Where Have All The Pollinators Gone?

 They're still here!

Especially now that the Willowleaf Aster is in bloom.   It's THE gathering place for all the bumbles and a few smaller bees at the end of a hard day!  Boy, do they ever have hard days!

Now that's a  beauty of Green Metallic Bee on an asteraceae!

Before winter begins our native bees need to collect as much pollen and nectar for their offspring as is possible.  Some will work themselves to exhaustion and sleep on the underside of the plant  until the sun warms their bodies to over 50F when they'll buzz back to work. 

If you garden in a climate colder then mine, your local bees may have already decamped for the winter.   Decamped being a euphemism for shuffled off this mortal coil or perhaps even gone underground.   But, here, the local/native bees are still working  flowers for every bit of pollen and nectar they can collect.   When a killing frost  finally puts the  flowers out of the pollen/nectar making business,  our Bumbles and small bees will spend the winter in their nest  as  immature  larvae or in an adult stage waiting until Spring to emerge and begin their short and intensely busy life cycle.   

In the meantime, Symphyotrichum praealtum 'Miss Bessie' (here to see if  she'll grow in your garden)   and other late blooming plants  are hosting a party for every Bumble, Bee Mimic, Wasp, Bee Fly or  Honeybee that lives here or visits the garden.  The party will last most of November and even survive mild frosts.


Please feel free to stop by to say hello to  the revelers! 


xxoogail

PS In case you've forgotten the Golden Rules for attracting pollinators to your garden:

• plant large swathes of pollinator friendly, nectar and pollen producers
• plant host plants~don't stop at nectar and pollen plants
• plan for bloom from late spring to early winter.
• bee sure to include water
• provide nesting sites for a variety of visitors,  leave some bare ground (ix-nay on the plastic landscape cloth), decaying logs and even special bee houses

Now, please raise your hand and solemnly swear that you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden. Now don't you feel better for having made that commitment! I know I do. 

In case you want to read earlier pollinator posts~

Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Must Bee The Season of The Witch (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)
We can't All Be Pretty Pollinators (here)
Eye, Eye Skipper, Big Eyed Pollinators (here)
What's In Your Garden (here)
Royalty In The Garden~Monarch Butterfly (here)
Carpenter Bees (here)
Got Wildflowers?(here)
It's Spring and A Gardener's Thoughts Are On Pollinators (here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)
A Few Good Reasons To Plant Milkweek (here)
Got Shade? You Can Have Pollinators ( (here)
A Pollinator friendly Shrub (here)
Big Goings On at C and L (here)

Other bee posts you might want to read~

Count Yourself Lucky To Have Hoverflies ( here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)



Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone."

Dear Gardening Friends,

Honeybees refuse to pose for photos

I wish you had been with me in the garden on Monday afternoon.  It was a lovely warm fall day and the ex-asters were dancing in the breeze, while honeybees flew from flower to flower in their mad dash to gather as much pollen as possible before the cold weather arrived.

 At this time of year the garden is a sea of blue asters that attract every pollinator you can imagine~Bumbles, Flower Flies, Green Metallic Bees, wasps, skippers and butterflies. But, this year the honeybees have outnumbered all the other visitors.

I love the Bumbles and other native bees that live in my garden, but, seeing the honeybees in such large numbers made my heart soar with joy.

Could it be that these bees belong to the young family with bee hives, chickens and a great big garden who live  a few streets over? It's exciting to think that clay and limestone's flowers are  contributing to their  honey supplies.

Maybe I should drop them a post card~

They might like that, I know I would.
xxoogail

Pollinators come in all shapes, sizes and colors...

Green Metallic Bee, Ailanthus Webworm Moth and Hoverfly.

You've probably noticed that there are many small and colorful flying critters visiting your flowers during the growing season. Nature has provided us with an array of pollinating insects~ including wasps, moths, butterflies and bees.

I appreciate all the pollinators at Clay and Limestone, but, my favorite are the bees.

