Bluefields Herbery

06/23/2026

06/13/2026

We will be closing at 12:30 today. Sorry for the inconvenience. See you Monday!

06/12/2026

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.

06/10/2026

A large bumblebee motionless on a cold April morning isn't dying. She's a queen running on empty between flowers.

She's the only member of last year's colony who survived winter. She hibernated alone in the soil for seven months and emerged with just enough reserves to start a new colony from scratch. A queen on cold stone in spring is resting, not failing.

- Slide a piece of paper under her and move her onto the nearest flower in bloom — crocus, dandelion, flowering currant, anything open
- If no flower is within reach, place one drop of sugar water next to her head — equal parts white sugar and warm water. Don't use honey, it can transmit diseases to native bees
- Give her fifteen minutes in a sheltered spot. If she's alive and hungry, she'll extend her tongue on her own
- Plant early bloomers like crocus, snowdrop, hellebore, and flowering currant — these are open when queens emerge and almost nothing else is
- Leave the dandelions until May. They're fuel stations in the weeks when it matters most

One queen becomes a full colony by midsummer. The flower she lands on next is the start of the whole thing.

06/01/2026

Before you reach for anything, look at what you're actually looking at. Seven of the most common caterpillars in American gardens and yards — and the butterfly or moth each one becomes. 🌿

Seven transformations to recognize:

Black Swallowtail — the green caterpillar with bold black bands and yellow-orange spots on your dill, parsley, or fennel. Leave it. The adult is one of the most striking butterflies in the country.

Mourning Cloak — black with red spots and branched spines, often found on willow, elm, and cottonwood. One of the longest-lived butterflies in North America — adults overwinter and emerge in late winter.

Red Admiral — spiny dark caterpillar on stinging nettles or false nettle. The adult's orange-red wing bands are unmistakable.

American Lady — bristly dark caterpillar often found on pearly everlasting and pussytoes. The adult has distinctive eyespots on the hindwing underside.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell — black and spiny with yellow side spots, found on stinging nettles. Northern species, vivid orange and dark wings.

Cloudless Sulphur — smooth bright green, nearly invisible on its host. Becomes one of the most vivid large yellow butterflies in the US — common from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast.

Tomato hornworm — the large green caterpillar with diagonal white stripes and a curved rear horn. It becomes the Five-spotted Hawkmoth — a substantial moth with pink and grey patterning and a wingspan approaching five inches. 🌱

Every caterpillar is a future pollinator. Observe before you react.

05/28/2026

The honeybee gets the attention. These eight do most of the work.

Native bees pollinate earlier in spring, fly in cooler weather, and visit flowers honeybees skip entirely. Most of them nest in the ground or in hollow stems — not in hives. Most of them can't sting you. And most of them are in your yard right now without you knowing it.

The metallic green one on the coneflower is a sweat bee. The one cutting perfect circles from your rose leaves is a leafcutter. The large one hovering near the deck is a carpenter bee — and the males can't sting at all.