Amazing things you can do in a wild garden #1

In answer to a reader's question, I've just provided instructions on how to move a bumblebee nest. Yes, it can be done. I can't say that I recommend it. For one thing, there is a slight chance you'll get stung. Also, the bees will die in late fall and you can then destroy the nest without harming them.

However, if the nest is in a spot where the bees simply cannot be allowed to stay, it is possible to move them to a nest box and then put them somewhere that's safe for them and you. If you put them in the right kind of nest box (see below), you can even enjoy watching the activities inside the nest.

If you'd like to know how, check out the instructions in the Question & Answer section I've started on the right-hand side of the blog. If you want to see previous Q&As (just one so far, but I hope they'll accumulate) check out the new website I've started. I plan to archive all my old posts here in hope that I do a better job of organizing them than I can here at the blog, so the information will be easier to use.

The information on moving bumblebee nests is adapted from a wonderful book, by the way. I recommend Brian L. Griffin's Humblebee Bumblebee: The Life Story of the Friendly Bumblebees and Their Use by the Backyard Gardener to anyone who's interested in bumbles. The book is hard to find in stores but is still available from Brian's website , which is now being run by his daughter, Lisa Novitch.

The company Brian founded, Knox Cellars, specializes in orchard mason bees, another wonderful native bee. But they do sell a few bumblebee items including the Humble Bumble Observation Home, which Brian designed so that you can actually peek in and watch the bumbles at work. If you have bumbles to move, I'm sure you couldn't find a better new home for them than one of Brian's Humble Bumble homes.

Update: I'm very happy to report that Alicia and her husband, who are sure that the insects nesting in their eves are bumblebees, have decided to put off further construction work until late fall so as not to have to disturb the nest. On behalf of pollinators and pollinator-lovers everywhere, thank you Alicia!

The illustration at the top of this post is courtesy of Dover Publications. It was a free sample from their Full Color Fruit Crate Labels CD-Rom and book.

A few plums

HERE ARE A PARTICULARLY INTERESTING ITEMS picked from the latest installment of the Wild Ones organization's e-mail newsletter:

Wild Ones now has its own channel on YouTube. At the moment they have 7 videos including tours of the new Wild Ones Ecocenter now and 11 months ago. The rest are photo contests from 2003 through 2008.

The website of the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System now has an educational offering titled Managing Invasive Plants: Concepts, Principles, and Practices. This is designed for people who are managing large natural areas on public land in the United States but some ideas could be adapted to gardens and smaller landscapes. From the gardener's standpoint, the most useful information is in the section on management, particularly physical, chemical, and biological methods of control. If you have enough land, you may be interested in the sections on prescribed grazing (I'm planning to take a good look at the section on goats) and prescribed burning. All the sections are overviews, so if you already know a lot about control of invasive species you may find that there is not much new here.

The Pollinator Partnership is offering a number of handouts that were prepared for the 2008 Pollinator Week last June. These are in pdf format and include:

• Fast facts for the general public
• Fast facts for gardeners
• A primer on pollination and pollinators
• Pollinator-friendly meals

The Hummers Are Coming

Above, Wild Flora's favorite hummingbird feeder is an easy-to-clean "dish" style that attaches to a window with a suction cup and has perches so the birds can sit while feeding.

SPRING IS ON THE WING. The hummingbird migration map at hummingbirds.net is starting to show those little colored dots that tell us ruby-throated hummingbirds are being seen in North America. So far they are being seen only along the southern edge of the United States, along the coastline in Texas, Louisiana, and other southernmost states. But with their arrival on the continent, most of us can look forward to seeing our friends within the next month or so.

Male hummers arrive ahead of the females and establish territories around good food sources. Once they've found a good territory, they return year after year. So it's important to make sure your feeder is already out when the males start to arrive.

The best feeder

Time to buy a new feeder? The "dish" style, shown in the photo above, has a lot of advantages over the more common "bottle" style. In the dish style, the feeding holes are in the lid (the red part of the feeder shown in the photo) while the nectar fills a container (the clear plastic dish under the red lid) that screws onto the lid. One advantage of this style is that the dish and lid are both easy to clean--unlike the bottle in the bottle style, which usually can be cleaned thoroughly only with a bottle brush.

Another advantage is that dish-style feeders don't drip. Also, this style of feeder tends to discourage wasps and bees, as their short tongues can't reach the nectar in the dish. (Unfortunately, this sometimes encourages them to crawl into the dish in search of food. However, on the whole I think you are less likely to see wasps and bees hanging around this style of feeder than around many of the bottle styles.)

It's fun, though not essential, to have a hummingbird feeder that attaches to a window with a suction cup. Hummers are very brave and will not be discouraged from feeding even if you stand on the other side of the window to watch them.

Perches are also nice to have. Hummers don't need them, as they can hover while feeding. However, if perches are available the hummers will use them. This lets them rest and gives you a better look at the birds while they're feeding.

"Hummer Juice"

Before the hummers arrive, you'll want to be sure to have a big bag of plain white sugar. Mix tap water and sugar in a ratio of 4:1 (four cups water to one cup sugar) and store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It's no longer considered necessary to boil the water before you mix up a batch of "hummer juice"--just be sure you change the liquid often.

There's no need to add anything to this liquid. With their extremely high energy needs, hummingbirds use sugar water to meet calorie requirements. But they get most of their nutrients from a diet of small flying insects, which they hunt on the wing.

In fact, attempts to "improve" the standard formula for hummingbird food are likely to do more harm than good. Well-meaning efforts to enrich the liquid can unintentionally introduce ingredients that are not good for the birds and/or encourage the growth of molds and bacteria.

Maintenance

Once you start feeding the birds, be prepared to change the sugar water every few days, as often as daily in warm weather. Molds and bacteria are probably the biggest threat to feeder-using birds, so probably the most important thing any bird lover can do is to make sure the food is always fresh.

