"stuart noble" wrote in message
news:wbTec.757$Rf.653@newsfe1-win...

Mary Fisher wrote in message 407bb1e2$0$8570

do to us. Our eyes can only detect a certain range of wave lengths, there
are others and bees etc. can 'see' (for want of a better word) colours at
the ultra-violet end of the scale (they can't 'see' colours at the infra
red
end).

That's not the whole story, they can't see several colours at the red end of
the spectrum, which we can. Sorry if you were misled.

Thanks for the insight. I'm not a garden flower type either but that
skimmia
scent blows your head off, and obviously the bees appreciate it too.

I was at Harewood House on Saturday and the scent of the intensely blue
hyacinths in the parterre was blowing my head off too but there wasn't a bee
in sight in that area ...

There's so much we don't know - although I'm sure someone somewhere has made
proper stuies of what bees smell. They certainly have on what a bee can see.

Mary