Peter said: > I was asked the other day about the colour of lavender pollen... > Pollen looks to be orange-yellow, but someone suggested that > the loads are a sort of brick red... Mother has a large patch of lavender along her front walk, and father keeps a half-dozen hives within 500 yards. The blooms have very tiny spots of orange pollen, but no bees seen working the lavender (while hearing the views of a chorus of trustees on a church addition project that appears to require a consulting engineer, an auditor, a team of lawyers, and a whip) had ANY sort of pollen load, not even one in the making. I have a "Pantone" color chip book that a printer gave me (a rainbow you can carry in your back pocket!) that I use for pollen color-matching. The color, for the record, was between Pantone 180 and 167, so the "orange" could match some kinds of brick. You can get a rough idea of what I saw by looking at "167C" and "180C" on your screen here: http://www.grafiker-bonath.de/PDF%20Links/pantone.pdf Lavender does not have much pollen per bloom at all, so I can't imagine this plant as a first choice of pollen source for bees with easier pickings. And sorry, I have no idea what specific kind of lavender is being grown. Mother reads seed catalogs as if they were mystery novels, and goes through greenhouses like General Sherman went through Georgia, so there is no way to know from where she sourced these plants. jim :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::