You will also want to be sure to keep the feeders full throughout the breeding season and until there are an abundance of nectar-producing flowers in bloom.

And finally, you'll want to do whatever you can to attract small flying insects to your garden, as these are an important part of the hummingbird diet. Like almost all birds, hummingbirds eat a lot of insects and also feed a lot of insects to their young.

I'll return with a discussion of planting for hummingbirds soon. In the meantime, to learn more about hummingbird migration, see this page at hummingbirds.net For a longer and more detailed discussion of hummingbird feeding, see this post of mine from last year.

Pollinating the spring ephemerals

Photo of Dicentra cucullaria by Catie Drew.


IF YOU LIVE IN ANY AREA THAT IS NATURALLY WOODED, the first native plants to come up in spring are those known as spring emphemerals. These small wildflowers take advantage of that brief period in early spring when the soil warms but deciduous trees have not yet leafed out. During this small window of time, they appear and flower before fading back into the soil again as their woodland habitat is engulfed in shade.

During this time, the spring ephemerals can't just sit there and look pretty--though they most certainly do. Their critical task is to attract pollinators so that they can set seed and ensure the survival of their species.

Getting pollinated is pretty difficult for the spring ephemerals because they can bloom only when the forest canopy is still open but can be pollinated only when it's warm enough for insects to be able to fly. If those two seasons don't coincide, they won't be able to get pollinated unless they are able to self-pollinate.

Because they do have such a tricky time getting pollinated, most of the spring ephemerals are generalists--they can be pollinated by a wide variety of insects. However some of them are adapted to being pollinated by specific insects. Trillium, for instance, has a distinct smell that attracts flies. Dicentra cucullaria, aka Dutchmen's breeches, is dependent on queen bumblebees for pollination. Some of the orchids are also very specialized.

One interesting adaptation is found in Cornus canadensis, a low-growing member of the dogwood family. The flowers of this plant are so eager to be pollinated that when an insect lands on one, it explodes with a shower of pollen that covers the insect in golden dust.

Most of the pollinating insects that visit spring ephemerals also go to the early spring flowering trees and shrubs, incidentally. Willows are especially popular because of their huge production of pollen. Maple flowers and flowering Ericaceous shrubs also seem to get a lot of attention.

But the bottom line is that they all need each other. The interactions are very complicated and poorly understood, and we don't really know which native plants and/or pollinators are essential to the survival of which other native plants and/or pollinators. All we really know is that they're adapted to each other, often in very precise ways. One of many concerns about global climate change is that even slight changes in delicate, vulnerable relationships between species such as these could have unforseeable but monumental effects.

Another Bee Site

Above, California poppy is one of the plants recommended at the Urban Bee Garden site. California poppy is native in California and can be grown easily from seed in many other parts of North America. It will grow in extremely poor soil, in fact is good for naturalizing along a roadside. But it does seem to need a lot of sun. Like Cosmos, which also is recommended for pollinators and is easy to grow from seed, it tends to reseed itself from year to year.

WHILE I WAS WORKING ON PART II of my history of native plants and gardening, among the sites that googled up was Urban Bee Garden: A Practical Guide to Introducing the World's Most Prolific Pollinators to Your Garden, sponsored by the Urban Bee Project at the University of California, Berkeley. The site includes a good overview of bee gardening and two lists of bee plants. The short list of easy-to grow plants includes these favorites of mine, which will grow almost anywhere: sunflowers, cosmos, California poppy, pincushion flower, penstemons (need sun and good drainage), lavender (not all varieties are equally hardy), lamb's ear, Coreopsis, buckwheat (good cover crop), catnip, and borage. For those who want to dig deeper (so to speak), the site also offers a nine-page .pdf file containing details on both native and nonnative plants and their appeal to honeybees and California bees.

Meet the Natives: Goldenrod

IT DOESN'T CAUSE HAYFEVER. Because it blooms at about the same time as ragweed, goldenrod (Solidago spp.) is unfairly blamed for a lot of red eyes and runny noses. But goldenrod is not the culprit. In fact, grains of goldenrod pollen, being both large and sticky, must be carried around by insects; this means that they are not windborne, thus are highly unlikely to end up in your nose and sinus passages, thus are even unlikelier to cause any irritation of same.

Now that we've disposed of the leading cause of prejudice against goldenrod, let's talk about all the ways in which it is a wonderful plant.

There are many species of Solidago (16 in my province alone), almost all of them with bright yellow fall flowers that are highly attractive to pollinators, especially bees. The goldenrods are notoriously difficult to tell apart, especially since they can hybridize with one other. Of the wild goldenrods, however, perhaps the most beautiful (and also one of the more common) is Canada or tall goldenrod (S. canadensis), which is shown in all the photos on this page. The sight of those brilliant gold plumes, on top of plants that can grow as tall as 6 feet, is one of the glories of late summer and early fall in almost every state and in much of Canada.

Left: Wild goldenrod naturalizes well (some would say too well). The attractive, thick mass of goldenrod on this slope leading down to my pond will help to hold the soil and prevent weeds from taking over.

Wild goldenrod can be extremely useful as a groundcover: It spreads readily, can be mowed (and will even bloom after mowing, at a height of about 8 inches), is tough enough to take foot traffic, and has the interesting property of suppressing germination of seeds in the surrounding area, making it particularly useful for weed control. On top of all that, it provides pollen for pollinators, feeds the caterpillars of several butterflies and moths, and makes a good cut flower.

Left: Although somewhat unruly, wild goldenrod can give a splash of yellow to wilder corners of the garden in late summer. In this corner, the purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) were planted, but the goldenrod, yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and anise hyssop (a nonnative) all volunteered.

