Triffid
Deeply Rooted
For the avoidance of doubt the wasps I'm talking about are tiny ant-sized things, no threat to bees nor folk!
Fortunately (?) I haven't encountered a hornet on my flowers, but the regular old yellow and black wasps do come along and predate the caterpillars that feast on the lettuce seed heads and tend to ruin my seed-saving ambitions. Like your unfortunate bee, I've watched a wasp tackle these fairly large caterpillars and fly away with them.
I do wonder what the hornets find so attractive about fennel! Perhaps a good place to hunt? Over here there's the usual haze of small insects around them and lots of beetles.
On seed-saving, I've had multiple successful celery seed harvests with no issues, and I'm just a beginner really, so I'm sure all here would have great success if they tried. The first variety I tried was Redventure and left a small bed of plants for genetic diversity though I can't recall the exact figure. These remained true to type as no one nearby lets their celery bloom. The latest harvest was from a single pair of Chinese Pink and Chinese White that I left to flower, with no plan to save seeds. But they ended up producing so much I couldn't resist. They apparently crossed and this year I have a beautiful mix of magenta, baby pink, red, white, and green cutting celery from their offspring.
It's definitely one to experiment with in my humble opinion. And you don't need much seed to make the best celery salt going. But warn your family before they cook with it or they may inadvertently fumigate the whole household in an act of celery chemical warfare (speaking from experience).
Fortunately (?) I haven't encountered a hornet on my flowers, but the regular old yellow and black wasps do come along and predate the caterpillars that feast on the lettuce seed heads and tend to ruin my seed-saving ambitions. Like your unfortunate bee, I've watched a wasp tackle these fairly large caterpillars and fly away with them.
I do wonder what the hornets find so attractive about fennel! Perhaps a good place to hunt? Over here there's the usual haze of small insects around them and lots of beetles.
On seed-saving, I've had multiple successful celery seed harvests with no issues, and I'm just a beginner really, so I'm sure all here would have great success if they tried. The first variety I tried was Redventure and left a small bed of plants for genetic diversity though I can't recall the exact figure. These remained true to type as no one nearby lets their celery bloom. The latest harvest was from a single pair of Chinese Pink and Chinese White that I left to flower, with no plan to save seeds. But they ended up producing so much I couldn't resist. They apparently crossed and this year I have a beautiful mix of magenta, baby pink, red, white, and green cutting celery from their offspring.
It's definitely one to experiment with in my humble opinion. And you don't need much seed to make the best celery salt going. But warn your family before they cook with it or they may inadvertently fumigate the whole household in an act of celery chemical warfare (speaking from experience).
