Recently my husband brought home a “bee barn” to aid in our quest for attracting pollinators to our garden.  We are hoping that some bees will take up residency in this barn, but I am not sure what to expect. So, I started to do some research that brought me to a more wide-ranging question; what types of bees am I really going to see in my garden in Solano County and what are their needs to become established?

In my hunt for new bee-related information, I took a very informative and enjoyable class at the Häagen-Dazs Bee Haven in Davis, taught by Christine Casey, Ph.D., Academic Program Management Office, Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis. The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven is an outdoor museum on the UC Davis campus where visitors can observe and learn about bees, and the plants in their habitat.  Visit their website for information about their museum at https://beegarden.ucdavis.edu/.

To my delight, the class not only answered my question on what types of bees I will probably see in my garden, but also provided some really useful tips on how to identify the different bees, their nesting behavior, and some fascinating facts unique to each species. 

Honey bees

o   1/2 to 1/3”

o   Black stripes alternating with bands of amber to brown

o   Nest in large colonies in above ground hives

o   To keep the hive cool, some of the bees will fan the nest, some will leave the nest to increase airflow, and then there are the “water collector” bees, who find water, drink the water, and then return to the hive and regurgitate the liquid for hive regulation.

Bumblebees

o   3/4 – 1 ½ ”

o   Black and yellow with a fuzzy abdomen

o   Nest above ground and underground (could use bee box/barn)

o   Many bees, especially bumblebees use “scent marking” to be able to detect and avoid flowers already visited.

o   Queen lives through winter so important to have early bloomers – continuous overlapping bloom

Carpenter bees

o   1/2 – 1”

o   Resemble bumble bees but the abdomen is shiny, not fuzzy

o   Drills nest into softwood (doesn't use “predrilled” nest)

o   Occasionally referred to as “robber” bees.  When nectar is hard to reach, they bite a hole at the base of the flower in order to get to the nectar.  Because the anthers are bypassed and the flower is not ‘rewarded' by being pollinated, this is referred to as nectar robbing.

Long-horned bees

o   0.3 – 0.7”

o   Vary in the color of their wings, hair, eyes, legs, and antennae

o   They get their name from the males' unmistakable and unusually long antennae

o   Females nest underground and males have to find a place outside the nests to sleep, sometimes forming “male sleeping aggregations” on plants.

Sweat bees 

o   Very small –0.12 to 0.40”

o   Usually black or metallic

o   Primarily nest underground in the soil - be careful to leave some bare ground/space – mulch will prevent them from nesting.

o   Can be attracted to salts in human perspiration.

Leafcutter bees

o   Resemble honey bees but usually darker in color

o   Nest above ground in “premade” holes – could use bee barn!

o   If you see half-moon shaped holes in leaves – a leafcutter bee has been gathering leaf tissue to take back to form nest cells.  This will only be located around the edges of the leaf and will be smooth, not jagged.

Nothoscordum gracile, commonly known as “slender false garlic” or the“devil bulb,” truly deserves its latter name as it attempts to take over my back yard.  Nothoscordum gracile is somewhat similar to a wild onion in that it has long, narrow leaves and little white flowers.  But this plant has longer and more gray-green leaves and white flowers with pink stripes.  It is a much taller plant overall than the wild onion and blooms through the summer. 

Nothoscordum gracile's success lies in its bulbs.  Once the plant forms three leaves, it begins producing bulblets.  The central bulb is surrounded by many, tiny, bublets that fall off as you dig up the plant.  They are so tiny that it is hard to capture them all.  In my yard, we have to dig at least 6 inches deep, and usually deeper, to get to the central bulb.  To avoid breaking the central bulb and spreading bublets, we have to dig carefully and remove the bulb and soil entirely.  This year, where feasible, we are now digging up and removing yards of soils to get as many bulbs and bublets as possible.  We aren't fooling ourselves that we will get them all.

When we had renovated our yard several years ago, we asked the landscaper to dig out the dirt in the problem areas because we knew the bulbs spread easily.  I have a strong suspicion that the landscaper didn't take us seriously because the plant is more widespread than before.  Moving the dirt around, instead of removing it, spread the bulbs even farther.

But digging big holes isn't always feasible.  The devil bulb is very clever at nestling at the base of other plants and often can't be dug up without harming the plant that you want to keep.  In that case, I break off the plant as close to the surface as I can, or if it is possible to dig a little, I dig as deeply as I can even if I am only getting the stalk and not the bulb.  My hope is that such continued efforts will reduce the plant's ability to obtain energy.  I'm not optimistic that it helps, but at least I feel better for doing something.  I also make it a priority to remove all the flowers so that they don't go to seed, but frankly, I haven't noticed a reduction in plants the following year when I do this.  I think the main issue is the spread of the bulbs.  We try to limit the use of herbicides in our backyard, but we have tried them as well and they didn't work at all.

I wish I could end on a more optimistic note, but the devil bulb truly is a scourge in my backyard.  I hope that our persistence and removal of dirt where feasible will help slow the bulbs' spread at least.

For more information on eradicating the devil bulb, see Pam Peirce's article “Eradicating noxious N. gracile devil bulbs” (May 19, 2011) at https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/goldengategardener/article/Eradicating-noxious-N-gracile-devil-bulbs-2370868.php.

We all know about birthstones.  But for all, you trivia fans, do you know about birth flowers?  There is a flower assigned to each month, and supposedly individuals inherit the characteristics of the flower assigned to their birth month.  The birth month flowers and characteristics associated with them are as follows. 

       
If you're thinking the list of birth flowers may be something put together by florists to sell flowers, you might be right.  The concept of birth flowers appears simply to have developed from the practice of gifting flowers to celebrate a birth.  The list of birth month flowers also varies slightly from one floral company to another.  For example, some florist websites list the December flower as Poinsettia, while others list Holly.  But who doesn't love receiving flowers for any reason? 

We recently received an invitation to submit photos from the past 40 years of California Master Gardener program activities. These photos will be compiled into a visual history, of sorts, showing the evolution of the MG programs. I began to wonder about how the program got started. Did it begin in California? Why was it started? Who thought up the idea?

A quick Internet search informed me that in 1972, Dr. David Gibby and Dr. A Davidson were working together at the Washington State University Cooperative Extension in the Seattle area. They needed help in dealing with the high demand from the public for gardening advice. The first trial clinic was held in a vacant space in the Tacoma Mall.  Curriculum was developed, and training began in King County and Pierce County, Washington, in 1973. The concept spread.  Today, Master Gardeners are active in all 50 states, and in 8 Canadian provinces.

The first California Master Gardener programs were established as University of California Cooperative Extensions in Riverside and Sacramento counties. The map in our California Master Gardener Handbook shows the statewide network of MG county programs.  In 2016, according to the Extension MG Survey, more than 5 million hours have been donated by UC Master Gardeners since the program began, with a value of more than $137 million.

I don't even try to put a monetary amount onto any conversations I get to have about gardening! For me, I am happy to help someone figure out the name of a pretty flower, or look up a pesky bug to decide if it is a “beneficial” bug.  Master Gardeners will continue to offer gardening advice and support for Solano County, hopefully, for the next 40 years and beyond!

Resources:

David Gibby,” Master Gardener Program History Archived”

Extension MG National Survey

CA Master Gardener Handbook, 2^nd Edition, UCANR 2015, Publication 3382.