Goldenrod has been appreciated by English gardeners since the 18th century. Like so many other North American natives, however, it did not become popular with American gardeners until the last few decades.

Even so, most gardeners shy away from wild goldenrod, which will readily take over any area to which it's introduced or to which it introduces itself (as it spreads quite well from seed). While they might let it naturalize in a sunny meadow, most gardeners prefer to keep goldenrod out of perennial borders; even native-plant enthusiasts think twice about including goldenrod in plantings, if they hope to be able to keep their less vigorous native plants.

Not so the many cultivars of goldenrod, however. These are a boon to the goldenrod-lover who would also like to grow something else. Well-mannered cultivars suitable for gardens include "Early Bird" (an early bloomer, as the name implies), "Leraft" (dwarf), and "Wichita Mountains" (also short). Some others I find particularly interesting are:

• "Crown of Rays" (aka "Strahlenkrone"), apparently a cultivar of S. canadense, is compact, and the flower heads bow over so that they are almost parallel with the ground. When the flower heads are dense enough, they resemble golden rays of sun.
• "Fireworks," a cultivar of S. rugosa that was developed in collaboration with the North Carolina botanical garden, typically grows 3-4 feet tall. "The 3-foot-tall stems are unbranched for about 2/3 of their length. Then suddenly, they explode into many slender side shoots, each of which in turn carries an explosion of axillary branchlets coated with tiny yellow flowers. The effect is that of a star-shaped firework that continues to open outward in successive explosions," writes Mary Hirshfeld in an article at the Cornell University website, which also has a nice picture of the plant.
• "Golden Fleece," a cultivar of S. sphacelata, was found growing wild in North Carolina. "Its flowering branches cascade in a lacy network over a rosette of scalloped, semi-evergreen leaves," according to Susan McClure writing in Flower & Garden magazine in December 1996. (As you can see, these cultivars bring out the poet in garden writers.) This one was named a "plant of merit" by the Missouri Botanical Garden.
• "Golden Baby" is my favorite goldenrod for the perennial border. A short form of S. canadensis, it reaches only about 2 feet, with an unusually long bloom time. To me it looks like an exact duplicate of my favorite wild goldenrod, only in miniature.
• "Goldrush" is a cultivar of S. cutleri, a naturally short goldenrod that is native to mountains in New England. The cultivar, developed in 1998, forms mounds that are about a foot tall but can grow to 30 inches in width.
• "Gold Spangles," a hybrid, is not only short (2 foot) but also has gold-splashed foliage.

A word of warning: Not all goldenrods or goldenrod cultivars are native to North America. Though its cultivars are often sold in North America, S. virgaurea is European. As far as I've been able to find out, the popular cultivar "Peter Pan" is of this European origin. If you are trying to maintain a native garden, you will want to try to stay away from the European solidagos. I would also be inclined to avoid them out of concern that they could spread into natural areas or hybridize with local natives.

Goldenrods will grow almost anywhere that has full sun. S. canadense and most of the cultivated goldenrods like moist soils as long as they are not waterlogged.

Some goldenrod trivia from the Wikipedia:

• Goldenrod can be used to make several shades of natural dye.
• When caterpillars try to eat goldenrod, the plant defends itself by forming a hard bulb or gall around the insect. Some wasps have learned to lay eggs in these galls; the wasp larvae use the caterpillars for food. Woodpeckers have learned to open the galls and eat both the caterpillars and the wasp larvae. (And the beat goes on!)
• Pure goldenrod honey is light colored and has a spicy taste. If it's mixed with nectar from other fall plants, however, the honey may be dark and strong.
• Goldenrod is a natural source for a sturdy, long-lasting rubber. The inventor Thomas Edison developed a 12-foot-tall goldenrod that produced large quantities of this product.
  

Bumbles in Danger, Gardens to the Rescue

I couldn't resist this lovely closeup of a bumblebee (soon to be appearing as wallpaper on my computer) by "Trounce" via Wikimedia. It's licensed for limited use via Creative Commons.

GARDENS CAN HELP TO SAVE BUMBLEBEES. That's the news being reported by the BBC, based on a new study, conducted in England where there is grave concern about declines in bumblebee populations. Three species of bumblebee have become extinct in the UK in recent years, and at least 5 more of the UK's 25 species are threatened, according to the Beeb.

The new research comes from a citizen-science project called the British Bumblebee Nest Survey, conducted in summer 2004. More than 700 volunteers each checked an area of their garden and one of six other habitats for 20 minutes, looking for bumblebee nests. They found that their gardens contained an average of 36 bumblebee nests per hectare (2.5 acres).

The gardens included in this study tended to be wildlife-friendly, because the volunteers tended to be wildlife-friendly people. They probably contained more trees, ponds, compost piles, and bird nest boxes than average. So (as the weight-loss ads say) results may not be typical. But the study revealed that wildlife-friendly gardens, at any rate, can be ideal nesting habitat for bumblebees. What's more, the finding held true regardless of garden size.

Among the attractions were spots where sheltered areas adjoin open areas, which seems to be the type of area bumbles prefer for nesting. Examples include hedges, fences, and garden buildings. Also, bumblebees like to nest in spots with soft earth, such as compost heaps and flower beds, as well as in cavities such as those supplied by bird nest boxes. Finally, plants that bloom throughout the season are potentially an excellent source of nectar and pollen for bumbles, especially if the gardener favors "old fashioned" or "cottage style" plants.

Juliet Osbourne, lead author of this report, works for Rothamsted Research in Hertforshire, England, a 160-year-old center for research on sustainable land management. A .pdf with a more detailed report on the study is available online. For more information about bumblebee conservation in Britain, visit The Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Bee Gardening from the WSJ

Turn a teapot into a bumblebee nest? Hey, I always end up drinking coffee anyway.

