Recently I liberated a lilac tree from a wild grape vine. Removing a large vine can be easy work, tug and then pull at the base, chances are it will come out and what seemed like a big job boils down to a large heap of leaves with little effort. As I finished up I noticed a beautiful caterpillar on the trunk of the lilac. Research on the web that night told me it was an Abbott's sphinx caterpillar and it's sole source of food was the grape vine I had removed. Fortunately I was able to find it the next morning and move it to a location with lots of grape vine. Another lesson in gardening, observe and question what you see, in this case it saved the very thing I found so fascinating.

Last week came the dead heading or removal of flowers on lamb's ears, the old fashioned (very high maintenance) Stachys byzantina. In the thick of a very large patch I heard a bee buzzing. Now I'm used to the sound of bees buzzing and pretty good at knowing when to back off. Buzzing is usually a passing sound, a bee or beetle on its way to nectar and/or pollen. This day it was persistent and sounded like it was aimed at me. It turned out to be a yellow jacket look alike but with a wider abdomen, a wool carder bee, specifically a male wool carder bee that was buzzing me to defend his territory and keep me away from his ladies. A European bee, first seen in New York in 1963, it hails from the same places the honey bee comes from, they cohabitate in the wilds of Europe. The wool carder bee is named from the females habit of harvesting fur from the leaves (carding) which she uses to line her nest. The nest is in tubes or ends of hollow sticks. A solitary bee, the male will defend the patch of lamb's ear, buzzing all who pass and only allowing his ladies to enter mating with them as they collect nectar and fur. It was my first time to notice them and it's probably the first time they have been in the garden, since the "big attitude" buzzing was hard to ignore. I understand they can also be found on catmint or Nepeta x faassenii.

The flower stalks remained, I am letting the wool carder bees be obsessive with their lamb's ears, eventually they will move on and I can continue with my work. Another lesson in observation, little bee with big attitude doesn't sting.