- Author: Melody Kendall
A garden with a variety of plants with colorful blooms that produce pollen and nectar attracts and helps to support a variety of birds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects year-round. These visitors play a critical role in sustaining our ecosystem by helping our plants reproduce. Pollinator gardens provide the habitat, plants, pollen, and nectar to help us care for our wildlife partners. A pollinator garden can also give much personal satisfaction in the process so, investigate the many types of pollinators in your area and tailor your garden plans to supply their needs. In this final article dedicated to plant pollination we'll focus on plants that encourage those very important pollinating guests.
Research has shown that native bees prefer native plants in a 4 to 1 ratio, though they will feed on introduced plant species when given no other choice. In the past, flowers with showy blooms have been the ‘go to' for many gardeners. Humans enjoy the riot of color provided by various varieties of these hybrid plants. Unfortunately, we have failed to consider the pollinator's needs as many of these hybrid plants, while providing lovely visuals, are short on the nectar and/or the pollen needed to support hard working pollinators.
We have lost many wild land areas to development but we can help mitigate that loss by creating pollinator oases in our personal landscapes. In fact, recent research has shown that urban plantings have had a very significant positive influence on the native bee populations. Planting in different banks or blocks using a different pollinator friendly plant for each block creates areas where a variety of pollinators are encouraged and can load up on nectar and pollen without having to travel long distances between each flower. For example, native bees usually nest within 50 feet of their foraging sites.
When planning your garden make sure to consider the early risers and the late comers. Put in plants that bloom early in spring and some that will have flowers well into the late fall and winter. Rather than prune the dry seed pods in the late fall, leave the seeds for the winter foragers. Think of it as a slowly rotating smorgasbord for all those wonderful pollinator workhorses. Also, a garden set up like this will provide you a wonderful changing panorama as these cycles progress through the seasons.
California has many diverse native plant species available that are tailor-made to support our native pollinators. Here area few examples of early and late bloomers:
v Early bloomers
- Herbaceous flowering plant
- Baby blue eyes Nemophila menziesii is a low growing annual with low water needs. It has stunning sky blue flowers that attract native bees, including mason bees (Osmia spp.); tolerates moderate shade and moisture
- Shrub
- McMinn manzanita Arctostaphylos ‘McMinn' is a tall (5ft) perennial with low water needs. It has clusters of small, bell-shaped flowers that provide early season forage for bumble bees and other spring bees and will tolerate clay soils
v Early-mid bloomers
- Herbaceous flowering plant
- The iconic
- is an annual that is also a perennial because of its prolific self seeding properties. With its low water requirements it is easy to establish and long blooming; attracts a diversity of bees, bumble bees in particular.
- Shrub
- California flannel bush Fremontodendron californicum a low water perennial that can reach 15 ft. It is a prolific bloomer with large, bell-shaped yellow flowers. It does not need summer water.
v Mid bloomers
- herbaceous flowering plant
- Narrowleaf milkweed Asclepias fascicularis is a 12-18 9nch tall perennial with medium water needs. This is a Monarch butterfly host plant and it's a high-quality nectar source for many bees. It is easier to establish from transplants than from seed.
- ShrubCalifornia buckwheat Eriogonum fasciculatum
- is a perennial that grows to about 30 in high and drought tolerant. It is a favored nectar source of many blue and hairstreak butterflies and also very attractive to native bees.
v Mid-late bloomers
- Herbaceous flowering plant
- Common sunflower Helianthus annuus is a very tall (5 ft) annual with medium water needs. A favorite of many bee species and easy to establish. It is tolerant of clay soils.
v Late bloomers
- Herbaceous flowering plant
- California fuchsia Epilobium canum is a medium tall (3ft) perennial with low water needs. It has abundant scarlet-colored flowers and is a critical late-season nectar source for hummingbirds and bees.
For more information on these and many more California native plants: Xerces.org-plants for pollinators
There are many pollinator plants that aren't California. natives. Some of the best non-native, pollinator-attracting annual and perennial flowers are: agastache, ageratum, allium, betony, catmint, cornflowers, cosmos, lavender, Mexican sunflowers, pentas, Russian sage, salvia, sedum, verbena, veronica, yarrow, and zinnia. Use these plants to round out your garden and create diversity in your landscape. Contrary to popular belief pollinator attractive plants don't have to be herbaceous flowering plants; they can also be herbs that you allow to flower. Let your dill, parsley and other herbs 'bolt' or go to flower, then stand back and watch the pollinators enjoy themselves.
We hope the information in this series can be an inspiration to create a pollinator garden of your very own. Having a pollinator friendly landscape will not only benefit the pollinators, it will give you hours of entertainment and contribute to a healthy environment in your own backyard.
