What a wonderful story, Sandy! I know how that little girl feels about caterpillars - I'm just an old kid, myself. Thanks for making that child's day (and week, maybe)! Sherry

"I have never seen a honeybee attracted to my tomato blossoms, but there is a big black bumblebee that I have seen several times visiting the tomato blossoms. It was on one of my Brandywines today, so I guess I can forget about saving a pure strain of seed from that plant." [Californian said in the Original Post] Californian, I have never seen a honeybee visit a tomato blossom either. I think that's because there is no nectar to attract the honey bee. Like you, I have seen bumblebees frequent tomato blossoms, and I think that's because the bumblebees use the pollen as a protein source. It's curious to me how the bumblebees approach a tomato blossom. In my garden, I haven't seen them crawl all over the blossom like they do on some of my other veggies and herbs. They just seem to buzz in for a moment and do their thing, then buzz off to visit another tomato blossom on the same plant or a nearby plant. If you look quickly and really close, you can see the bumblebee pull the flower down into a vertical position, puts its belly against or very near the stigma protruding from the anther cone, and buzz its wings causing a pollen release to fall onto the bee's fuzzy, statically charged belly. Hortist, another member who contributes here, once posted a really neat picture of a bee collecting tomato pollen in this fashion. It may have been a bee other than a bumblebee ... like maybe a halcid bee ... but the picture was facinating. Maybe he'll post it again. If you are really concerned about the absolute purity of your seed, you may bag them as suggested, or you may emasculate blossoms prior to their opening and hand pollinate those stigmas with anther cones harvested from the same or another plant of the same variety. Either way, tag the blossoms you intend to let mature into seed fruit. Bill

Thanks for the response Comettose, but I do think it's a different species. We also have the regular variety. It's a bit larger and slower and it makes much more of a buzz... This little yellow bumblebee is essentially quiet and flits around at a much higher rate of speed. I do see some yellow species descibed on the web when I do a search, but none of them seem to quite match what we have. Apparently, much of the difference depends on the wing venation and unfortunately I don't have a good photo showing that aspect... Mike

We grew (6) Galina's plants last year along with multiples of Sunchoccola, Husky Cherry Red, Riesentraube, Sunrise Bumblebee, Lucky Tiger, Sungold and Nefertiti. The Galina's were the yellow variety in our mixed cherry baskets. IMO it's a great cherry and very prolific as well but it does not have that "pop" of a Sungold or a Sunsugar. We have customers that demand Sungolds but the splitting is problematic where we're located. I am hesitant to grow it anymore other than for personal consumption because of that. Shell