My hibiscus is really doing well this year and the bees are getting trapped in the closed blossoms. Today I rescued about 8 bees from 3 blossoms. Does anyone else rescue bees from their hibiscus? Can they get out on their own? I've found them there the next day before, so always try to check them in the evening. Can't afford to lose any bees

Wild! I don't remember this happening when I had hibiscus.

Sometimes bees out collecting pollen will work too close to quiting time and will then spend the night in the blossom they were working on, but I have never seen a bee get trapped. If you have found them in blossoms early in the morning it may still have been too cold for them to move around much.

I had one get trapped in a squash blossom a couple weeks ago. The blossom had done closed and withered. I kept hearing the bee buzzing frantically. Radared in on him and found him. I cut the blossom off the squash and split it so it could get out. I dont think he would have escaped. The blossom was already stuck together.

I've found them in the evening and in the morning. I've even found them the evening the day after they bloomed. I'll keep checking for them, just in case it's really a rescue.

Some plants, such as the carrion flower, deliberately trap insects overnight to ensure pollination. A fascinating series of six films "The Private Lives of Plants", was made by David Attenborough and the BBC. I show them over the year in my horticulture class and the one on flowers is a favorite. It also features flowers which mimic female insects and have ingenious Rube Goldberg systems to slam the pollen on the head of the unsuspecting male who tries to mate with the flower and bees that hum in a lower frequency on certain flowers to vibrate pollen loose.