THE BUMBLEBEE HAS A STING FACTOR OF 2.5. I learned this from an article in the online real estate section of the Wall Street Journal. What's more -- and this is really exciting -- more and more gardeners are defying that sting factor in order to make bee gardens!


Check out this video tour of a beautiful bee garden, courtesy of the WSJ.

In an article titled "Gardens With a Buzz," June Fletcher reports that homeowners are getting concerned about reports of declining honeybee populations. (For more on this, see my post on gardeners and the honeybee crisis.) In response, "the garden industry is pushing homeowners to create bee gardens that will attract and nourish [honeybees] as well as other, indigenous species."

Fletcher says that although "big-box" stores haven't picked up the trend yet, companies that have started selling bee plants and bee nest boxes are reporting strong sales. These include Smith & Hawken in Novato, Calif., and Dutch Gardens, a division of Gardener's Supply in Burlington, Vt.

The article contains profiles of gardeners and an excellent overview of bees and their needs. It's worth visiting just for the chart showing five bee species (honeybee, orchard mason bee, bumblebee, sweat bee, and leaf cutter bee) with photos, "sting factor," favorite plants, and comments. Among the latter is the suggestion that an old teapot could be buried with just the spout poking above ground, in order to make a nesting site for bumblebees. What a great way to repurpose any unused or broken pot, especially one with a narrow neck.

As for that "sting factor," I thought I'd heard of everything having to do with bees, but I'd never heard of this pain index developed by entomologist Justin O. Schmidt of Tucson, Ariz. Evidently this noble individual allowed himself to be stung by more than 78 species of insects in order to develop his index.

Since I don't have anything like that degree of nobility, I'm reluctant to argue with his findings. However, I was surprised to learn that Schmidt likens bumblebees' 2.5 rating to "stepping on a hot nail." This sounds fairly painful, whereas I've never been much bothered by bumblebee stings myself.

The second most painful of those listed in the chart is the honeybee. Its 2.0 rating is "like touching a burning match," which is closer to what I've experienced from bumblebee stings.

The sweat bee gets a rating of 1: "It hurts briefly, like a spark." Both the orchard mason bee and the leaf-cutter bee get ratings of zero, "a mild pinprick" and "like lightly brushing a thorn," respectively.

I encourage you to read the full article. But if you'd like to see what I've written about bee gardening, check "Attracting Bumblebees" and other posts listed under Bees in the right-hand column.

Farming for Pollinators part two

FOR THE LAST INSTALLMENT HONORING NATIONAL POLLINATORS WEEK, here are some tips that were intended for farmers who want to encourage native bees to pollinate their crops. (If you're wondering why this is important, see part one.) These tips are just as helpful for gardeners who just want to help our native pollinators, however. The following come from Farming for Pollinators: Native Bees and Your Crops, published by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Xerces Society; the comments in parentheses are from me:

Bees need lots of flowering plants throughout the flowering season. To help meet this need:

• Plant flowers, especially "old-fashioned" varieties. (This is a great thing to do in the vegetable garden. Many annuals, such as marigolds, nasturtiums, and cosmos, coexist beautifully with vegetables.)
• Plant an herb garden.
• Let an area of your property "go wild," so that wildflowers can grow.
• Let some of the leafy vegetables in your vegetable garden, such as lettuce, "bolt" (that is, make flowers and then set seed).
• Mark the edges of your property or divide areas of your property with hedgerows composed of a mixture of shrubs or trees that bloom at different times. (A hedgerow is a wildlife-friendly version of a hedge.)
• When planting windbreaks, use a variety of plants that bloom at different times.
• Use cover crops in the vegetable garden, and allow them to bloom.

Bees also need places to nest. Solitary bees (bees that do not live in colonies as honeybees do) generally nest in tunnels. These tunnels may be constructed in bare ground, but some bees use tunnels made by beetles in trees. Social bees such as bumblebees, which do nest in colonies, often make use of small holes such as abandoned rodent nests. To help meet these needs:

• Try to keep tilling to a minimum. Many native bees nest underground, sometimes at the base of plants they pollinate, and tilling would destroy their nests. Turn soil only when necessary. (I don't till at all--I use raised beds that I weed and mulch by hand. Of course, this might not be practical for someone trying to raise food commercially.)
• Drill holes into pieces of wood to make artificial nests for bees that use tunnels in wood. (The National Wildlife Federation has instructions on how to make nest boxes for orchard mason bees. These can also be purchased.)
• If possible, leave dead or dying trees standing so they can be used as nest sites by bees. (If a dying tree is a danger, consider cutting it to a safe height instead of removing it altogether. The stump will be good habitat for bees and other animals, and makes a great place to grow vines.)

Bees also need to be protected from pesticides. (Fortunately, most wildlife-friendly gardeners avoid using pesticides, and one of the advantages of buying from local farmers is that many of them are organic or moving in that direction. The booklet does give suggestions for how to minimize the impact on bees if pesticides must be used.)

Finally, it's important to try to protect good habitat areas for bees, both on the farm and in our gardens. These include:

• Anywhere that native bees already seem to be nesting and/or foraging.
• Areas near ponds, wetlands, and streams. Willows, which are often found growing in these areas, are especially good sources of pollen for bees.
• Areas of fallow or "unproductive" land.
• Patches of wildflowers.
• Hedgerows and windbreaks.
• Vegetable, flower, and herb gardens.
• Piles of loose soil. (Many people have discovered bees nesting in their compost pile. This is only a one-year problem, however, as the colony will die come winter.)
• Areas next to fields and roads.
• Almost any natural or undeveloped area.

For additional information on farming for pollinators, see the Xerces Society's booklet Farming for Bees: Guidelines for Providing Native Bee Habitat on Farms. This publication is quite detailed and contains interesting case studies.

