✦An original orchard fable
The Flower and the Bee
An apple blossom wonders why the bee never stays long. A visit between rain showers reveals how much can happen in a brief meeting.
A story to read together
The Flower and the Bee
Take your time. Let the story unfold.
Blossom opened on an apple tree one bright spring morning. Her five pale petals faced the orchard path, and yellow pollen dusted the centre of her flower. All around her, other blossoms were opening too. A honeybee moved between them, stopping only briefly at each. In the language of this fable, Blossom called after it: “Why do you always leave just when I have something to say?”
A busy visitor
The bee settled on a nearby flower. “There are many places to visit before the weather changes,” she answered. Blossom looked at the bee’s fuzzy body, where little grains of pollen clung. “Do you take a piece of every flower with you?” she asked. The bee explained that some pollen stuck as she moved among blossoms collecting nectar and pollen. Nectar helped provide energy, and pollen was useful food for the bee colony. Blossom had thought the bee was simply rushing past. Now the visit seemed to contain work she had not noticed.
The rain between visits
Clouds crossed the orchard, and a shower tapped softly on the leaves. The bee returned towards her colony while Blossom waited on the branch. She could not travel to another tree, and the wet afternoon felt very long. When the rain eased, a patch of sunshine reached the petals. Blossom watched the orchard wake again: a bird shook water from its wings, the gardener checked a young tree, and the honeybee came back from the direction of another apple tree. A faint golden dust still clung to her hairs.
Something carried between trees
As the bee visited, some pollen from her body reached the part of Blossom that could receive it. Moving pollen between suitable flowers can help pollination happen. Blossom could offer nectar, while the bee could carry something the flower could not move by herself. Neither visitor nor blossom had to do the other’s job. The bee rested for a moment before flying on. “I see,” Blossom said. “A short visit can still connect two places.” The bee lifted into the warm air, and Blossom watched her become a small moving point among the branches.
The orchard changes
Over the following weeks, petals fell and the orchard changed. Some blossoms developed into tiny young apples. Blossom’s part of the story became a small green fruit beneath the leaves. The bee continued her work elsewhere, and many other insects visited the trees too. Nothing had happened all at once, and not every flower became a fruit. Yet the orchard held a growing reminder of small meetings and many kinds of care. Where Blossom had once wondered why the bee did not stay, she now understood that leaving for another flower could be part of the very thing that helped the orchard flourish.
The end
After the final page
There is no single right answer. Invite young readers to notice, wonder and imagine.
What did the bee collect while visiting flowers?
How could the bee connect flowers on different trees?
What small connection in your surroundings would you like to observe more carefully?
Make something: Draw two apple blossoms and a bee travelling between them. Use a few yellow dots to show pollen, then describe the bee’s visit in your own words.