Information links: Las Flores Learning Garden-Plants for Pollinators
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo credits:
LFLG pics all taken by MGs: Las Flores Learning Garden-Plants for Pollinators
- Author: Melody Kendall
There are around 350,000 pollinator species in the world. Though they are the most recognizable, bees are not the only plant pollinator team in town. Other insects that help to carry this responsibility are. butterflies, flies, moths and beetles. These, along with birds, bats and other small mammals and lizards, fill out the plant pollinator roster. Let's look at some of these often unrecognized helpmates.
Butterflies and moths
When thinking of gardens and pollinating butterflies often come to mind. Though butterflies are not built for pollination they do move the pollen as they flit from one nectar filled flower to another. They like brightly colored flowers that offer ‘landing platforms' with their clustering growth habit.
Moths do pollinate flowers but only those that flower at night. Hawk moths or Morgan's sphinx moths are adapted to pollinate certain types of orchids and the yucca plant depends on the yucca moth for its pollination needs. The flowers that night dwelling moths pollinate are usually dull colored.
Birds
For many people hummingbirds are the bird world's pollinator icon, but there are often other birds doing pollination duties without recognition. There are honeycreepers in Hawaii, honeyeaters in Australia, brush-tongued parrots in New Guinea and sunbirds in the tropical old world, just to name a few. Over 2,000 bird species feed on nectar. Flowers with curved out petals that provide a platform, are bright colored and have lots of nectar are the main focus of these feathered pollinators. In their search for nectar these birds will visit a flower and, in the process, become dusted with pollen. They will then move on to the next flower for more nectar and leave some of that precious pollen dusting their feathers behind to fertilize that new flower.
Flies:
Bee flies (Bombylius species) are another important fly pollinator. They are bee imitators in their look but actually feed on bee larvae. The bee flies have long sucking mouth parts specially suited to pollinate flowers with deep, narrow tubes. Other pollinating flies are adult mosquitos, some adult fruit flies and carrion flies that are attracted to flowers with a fetid odor.
Wasps
Wasps are different from bees because, for the most part, instead of gathering pollen they catch prey to feed their larvae. In their search on the flowers for their prey the flower's pollen tends to stick to the wasp's body and then they inadvertently pollinate the other flowers they visit while hunting. There is one species of wasps called ‘pollen wasps' because they gather pollen to feed their larvae and over 1,000 different species of figs that rely on the tiny fig wasp to pollinate them.
Beetles
Other less known pollinators
Believe it or not there are still more pollinators out there and some may surprise you. Mammals like monkeys, lemurs, possums, bats and rodents and even some lizards join the party as well.
Though these are not found in our area they are interesting nonetheless. The largest known pollinator is the black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) of Madagascar. This mammal feeds on the traveler's palm by pulling the tough flowers open and sticking their snout inside for the nectar. Their nose gets covered with pollen and when they visit the next flower and stick their nose in, viola, that flower gets pollinated.
The lizard, the Noronha skink (Trachylepis atlantica) from Brazil, crawls into the leguminous mulungu tree's flower and while drinking the tree's flower's nectar becomes covered in pollen. When visiting the next flower that pollen is transferred to this new flower pollinating it.
Final pollinator notes: It's a wild kingdom out there.
- We tend to think of pollination as mutually beneficial between plants and pollinators. Many pollinators use plant parts and substances to assist in their own reproduction While it's sometimes a two-way street, this is not always so..
- Mimicry and deceit often prevail.
- Some pollinators are specialists and some are generalists.
- Some bees collect the scents of flowers to use for their own purposes. “Bee perfume,” if you will.
- Diverse plants with colorful blooms attract pollinators to your garden and help to support a variety of birds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects year-round. These visitors play a critical role in sustaining our ecosystem by helping our plants reproduce.
- Important: Avoid using pesticides where possible because they are indiscriminate and will kill many wonderful pollinating insects along with the pests. Choose from UCANR IPM-Integrated Pest Management methods detailed at: http://ipm.ucanr.edu .
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Information links:
- Author: Bob Niklewicz PT MG
Did you know that the largest organ of the human body is...the skin?
You have three layers of skin. The skin protects you from mechanical, thermal, biological, or chemical hazards. It prevents loss of moisture and protects you from the effects of the sun. It regulates body temperature, and enables the sense of touch to be identified. The average person has about 21 square feet of skin which weighs roughly 9 lbs. There are about 300 million skin cells on the average body?
With all of that being said, why do we reward this tissue by working long hours in the garden that is actually baking our skin and traumatizing it by being in the sun?
It starts like this: the skin can be overexposed to UV (ultraviolet) light that comes from the sun or a tanning lamp. There is both UV-A and UV-B wavelengths of light that penetrate to the deep layers of the skin and damage it. The damages is the result of the tissue's triggering the immune system that turns the tissue red from increased blood flow. If the exposure is intense enough, it will lead to blistering and the eventual peeling off of the top layer of skin. More significantly, the base cells can become permanently damaged.
