Leaf Cutter Bees - I think.....

[AprilLudgateisQueen]

Firstly, what a fabulous species. I have just seen a bee carrying a huge leaf land on our bricked walled garden. The leaf it was carrying was big in comparison to the said bee.

It then took off and burrowed / entered into a gap in our garden wall.

We have had ground nesting or miner bees on our front lawn (also fab) but I just wondered if anyone had any more info they could give me on them.

I am delightfully happy to leave them be (no pun intended) but has anyone had these little visitors in their garden?

They've scalloped one of my fuschias. Just one plant - I have a few - but they've taken a bit out of almost every single leaf.

It's fine, I like them.

I get them in my greenhouses every summer. They burrow into certain pots (I grow cacti and succulents), and will proceed to drag down quite a number of rolled up leaves. Into these leaves, they will deposit some pollen, before laying an egg in each leaf-tube, and the larvae will feed on the pollen, eventually pupating, and emerging as an adult. Sometimes I have moved a pot to try to deter them, but they are very persistent, searching around until they find it!
When I come to repot the plant, I will find maybe a dozen "cigars" buried inside. Usually it doesn't cause any damage to the plant, but they have been known to chew through a large tap root, which can cause the demise of what is often a choice and rare plant. They can be a bit annoying in the greenhouse, but I generally let them get on with the business of raising a new generation - we need bees!
A few weeks ago I found one of their leaf sources, a bed of Epimediums, which you can see in the attached pic.

Yes I have them in my garden, they go for one of my roses but not the others, and a Norway maple but not any of the other maples. Fussy little critters

The Norway maple is in a pot and it doesn't matter where I move it in the garden, they find it.