Eating for Pollinators part one

I RECENTLY JOINED A COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE PROGRAM. The owner is a neighbor of mine who has a couple of greenhouses and sells his vegetables at a local farmer's market. But now he's also experimenting with the CSA idea: People like me purchase a share in his operation and, in return, we get a share of his harvest throughout the growing season. It's better for him because he has guaranteed purchasers for his produce through the whole season.

So now, instead of going to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, I go by John's place on Friday afternoons to pick up my produce. (That's not his real name; I'm not going to use his real name because I don't have his permission.) I don't have to drive as far, which saves on gas. John gives me a lot more vegetables than I would buy at the Farmer's Market, but that's good because it's encouraging us to eat more vegetables. (Anything we don't eat is frozen for use this winter, with all the scraps going to our voraciously vegetivorous ducks.) One of the best things about this program, however, is that John usually has time to talk, so often he gives us a short tour of the vegetable gardens and we get to chat about how things are doing. I like knowing the man who is growing my food and getting a chance to see how that food is being grown.

Today as John was showing off the pea plants that are starting to bloom, I had occasion to reflect on how important pollinators are to our food supply and, in turn, how important farmers and the people who buy food from farmers are to pollinators. The flowers that form on those vegetable plants are there, by and large, in order to attract pollinators. If the pollinators don't show up, and the flowers don't get pollinated, beans, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables we like to eat aren't going to show up either. Insects pollinate two thirds of all crop species!

So it's important for all of us to support farmers who grow food in ways that are good for pollinators. One of the many advantages of buying from local small farms (something I strongly encourage for all sorts of reasons) is that it gives me a chance to observe how my food is grown and encourage my farmer-neighbors to practice pollinator-friendly gardening.

In honor of National Pollinator Week, here are a couple of publications about farming for pollinators. Although they're intended for farmers, they contain many tips that could be helpful to all gardeners. One is Farming for Pollinators: Native Bees and Your Crops, published by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Xerces Society. The other is the Xerces Society's booklet Farming for Bees: Guidelines for Providing Native Bee Habitat on Farms. If you're in a CSA or are on good terms with the sellers at your local Farmer's Market, you might want to print one of these out and share it. And if you're not in a CSA or buying regularly at your local Farmer's Market ... think about it!

Tomorrow I'll pass along some tips from these publications. In the meantime, if you'd like to know more about why it's such a good idea to "eat local" and support small farms, here's a handout I wrote for a local group that's encouraging rural Nova Scotians to help prevent global warming. (Yes, our food choices also have an impact on global climate!)

Happy National Pollinators Week

TOMORROW, JUNE 24, MARKS THE BEGINNING of the first National Pollinators Week in the United States, where it will be commemorated by the release of a Pollination Stamp Series by the U.S. Post Office. When placed together, these stamps form the lovely image shown above.

For those of us who love pollinators (and who wouldn't?), the great news is that Pollinator Week brings with it a host of pollinator-related events in the United States (and one event being held in Mexico), along with goodies available via the Internet for everyone to enjoy. The Pollinator Partnership website has information on National Pollinator Week activities, including:

• A gorgeous poster that can be downloaded in .pdf format. Up to 3 copies of this poster can be ordered for a shipping charge of just US$5; this shipping offer is apparently available in both the U.S. and Canada.


• A clever "Pollinator Garden Wheel" that gives a simple explanation of why pollinators are important and some basic advice on creating a pollinator-friendly garden. This can be downloaded in .pdf format or ordered for US$5 shipping. Again, this shipping offer is apparently available in Canada as well as in the U.S.


• Copy of a National Academy of Sciences study on the status of pollinators in North America,. The book costs US$43 book if you buy it in paper format, but you can read it online for free.


• "Fast Facts for Gardeners" downloadable fact sheet in .pdf format.


• Downloadable versions of the stamp art shown above. I'm using mine as wallpaper for my computer. (See the Pollinator Partnership website for links to these.)


• Downloadable brochure from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service on Farming for Pollinators. (This is different from the publications on farming for bees and pollinators available from the Xerces Society.)

For additional resources, also see the website of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service press release on National Pollinator Week, and the Xerces Society's Pollinator Conservation Program.

I'll spend the rest of Pollinator Week reviewing materials from these sources and sharing information I think gardeners might find especially useful.

Meet the Natives: Bleeding Heart

THE NATIVE BLEEDING HEARTS ARE UNASSUMING COUNTRY COUSINS to the common garden bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis. The latter, which is native to Eastern Asia, grows far larger than the natives and has been popular with gardeners going back to the mid-19th century in Europe and for hundreds of years in China and Japan.

The smaller, native Dicentras are equally charming once you get to know them. These members of the Fumitory family (which also includes Corydalis spp.) are low growing, with delicate, fernlike foliage and a tendency to naturalize. The petals fuse into interesting shapes, typically pink (sometimes white) hearts with the stamens forming a teardrop beneath--hence the common name bleeding heart. They usually flower in spring and tend to be popular with bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. In my experience the Dicentras also get along famously with other plants; see how, in the photo at top, the little bleeding heart is cozying right up to the native strawberry, with its grey-green ferny foliage setting off the brighter green and solid leaves of the Fragaria.

The photo at top mostly likely shows D. formosa, or Pacific bleeding heart. This plant was given to me by a neighbor, who dug it up in a relative's garden. If it's what I think it is, it's native to the West Coast, and has probably reached me here in the Northeast by the grace of many generations of gardeners who have passed it from one garden to another all across the continent.

Technically, this plant isn't native here. But I'm willing to overlook that because it's not particularly invasive and I have such pleasant memories of growing it in the West. The photo to the left shows a scene from a garden I designed and installed with my friend Brett Johnson; we called this area the "hummingbird glen" because we filled it with plants that appeal to hummingbirds, including D. formosa. The greenery immediately surrounding the bench consists almost entirely of a combination of native ferns with native bleeding hearts. (A photo of this same scene appeared with this article in the Seattle Times.) D. formosa has become quite popular in the nursery trade, and several cultivars are available. "Alba" has pure white flowers, and there are also several that have dark reddish pink blooms.

