Don't know if I can help, but I hate to see a post go unanswered. I've read that bees are attracted to short wavelength colors, their favorites being purple, blue and yellow in that order. I'm guessing you'd have most success therefore with heathers flowering in the cooler range of purple. Scent is also important. May I suggest you post your query to the beeking forum, and then share with us what you learn from the bee experts?

I'm almost afraid to ask, but are you feeling personally abused or persecuted, ghoghunter, or are you speaking for others? I can't help but wonder (I hope I'm paranoid) that your words are some sort of veiled criticism of me and Trey's thread on feeders versus hummingbird plants? I hope not, but I know you were involved in that discussion, and there was some unpleasantness. However, I did feel we got past that, and a lot of useful things were said. When someone on this forum says something I don't like, or seems hypercritical of me or another person, I just come right back and state my objection. I really do try to see if I've been unfair, and look at the situation from the other person's perspective. I can think of three occasions in the past year when I was personally involved in some unpleasant discussions on this forum. On a couple of occasions, I felt I was defending others, on another I was definitely the victim of unfair criticism. As far as I know, the discussions continued, resolved themselves, and there were no hard feelings--at least, I hope not. Way more often, though, I've been involved in positive exchanges of useful information, enjoyed beautiful photographs, humorous stories, etc. I guess I can't really argue with personal choice, and it's certainly a person's right to drop out, but if people are dropping out over being "screamed at," that's definitely a sad issue that should be addressed. Overwhelmingly, though, it seems to me that the exchanges on this forum have been useful, positive, and affirming. But hey, negative exchanges are an inevitable part of communication, too. Maybe some day I'll feel so upset that I'll want to drop out, but I hope I will have the presence of mind to move on to a different thread, or start a new and more positive one. If I feel really bad, I could take a brief break, lick my wounds, and return. Another reason I might drop out is from boredom. I don't mean that in a snotty way at all, but as one spends more time on the forum, certain subjects will tend to repeat themselves. Or, I may feel I've said all I can, and drop out. Dropping out because of intimidation from others seems wrong. All I can say is that from the standpoint of interpersonal relations, I have never felt residual bitterness about anyone, here, and hope no one feels that way about me. To those mysterious, unnamed people who've dropped out, I hope you'll be back and contributing. Is this forum really such a negative place?

Apologies to those upset by my post above. My efforts have certainly not been aimed at exterminating all of the Carpenter Bees, it was only when the hovering, buzzing cloud of bees in front of the garage grew so numerous that it wasn't possible to get into the garage without one or more threatening, dive-bombing and chasing me, that I would find a small straight stick and and swing it at the hovering, threatening male bees. Even then, even with careful focusing and aiming, it might take dozens of missed swings before one does connect. Often times the bees seem to decide "this guy's crazy" and fly off on their own before I connect with any and I'm fine with that result. I considering it "sporting" to choose a method with such a low probability of killing one. I consider my method less harmful to the species than those further up-thread who use a tennis racket, where every swing likely results in a hit and a kill. And much less harmful than stuffing an alcohol soaked cottonball into their hole. which will condemn the developing larvae in the nest to a slow death by starvation and likely will kill the female through poisoning as she tries to chew her way through the cottonball to reach her family. And I consider stomping them after hitting them a quick merciful death as opposed to leaving them buzzing and injured and unable to fly, where they may slowly die from their injuries or be eaten alive by ever-present, opportunistic ants. I much prefer not killing, but when it is necessary I feel it should be as humane as possible. Some of the objections here seem similar to those who object to using a snap-trap on mice, who instead advocate using either poison bait which results in the mouse being just as dead, but also may result in a predator species, a cat, a fox, an owl or another raptor, being sickened or killed; or using the sticky glue traps, that result in a slow, protracted, agonizing death that seems straight out of the dark ages.

Hi Diane. I can't offer you any advice about Scottish gardens, but I would warn you that the UK forum of Gardenweb doesn't attract many contributors. I would suggest posting your question to the newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening. If you don't have newsreader software, you can access it via Google Groups: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.gardening/ I'm pretty sure that several of the regular contributors to uk.rec.gardening are from Scotland and should be able to help.