The three main layers of skin are: the epidermis (top layer), the dermis and the hypodermis (below the dermis). The epidermis has five layers of its own, yet is the thinnest layer that protects you from everything. The epidermis has melanin cells in it that darken the skin. The more you have of it, the more protection you have. That is not to say that people with very dark skin are immune to sunburn, because they are not. They have resistance but they can burn and still need to protect themselves from UV rays. Below is a diagram of a skin section.
PhotoCredit: John Hopkins Medicine
The problem starts with repeated sunburns. Although some people are able to tan from progressive, and longer periods of exposure, most people with very little melanin will likely suffer deep damage to their skin.
Here is the bottom-line: much like gloves that protect you from many mechanical hazards, sunscreens, (both chemical as well as fabric) can protect you from possible damage to your skin. The damage can be in the form of not only sunburn but of skin cancer.
Sun Protection Factor (SPF) is a gauge of how much protection you have from the Sun. An SPF of 30 means it should take you 30 times longer to get sun burned from the UV-B rays than if you were not wearing it. It blocks about 97% of the rays. UV-B rays are believed to be the rays that cause the most damage to the skin. SPF of 50 should block 98% of the rays.
The bad news is that with repeated sunburns, there is an increased risk to permanently damaging the skin. That could go from wrinkles to cancer. Skin cancers have different appearances from moles or other skin blemishes. They can be: red, tan, white, brown, pink or black colors, bumps, or scaly patches. Seeing your doctor to determine which is which is crucial to having a successful treatment. Below are images of what skin cancer might look like. Have your doctor check out ANYTHING that is new on your skin is the key to a successful treatment of the potential cancer. Below are just a sample of what can appear on your skin.
The American Academy of Dermatology advises watching skin spots for the “A,B,C,D,E” of Cancers.
- Asymmetry.-The Blemish is NOT round.
- Border irregularity.-The edges do not have a consist form.
- Color changes.- a mole or blemish begins to change color.
- Diameter greater than 1/4 inch (about 6 millimeters) and are getting bigger.
- Evolving. Size, color and shape are visibly changing over time.
Lastly, like wearing gloves, wear eye protection in the way of polarized sunglasses. The type that wrap around your eyes are preferred rather than just flat lens that do not block the light from the top or sides. They can help prevent a serious eye cancer. They can also protect you from mechanical injury that could come from a thorn or branch.
There was some concern in some circles that the sunglasses would dilate the pupils and cause damage to the lens. That has not been shown to be true. The protection from the polarized lens outweighs any problems from pupils that might be open wider.
So, if you like it hot outside, please be careful to protect your health from excessive sun damage. I am a cancer survivor as I had sunburn often as a boy. The only warning that I listened to was from my sister. When I was very red from exposure she would say, “Get some baby lotion on, you are starting to smell like bacon.” Did anyone else have a wonderful sister like that?
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
- Author: Cathy Purlee
Someone asked how he mapped out the gardens and he said the mapping happened in his mind while he was sitting under the fig tree by the pool and staring at the landscape. He planted in groups of 5 of the same species. There was no irrigation, so he installed what he describes as rudimentary and currently has 5 zones. It runs for one hour twice a week. Next year he hopes to have a more sophisticated irrigation system laid out with hydrozones.
He likes to use the mango mulch from Grab & Go in Sonoma. Bottom line, he is still experimenting with his garden. This is a beautiful property with stunning views.
Our next stop was a more established garden, started 40 years ago. There are vegetables in the garden, but this long-time Master Gardener's main passion is cut flowers. She has started over 40 varieties from seed. She demonstrated pinching them, a technique that she and other flower growers use to produce greater yields and a longer harvest window. Pinching is a method where, when the plants are young (about 8-12” high), you go down 2 or 3 sets of leaves from the top and cut the stem at that apical growth. The shoots will grow off to the sides to delay the plants first blossoms. This can be done with almost any branching flower, such as dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, as long as they have more than one shoot. Many sunflowers and stock are examples of a plant that you can't do this with. She suggests doing only some of the plants within a grouping so the garden will flower intermittently. Bouquets of flowers are taken to the St. Helena Food Pantry to be given out with food. She likes to buy her seeds from Floret Farms in Washington state, and she encouraged us all to check out their website and videos.
There is a sunflower house that she planted for her grandchildren. Since one of her neighbors had no garden space, the owners allowed her to plant it on their property.
These jeans were given to the Master Gardener by the artist, who creates them by using fiberglass resin to stiffen them. Next to the jeans is a bronze sculpture of a dog with angel wings, a memorial to Poppy, a long-lost dog still guarding the garden.