Warning: According to the Native Plant Information Network at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, all parts of this plant are toxic. The website states that the plant causes minor skin irritation when touched, but considerably more severe symptoms with greater exposure. Now, I've worked with this plant for years and have never noticed any symptoms whatever. But proceed with caution.

The photo at the top of this entry also could be D. canadensis, which possesses the oddball common name of "squirrel corn," presumably because of the yellow, pealike, tuberous roots. This plant has white to pale pink flowers and is native in Ontario and Quebec in Canada and in the United States from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Wisconsin. It is also said to be fragrant (which is one of the reasons why I think the plant in my garden must be D. formosa).

Another of the great native bleeding hearts--and a slightly unusual one--is D. cucullaria, which has white and yellow blooms that are shaped not like hearts but like upside-down pantaloons. Hence the common name, Dutchman's breeches. Apparently, the flowers of D. cucullaria are quite variable, however, and so the plant can often look a lot like D. canadensis, to which it is very closely related. However, D. cucullaria is not fragrant. This is the only Dicentra that is actually native where I live (insert sad face here), being native to the Maritimes as well as Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and all the way from Maine to Washington down to Tennessee in the United States. Western populations of the plant have apparently been separated from the eastern populations for at least 1,000 years, so there are physical differences between plants from the West Coast and those from the East, and some botanists regard them as different species.

Finally, D. eximia aka wild bleeding heart or plumy bleeding heart or eastern bleeding heart has small, deep pink heart-shaped flowers and is found "along the Appalachians from North Carolina and Tennessee to Maryland and Pennsylvania" according to the Flora of North America. This reference goes on to report that wild bleeding heart is frequently used in gardens and sometimes escapes outside the area to which it is native, but evidently has not become truly naturalized beyond it. Patented hybrids of D. eximia and D. formosa can be found in nurseries. The Native Plant Information Network at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center praises it as a garden plant because it has a long blooming season but warns that it can spread so profusely that it will smother other plants.

Give the Dicentras part shade (high shade or dappled shade is ideal), rich soil, and moisture, and then stand back and be prepared to watch them spread. You can usually extend the bloom time by providing supplemental water, but this is not necessary as the plants will simply go dormant if not watered.

Native Americans used this plant medicinally.

Meet the Natives: Solomon's Seal

IT'S ARCHITECTURE. Sure, most of the reference books refer to the flowers of Solomon's seal as "showy." And these clusters of large, pendulous blooms certainly are showy according to the understated aesthetics of a natural landscape. But let's face it: Greenish white flowers bordered with, um, more green are not what a lot of gardeners would consider showy.

Nevertheless, Solomon's seal should recommend itself to even the most drama-loving gardeners: Its greatest strength is its all-but architectural presence. The high-arching stems reach 5 feet under the right circumstances; the large, tapering leaves, with their strong whitish veins, are attached to these stems in a fashion that reminds one of bamboo; when they fall they leave a distinctive scar that is probably the reason the plant is called Solomon's seal. And the flowers, well the flowers are just the icing on the cake, drawing attention to the arching stems by dangling beneath them in clusters of white (ok, greenish white) bells. Whether the blooms are showy is subject to debate, but I doubt anyone would deny that this plant is dramatic.

A member of the lily family, the native Solomon's seal comes in two species, which are virtually identical in appearance: Polygonatum biflorum, smooth Solomon's seal, is native to the eastern United States and south central Canada. P. pubescens, hairy Solomon's seal, is native from Nova Scotia to Ontario in Canada and south to Georgia and Iowa.

The plant blooms in spring, with the flowers attracting both butterflies and bees. The flowers are pollinated by bees that have mastered the trick of vibrating the blooms in order to release their pollen. The blooms are followed by black, blue, or green berries that are attractive to birds, although they are mildly toxic to humans.

Aside from the berries, which should be avoided, many parts of this plant are edible. Young shoots and leaves can be boiled for 10 minutes and eaten like asparagus; the roots can be dried and ground into flour or boiled for 20 minutes and eaten like potatoes. Native Americans valued the plant for both culinary and medicinal purposes.

Solomon's seal is adapted to woodland settings, where its tendency to shoot up and arch over other plants makes it a perfect backdrop or accompaniment to smaller woodland wildflowers. It's highly adaptable and should naturalize well in almost any shady, moist spot, preferably one with humusy soil.

It also makes a phenomenal container plant, as I discovered recently after planting a clump in a pot on my deck. Planted in a big pot full of straight compost and getting a couple of hours of full sun every day, this clump shot up to to nearly 3 feet in a matter of weeks and proceeded to bloom with abandon. (You can see the original planting in this entry from May 20.) Because it does tend to grow straight up and then arch, it makes an superb structural element for a container planting that includes other, shorter woodland plants. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck getting a photo that would do this plant justice, but here's one that at least may give some sense of how tall it has grown: You can see that the stems are now taller than the deck railing. And it's still growing!

Meet the Natives: Wild Bergamot

UNLESS YOU LOATHE LAVENDER, it's hard to imagine a better all-around plant than wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa. This easy-to-grow member of the mint family is known as Oswego tea because the fragrant, grey-green foliage does indeed make a nice tea. It can also be used in salads or added to bathwater. The showy, pale lavender (sometimes pink or white) blooms will grace your garden all summer if dead-headed, and are very popular with pollinators. And it is said to be deer resistant.

Wild bergamot is native to most of the United States (but not Florida, Washington, California, and Nevada) and to southern Canada, though not to the Maritime provinces. Because it has adapted to such a wide range of conditions, it's best to grow yours from seeds or cuttings obtained locally, as those will be more likely to thrive in your area. It is considered hardy in zones 3-9.

