Marsh Marigolds in flower

The Marsh Marigolds have been in full flower for a couple of weeks now. Today in some early spring sunshine the first bumblebees were buzzing around them. I also saw the bees high in the Goat Willow branches where there are some large catkins. I did not know that catkins had any nectar as I thought that they were wind pollinated. Will have to look this up and report back.

The Marsh Marigolds are very easy to propagate - just cut up the root ball with a spade after flowering. I usually split each into about 3 pieces, and put each part into the mud. All seem to grow very well.
I think that there are a small number of plants that have seeded, but they do not seem to set seed easily, so the physical division is much better. This will not give any genetic diversity so I guess that an import every 10 years or so would be a good idea.