busy feeding on the nectar - making them appear drunk [as drunk as a bee!] and lazy, eventually falling asleep to sleep off their over indulgence. I quizzed Eric our resident bee expert and he reassured me that the bees suffer no long term consequences and actually benefit from the sugar content of the nectar.
The bees that seem to be the busiest around the Eryngiums are the bumble bees with a few honey bees also benefiting.
Just for your information Miss Willmott's Ghost is so called because the Edwardian garden designer and friend of The Major's, Miss Ellen Willmott, use to collect the seed and when visiting friends or clients would scatter the seed. With the Eryngium being a bi-annual, it would germinate and flower the next year, so therefore becoming known as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost'
Regards
Glyn
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My family and I visited the garden yesterday - the colours were amazing and the weather brilliant (sun in August?). I really liked the red boarder especially an ornamental grass which had striking seed heads (tumbling to one side), furry stems and red tips on the leaves. I was wondering what the name of the grass is?
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