The plant's flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and also some moths. The photo above shows a hummingbird moth that visited my wild bergamot almost daily last summer. It's probably designed to be pollinated by species of bees that have long tongues (the better to reach in to those tubular flowers), including several varieties of bumblebees.

The plants grow anywhere from two to five feet tall and will spread both by rhizomes, especially in soft soils, and by seed. However, in my experience wild bergamot is nowhere near as spready as most other mints. Thus far mine has spread just enough to provide a continuous supply of cuttings for me to press upon fellow gardeners, but nowhere near enough to be a problem. When I do have extras, I find that they're great for out-of-the-way corners where I want something attractive to out-compete the weeds.

The plant is happiest in full sun but tolerates part shade. It likes moist soil but is more tolerant of drought than the more common garden bee balm (M. didyma) is. It tolerates fairly poor, heavy soil and will spread less aggessively that way. Plan to divide it every two or three years, as you would most perennials. Give it good air circulation in order to prevent powdery mildew, but if it does get mildew don't worry as the plant will almost certainly survive.

This plant was popular with Native Americans, who used it for a variety of medicinal and culinary purposes.

Good Bee Sites

I JUST LEARNED ABOUT A COUPLE OF EXCELLENT WEBSITES DEVOTED TO BEES:

• The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service offers a page devoted to native bees as alternative pollinators. Did you know that there are more than 3,500 species of solitary bees in North America? Only a few species have been studied. "The best way to preserve bees and continue to gain from their pollination services is to preserve wildland," according to this site. However, they also offer an extensive table of plants they recommend for native bees. This website also offers information on a wide range of other topics related to sustainable agriculture.
• Discover Life is another great website, with scientific information on almost every living thing you can imagine. There is an extensive section on the Apoidea, which includes both bees and sphecid wasps, a type of wasp that is harmless to people.

Incidentally, I found out about these sites through an email list run by an organization called the Wild Ones. This excellent organization is devoted to promoting natural landscaping based on local ecologies, but at present the membership is primarily in the Midwest and Northeast of the United States. (They have chapters in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and one that is starting up in Maine.) As it happens, the Wild Ones Journal recently published a superb cover article about bumblebees by journal editor Maryann Whitman. Any bumblebee lover will want to read this!

Native Wildflowers That Attract Pollinators

Native Pollinator Plants

HERE'S AN OFFERING that will, I hope, set to rest any doubts about whether native plants can be as beautiful as any non-native gardening favorites. (Click on the photo to be taken to a web album. If you're using tabbed browsing, hold down the Ctrl key to load the album on a different tab.) True, natives may be less showy than some of the hybrids and cultivars found in garden centers, but it doesn't take much effort to learn to appreciate their slightly more subtle charms.

This gallery focuses on plants that are native to the West, where I lived from 1993 to 2002. But if you don't live in the West, I think you may still find the gallery interesting. Several of the plants are native to much of North America, and several are representatives of species that are found almost everywhere. In addition, I've included captions discussing the characteristics of these plants that are attractive to specific types of pollinators.

A Plant for Bumblebees

I FOUND A TROVE OF FLOWER PHOTOS today, including quite a few shots of plants that appeal to pollinators. For example, the photo above shows a monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus, that is native all up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast and has naturalized in many other parts of the world. This wetland wildflower is adapted for pollination by insects, especially bumblebees: Note that the lower petals have evolved into a sturdy "lip" that will support a fairly heavy insect when it lands. The dots that lead down the throat of the plant are called nectar guides because they quite literally guide the bee to where the nectar is. When the bee puts its head into the flower in search of nectar, it will become covered in pollen that it will transfer to another plant.

Yellow Monkeyflower is one of North America's most charming wildflowers, perfect for wet areas in the garden. When happy it spreads aggressively and flowers profusely.

Bumblebees Part 3: Attracting Bumblebees

Note to readers: I apologize for the long wait between installments in this series. My modem died early Monday morning and was not replaced until yesterday. For previous installments in this series please see The Funny Fuzzy Bumblebee, Bumblebee Lives, and Bumblebee Watching.

BUMBLEBEES WILL VISIT almost any nectar-producing plant. If you have a butterfly, hummingbird, or herb garden you almost certainly will see bumblebees as well. Of course, it’s essential that the garden be pesticide-free!

Bear in mind that “old-fashioned” and wild varieties of plants are often better nectar-producers than modern hybrids. Herbaceous plants that have a reputation for being especially attractive to bumblebees include monkshood (caution: this plant is poisonous), red clover, asters, goldenrod, foxglove, germander, Joe pye weed, sedum “Autumn joy,” oregano, thyme, globe-thistle, hyssop, lavender, chives, penstemons, rosemary, and sunflowers. I especially urge you to try the North American native fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) and marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). It's quite likely that you can also find native species of goldenrod (Solidago spp.), asters (Aster spp.), penstemons (Penstemon spp.), or monkshoods (Aconitum spp.).

Shrubs and small trees that attract bumblebees reportedly include blackberry, blueberry, gooseberry, huckleberry, raspberry, wild rose, spirea, willow, serviceberry, cherry, crabapple, and rhododendron. Native willows (Salix spp.) are important for queen bumblebees early in the season, as they are among the first plants to produce abundant pollen.

To provide good habitat for bumblebees, don’t make your flower garden or the area around it too tidy. If the queens are to find spots where they can build hibernacula and nests, you’ll have to leave “natural” areas full of shrubs and groundcovers, brush piles, areas of unmowed grass, and patches of bare, soft earth. You’ll also want to tolerate and even learn to enjoy native species of mice, keeping in mind that they (like all native wildlife) have an important role to play in nature’s great comedy-drama.

