Pale Purple Coneflower
Echinacea pallida
The plight of our bees, both native and the non-native honey bee, has been in the news a lot lately. Loss of habitat, food sources, pests and diseases and pesticides are all to blame. Even our love for mulch can have a negative impact on ground burrowing native bees. They need bare soil to dig their home in! How can you help? Native bees love native plants, it’s as simple as that!
I love my native plant garden and tell the world about it whenever I can. Summer 2007 brought a severe drought to my area. Practically no rain fell during a four month period. Other than a small 6’ x 6’ area where I keep my moisture loving plants I did not water at all. This is why I garden with native plants after all. The results were still spectacular. My meadow was in bloom from early spring, starting with golden alexander
Zizia aurea and prairie smoke
Geum triflorum, until late fall with Asters
Aster spp and Jerusalem artichokes
Helianthus tuberosus. No one in my neighbourhood had a display like I did, and I was proud of it! It was teaming with flying and crawling insects and other critters all through the season. For the first time ever I saw a bee hawk moth. It visited my garden several times and was seen on common milkweed
Asclepias syriaca, bee balm
Mondarda fistulosa and Ironweed
Vernonia missurica.
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Monarch caterpillar on
swamp milkweed
Asclepias incarnata | Honeybee on butterfly weed
Asclepias tuberosa | Bee on spreading dogbane
Apocynum addrosaemifolium | Bee on sundrop
Oenothera pilosella ssp pilosella |
All winter I was curious what I would see this spring. A few plants died, as was expected, but most survived, and I even found a few new seedlings. I try to look at it in a positive way and hope that native bees found the bare soil dead plants left behind and made a home in it.
How to tell if a plant is attractive to pollinating insects? Scent and colourful flowers. Wind pollinated plants do not have to rely on those two elements. Of course there is always the exception to the rule. One of them is the non-native angelica,
Archangelica officinalis.. Yes, I do have non-natives in my garden, especially if they serve a purpose, and this one does. The flowers are green, a colour bees are not usually attracted to. The plant can look quite weedy, but their small, unassuming flowers are always abuzz with lots and different kinds of flies and bees; I cannot get myself to cut them down.
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Bee flying over balsam ragwort
Senecio pauperculus | Bee hawk moth on bee balm
Monarda fistulosa | Bumble bee on culver’s root
Veronicastrum virginicum | Caterpillar on pearly everlasting
Anaphalis margaritacea |
Here are a few tips if you plan for a pollinator smorgasbord:
- Hold off the mulch in a few areas and leave the soil bare for burrowing bees;
- Rather than growing many species but only a few plants each, grow few species but lots of each. A garden is most attractive to pollinators with many plants in bloom at the same time.
- Provide a water source. Keep a birdbath with clean water and float a blade of grass or place a flat stone in it. Bees will land on the blade or stone and drink from there.
- Don’t leave container with water laying around; insects will be attracted to it but can’t get out of deep water and will drown.
- Plant scented flowers, bees love plants in the mint family.
- Avoid hybrids; many of them are bred to please man and are low in or lack pollen and/or nectar.
- Plan for blooms throughout the season and use annuals, perennials, flowering shrubs and trees.
- Learn to love your dandelions; they are often the first food bees will find.
Remember, not all bees sting and of those who do, won’t unless you frighten or hurt them. The honeybee dies if she loses her stinger, she will only use it as a last resort. Alas, accidents do happen and there are lots of ideas out there to treat bee stings; rub a penny on it, rub honey on it, chew on a plantain leave and rub it on the sting. There are even battery operated gadgets that lessen the pain and swelling and I was told they work.
Let pollinators go about their business, enjoy watching them and take close-up pictures if you can. There is nothing more cheerful in the winter than looking at a picture of a yellow flower with a bee enjoying its goodies. Nature is beautiful, and you are part of it.
Bee on coreopsis
Coreopsis lanceolata
Past Garden Tips
In the fall, instead of cleaning up my garden I like to leave all the plants in place. It provides winter interest and food and cover for birds and other critters. I’ve often found dens in my meadow built by small animals, lined with fur and grass. Although this has uprooted some of my plants, it’s a small price to pay to know that my place is a haven. In the spring the spent plants provide nesting materials for the birds. I often sit by my window, watching the birds look for just the right piece and then fly off in a hurry. For that reason I wait as long as I can before I cut everything down to get the garden ready for spring.
Leaving your plants up in late fall might not be possible in the front yard of your city garden, but how about giving it a try it in your backyard. The critters will appreciate it and there’s nothing more enchanting than seeing snow falling on your seed heads, turning them into works of art.
This picture, taken through my front window, shows a junco eating seeds from my Great St. John’s Wort, Hypericum ascyron. This plant produces copious amounts of seed that germinate easily, but this shot is worth the extra work of pulling unwanted seedlings. Donate your extra seedlings to friends or the “home grown” table at NANPS’ plant sale coming up in May, and send extra seeds you have to NANPS for its seed exchange.
Ruth Zaugg, Caledon Ontario
January 2007
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