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions. Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
- Author: Melody Kendall
A pollinator garden's diverse plants and colorful blooms attract and help to support a variety of birds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects year-round. These visitors play a critical role in sustaining our ecosystem by helping our plants reproduce. Pollinator gardens provide the habitat, plants, pollen, and nectar to help us care for our wildlife partners. Transfer of pollen is the plant's goal, and nectar and pollen are the pollinator's reward. Flora and fauna evolve together in interrelationship. A pollinator garden can provide the habitat and food those pollinators need and give much personal satisfaction in the process.
All living things on the earth need food, shelter, and/or oxygen that the plants provide. Plant reproduction is crucial to the continuation of this cycle. Plants are more than willing to participate in this cycle but they can't move and, in many cases, may need a little outside help to reproduce. Enter the pollinators. Plants have developed rewards and lures in the form of attractive scent, color and nectar to draw pollinators. The pollinator visits the flower lured by these encouragements and in doing so brushes against the plant's pollen producer, dusting the pollinator's body with that pollen. When the pollinator moves on to the next plant, the pollen carried on their body is distributed to that next flower and, viola, that plant has been pollinated.
Bees are perhaps the first thing people think of when pollinators are mentioned, and honey bees the first bee most people will think of. But there is more to the story than that. Here is a list of some of the many bees that pollinate our plants:
Honey Bees Apis mellifera
Honey bees are hardworking but non-native pollinators.They are not as effective at pollinating as most native pollinators.They are subject to numerous diseases and pesticides, making colonies fragile. Maintaining colonies is expensive and time consuming.
Native Bees
There are 450 species of bumble bees in the world, 40 species in North America, and 26 of these species can be found in California. Encouraging native bees, the ones already living in the neighborhood and working, is good pollination planning. The native bees are more efficient than the imported bees because these bees evolved alongside the native flora and their peak activity will coincide with the bloom cycles of the native plants. Some have adapted to pollinate specific types of plants or even particular plant species. Most native bees are solitary instead of living in hives, though they may nest in communities where the food is plentiful. They work individually sharing a common resource. Native bees are themselves food for the native wildlife and because they don't have a hive to protect, they rarely sting potential predators (including humans).
California Bumble Bee Bombus californicus
This bee is an important pollinator of agricultural crops. It is social with queens and workers that nest underground and form new colonies each year. It is black and yellow, large and hairy and was once the most common bumble bee in California, but its numbers have declined in recent years. Possible causes of this decline are the use of pesticides, invasive species and importing commercial bees.
These bees, with their thick hairy coats, are the powerhouses of the bee family working in rain, sleet and wind. They can be found clinging onto flowers in gale-force winds and struggling through early snows to bring home the nectar. Native solitary bees are in the following categories: ground nesters, leafcutters, cavity nesters and masons.
California Digger Bee Anthophora californica
These bees look like bumble bees and are known for constructing nests beneath the soil. They are not aggressive and are mostly solitary, though the females do construct their nests in groups, sometimes in the hundreds . They are important because they pollinate some of the plants that are not often visited by honey bees. Make sure to have areas of bare soil available in your garden and watch where you walk to not trample their holes.
California Carpenter Bees Xylocopa californica and Xylocopa varipuncta
These bees are some of the largest native bees in the United States. They are gentle giants and get their name from their excavating nesting habit. They tunnel into wood forming galleries to lay their eggs in. They are long lived and social. Carpenter bees forage on multiple types of plants. When they land on a plant, they use their ‘humming' to move the pollen out of the plant via sound waves. This is called buzz pollination.
Since these bees are so large and are unable to fit into flowers with small openings like salvias, they have developed a neat trick to get at their reward. To reach the nectar/pollen they will cut a slit at the base of the flower and steal their reward. This method is only used on plants with small flower openings and does not pollinate the flower.
Wool Carder Bee Anthidium maculosum
These bees are solitary and carry their pollen in structure at the base of their abdomen (called a scopa) instead of carrying pollen on their hind legs. They get their name from the female's interesting habit of scraping off hair from fuzzy leaves and stems to build their nests.
The wool carder bees nest in pre-existing cavities. In the garden, these can be in cracks in walls or buildings, knot holes, old leftover borer holes in wood as well as openings in branches and twigs.
The males are aggressive in protecting their territory and will ‘dive bomb' other bees away from their chosen plants. They have the nickname "bossy bee" or "bully bee".
There are around 350,000 pollinator species in the world. Though they are the most recognizable, bees are not the only plant pollinator team in town. Other insects help carry this responsibility. Butterflies, flies, moths, beetles help with pollinating plants and birds, bats and other small mammals and lizards fill out the plant pollinator roster as well.
And finally, please avoid pesticide use as much as possible in your garden because it is indiscriminate and will kill these wonderful pollinating insects along with the pests. Consider instead, using some IPM-Integrated Pest Management methods as outlined at UC IPM .
Information links:
UC Davis arboretum native bee info
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.