This series of posts on bumblebees is taken from an article I originally wrote for Northwest Garden News.

Bumblebees Part 2: Bumblebee Watching

Previous installments: The Funny Fuzzy Bumblebee and Bumblebee Lives

FROM SPRING THROUGH SUMMER, sometimes as late as October, worker bumblebees never stop looking for food for their growing nest. Those “fur coats” they wear allow them to do their “work” in much lower temperatures than do many other pollinating insects, such as the non-native honeybees. They often can be seen out even early in the day and late into the afternoon.

Watching these little ladies at work offers no end of opportunities for amateur naturalists. You can use color photos in the back of Brian Griffin’s book, Humblebee Bumblebee: The Life Story of the Friendly Bumblebees and Their Use by the Backyard Gardener, to identify many of the more common species.

It’s sometimes also possible to lure bumblebees into nesting in a nest box you provide for them. Griffin’s company, Knox Cellars, sells a wooden “Humble Bumble Home,” with instructions. The nest box even comes with an acrylic panel that allows you to peek into the nest itself.

Get to know your garden’s bumblebees and you will soon marvel at the intelligence of even the smallest creatures. According to my other favorite bumblebee book, Bernd Heinrich’s Bumblebee Economics, individual bumblebees learn how best to get pollen and nectar from specific flower types. Thus, for example, one bee will learn that she can get pollen from wildflowers in the carrot family, such as Queen Anne’s lace, by walking quickly across the flat surface of the bloom, pushing her body down against the tiny flowers. Another will learn to collect pollen from wild roses, by grasping a group of anthers with her front legs and shaking them.

As a result, individual bees “specialize” in gathering nectar and pollen from specific species of plants. Young bumblebees tended to specialize in “easy access” flowers, such as goldenrod, Heinrich found, even though these often don’t produce large amounts of nectar. Older bumblebees, however, tend to specialize in flowers that are rich in nectar but hard to get into.

For instance, the nectar in monkshood blossoms (Aconitum spp.) is abundant but stored in modified petals that are very difficult for insects to figure out. By and large, older bumblebees are the only pollinators clever and persistent enough to figure out how to get to this nectar. By excluding all pollinators but bumblebees, but offering a handsome nectar “reward” to those who do solve the puzzle, monkshood blooms ensure that certain bumblebees will become “monkshood specialists,” Heinrich notes. This in turn makes it likely that each bee will go directly from one monkshood plant to another, ensuring cross-pollination.

Another example of the way pollinators interact with plants is the relationship between bumblebees and foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). According to Heinrich, the flowers of foxglove begin as male and then turn into female because the stigma mature more slowly than the anthers do. Hence male flowers tend to be at the top of the plant (more recent blooms), with females (older blooms) at the bottom. Older blooms also tend to have more nectar, so bumblebees characteristically visit the lower, nectar-rich flowers of foxglove first, working their way up the plant. This characteristic foraging pattern helps the bees to avoid visiting the same blooms twice, and it also tends to ensure that the bees will invest their foraging time in the most nectar-rich flowers. But it also helps the plant, because the bees go directly from the male (upper) flowers of one plant to the female (lower) flowers of the next plant.

Both Griffin’s and Heinrich’s books are full of fascinating information such as this, and I urge you to read at least one of them. Griffin’s is probably the better book for beginners, with Heinrich’s being great fun for those who want to understand bumblebee behavior in greater depth.

This series of posts on bumblebees is taken from an article I originally wrote for Northwest Garden News.

Bumblebees Part 1: Bumblebee Lives

Note to readers: For the first installment of this series on bumblebees, see "The Funny Fuzzy Bumblebee."


BUMBLEBEE QUEENS EMERGE in early spring, sometimes as early as February, from holes in the ground called hibernacula. They then start looking for food. A good food source for queen bumblebees in early spring is the pollen from willows (Salix spp.). However, if there are nectar-producing plants in bloom, they will visit these too.


Before she can start to raise a family, each queen must find a place to build a nest. If you notice a large bumblebee flying back and forth over your garden in early spring, this may well be a queen intent on finding a location suitable for raising her young.

Bumblebee nests offer us a charming example of nature’s unwillingness to let anything go to waste. The bees prefer to nest in a dark, sheltered cavity filled with soft insulating material. However, although they can rearrange materials within their nests, they don’t bring insulating materials into the nest themselves. So nature, the ultimate recycler, allows queen bumblebees to inherit the perfect nesting spots, no longer needed by the original owners. That is, abandoned mouse nests.

Brian L. Griffin, author of a wonderful little book called Humblebee Bumblebee: The Life Story of the Friendly Bumblebees and Their Use by the Backyard Gardener, tells us that once she’s found a suitable spot, the queen bumblebee builds her nest, inserting her eggs into small wax containers. Henceforth, when not looking for food, she will actually “brood” the soon-to-be bees by lying on the egg cluster and warming it with her body.

After about a week, the larvae turn into pupae, becoming adults after a total of about 25 days. Once the first crop of worker bees emerges, the queen ceases leaving the nest, letting the workers take over the job of finding food. The colony grows larger as more workers are produced, each generation bringing more food to feed more baby bees. (According to Griffin, later generations of worker bees are actually larger than the first group raised by the queen alone, because the later bees get more food than the early bees do.) Eventually a bumblebee colony can become quite large, beginning to resemble “a medieval castle with turrets and domes ever rising,” Griffin says.

But this magnificent colony lasts only until the end of summer. In August or thereabouts, the queen, who formerly laid only eggs of female worker bees, begins to lay male eggs and large queen eggs. When the males and queens reach adulthood, they leave the colony, meet, and mate. Each queen eats heartily to build up a supply of fat, digs a hibernaculum, and tucks herself away for the winter months.

This series of posts on bumblebees is taken from an article I originally wrote for Northwest Garden News.