Awesome Stories 392

/ June 22, 2019

This week Awesome Stories brings you the power and passion of flowers.

Flower Power

Flowers bring me endless joy. Just like a bee, I am drawn to the beauty and smells of flowers. Bees and flowering plants have a mutual relationship where both species benefit. Most of us know that flowers depend on bees for their survival and reproduction. They’ve developed all sorts of tricks to attract insects including vivid colors, specific smells, leaf patterns, and don’t forget those sexy stamens!  🙂 After collecting nectar and pollen from different flowers, the bees fly back to their colonies, share the pollen, and create honey. And in turn, we humans depend on the bees to pollinate most of our food crops. Flowering plants make up about 70 percent of the world’s plant populations. Flowers also depend on birds, animals, wind, and water for their pollination. Bees are a critical part of our planet’s ecosystem and have recently been dying off in accelerating numbers. The main causes of bee deaths seem to be excessive use of pesticides, growing parasites harmful to bees, reduced habitat, and diminished use of honey to feed the bees. Sadly, many honey growers are feeding their bees high fructose corn syrup instead of honey. This is another case of our need to wake up to the consequences of our actions on the planet.

Flowers As Food

In case you didn’t know, many flowers are edible and cooking with flowers has come back into vogue. Flowers as food has been dated back thousands of years to China, the Middle East, and India. Many flowers or at least parts of the flowers are edible, but please be safe and smart about it. Use a known flower and source to identify them such as local experts or online charts like the one in this What’s Cooking America article. I’ve eaten dandelions, purse, clover, redbud flowers, and a few other backyard treats. I learned a few new ones in the article such as daylilies and marigolds that I want to try. Dandelion roots have medicinal benefits. I’ve always loved the smell of roses, but didn’t know you can eat them! What are some of the flowers that you’ve eaten or cooked with?

Tips to be safe from the article: make sure they are edible, wash them, remove stamens and pistils, come from a pesticide-free source, and eat them in small amounts, one variety at a time to see how you digest them. 

Frolicking in the Tulips

Mouse in a tulip, image by Miles Herbert

Apparently, mice love flowers, especially tulips, almost as much as bees. Miles Herbert is a British photographer who loves to teach workshops and capture mice playing in tulips. Mice like to eat the stamens and nectar, as well as simply hang out in the petals! See the article for many more adorable photos on mice frolicking in the tulips. I bet the photos will bring a smile to your day.  🙂

May your week be full of food, flowers, and frolicking!

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32 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 392”

  1. I have just seen my first bumblebee at the flowers on my deck. And it’s almost the end of June. That makes me sad. They should’ve been out when the lilacs bloomed in May. I planted a baby and hummingbird garden in hopes of helping both species :-). Thanks for reminding us about our feathered and furry friends.

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  2. Thanks for this marvelous upbeat post, Brad. I’ve been a little down in the dumps lately, but who could fail to smile at a mouse sitting inside a tulip? I always thought those photos were staged, so I enjoyed the commentary on that too. Hugs.

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  3. This made my heart happy. As you might have gathered, I’m on a flower tangent as well. In fact, I have a post in progress about this very theme. However, yours offers the bonus educational piece, which I love. And the lil’ mouse, love him!!!
    Thanks for adding some happy to a gloomy day. Big hugs and lots of shit. 😉

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  5. I’ve never seen a mouse in a tulip before!! And had no idea they enjoyed them so much!
    We have lots of clover in our front lawn and I like knowing the bees have something to eat that doesn’t have pesticide.

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  8. Those photographs are so amazing! I grew up with a traditional recipe of a particular kind of rose petals mixed in sugar eaten a spoonful at a time in summer for cooling effect. This is also added to drinks and milkshakes. My grandmother made it from scratch from rose that she grew in her garden but I have a store bought version of it in my pantry now 🙂
    I loved your post as I love flowers for everything they offer us and have been a significant source of contemplation and inspiration for some of my writings for me.

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  12. Awesome!! and then some.. 🙂 I loved your article on bees Brad, and there was a long piece in my quarterly magazine from the Woodland Trust I support this edition on Bees.. We have been lucky in having wild bees nest in our garden and under the shed in the allotment plot.. A great tip too on not feeding them corn syrup..
    I told someone else this in blog land a while ago.. I taught our granddaughter who is eight not to be afraid of bees, telling her how if it wasn’t for them pollinating crops our food would not grow

    She came across a tired bumble bee in the school play ground and children were going to kill it, she and her friend stood guard over it, and she told her class mates that bees were our friends, and they left it alone, She said it later flew away..
    I was so proud of her.. 🙂
    We just need to educate more people about the dangers of pesticides and sprays we put on our gardens, I won’t use anything only natural sprays such as garlic 🙂

    loved the mouse, and birds too love to peck at petals, they devoured some of my early flowering blossom, and they love young pea shoots too.. The pigeon loves our cabbage leaves. 🙂

    Great photos and article Brad..

    Thank you for bringing awareness ❤

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  13. Yours too! Great info. At first look I thought the mice was stuffed, and staged. I should check out that photographer. Cool photo. Bees? And flowers? 😍. It’s so quiet in my backyard I can hear them buzzing, and have taught my grandkids how to rescue them from the pool with a kick board. They used to be terrified. Everything is relative. Nice write.

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  14. Thank you for this post, Brad. I’m learning never to take bees and flowers for granted and to appreciate them deeply. Now, when I see a bee, I wish it well. My friend served a salad with flowers. I think they were pansies.

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