Occasionally honeybees visit, but, the bees that live in my garden are non-honey producing, social and solitary nest building bees. Way back in the early 90s they started referring to non-honey producing bees as pollen bees. Nowadays, we call them native bees! Pollen bees/native bees are valued for the role in pollinating our wildflowers and crops.

The Bumble Bee and the Green Metallic Bee are two of the many native bees that reside at Clay and Limestone. Both bees forage our gardens for nectar and pollen to feed themselves and their offspring. The Green Metallic Bees are solitary bees and care for their brood cells by them selves. Although, they often live in close proximity to other female bees, sharing entrance tunnels to their separate apartments. The Bumbles are social bees and live in larger colonies with many female bees caring for the Mother bee's off-spring.

Green metallic bee on salvia leaf

The tiny, but, beautiful Metallic Green Bees captured my interest and attention when I saw them swarming all over a late blooming agastache several years ago. Their color was dazzling.

They flock to the native ex-asters, agastaches, goldenrods and other late blooming flowers. They are generalists and have never met flower pollen they didn't like.

On the whole, generalist bees, like the Green Metallic Bee are more resilient. They aren't dependent upon a particular flower's pollen to survive. Even a degraded habitat with weeds and non native plants would be fine for them. Imagine the haven a well planned pollinator garden would be for generalist and specialist bees.

In the United States, honey bees, bumble bees, and approximately 4000 species of solitary bees pollinate agricultural crops, our garden plants, and plants of lawn, meadow and forest. How we garden and the habitat we create can contribute to the our native bee's health and survival in an often hostile world.

According to conservation biologists

• "bees are “keystone organisms” in most terrestrial ecosystems. That is all of us land dwellers!
• Bees are essential for maintaining the integrity, productivity and sustainability of many types of ecosystems: the forest understory, pastures, fields, meadows, roadsides, many agricultural crops, fruit orchards, and backyard vegetable and flower gardens. That is all that we admire and love.
• Without bees, many flowering plants would eventually become extinct. Can you think of any you want to say so long to?
• Without the work of bees, many fruit- and seed-eating birds and some mammals, including people, would have a less varied and less healthy diet. We need our pollinators! (source)

Although, this family includes brightly colored metallic bees,
the majority of halictids are drably colored and small like this small carpenter bee

Here's what we gardeners can do for native bees?

• Plant more native plants~annual and perennial~known to attract bees in your garden region
• Make sure you have several different plants in bloom from early spring to late fall
• Eliminate the use of insecticides that are toxic to bees and other beneficial pollinators
• Provide shelter from the wind, rain, or cold
• Provide nesting spots~Soft and exposed soil, decaying logs, nesting boxes, research what they need.
• Don't be in such a hurry to tidy up the garden or cover every piece of earth with mulch
• Provide water

We can do this. Together we can make a big difference. xxoogail

This is the second in a series on native bees and other pollinators in our gardens. Other posts about bees you might enjoy are also listed.

Part I~Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)
A Splendid Creature For Your Garden (here)

*The Green Metallic Bee is also known as a Sweat Bee. And, yes, they are attracted to the gardener's salty sweat and, yes, they can sting. In case you wondered: their sting is rated 1.0 on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index~making it almost painless! (1.0= Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.) But, pain is subjective~be careful out there. If you are allergic to bee stings even this tiny bite can be dangerous.


This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

This Is The Place To Bee

Right smack dab in the middle of the Susans Bed is where the humble Bumbles are gathering these days.

You'll find them on the last of the ex-asters which looks as fresh as the first blooms in September.

Miss Bessie, or Willow Leaved Aster/Symphyotrichum praealtum is a late blooming native that was introduced to me by my friend and fellow gardenblogger Sweetbay. It's THE gathering place for all the bumbles at the end of a hard day!

These gentle pollinators rarely get riled as they go about their business of collecting pollen and nectar for their young. Females can sting, but, as long as I've gardened I've never seen them be anything but, curious at my antics. Let them bee in your garden. Give them leaves and soil to nest in and flowers to sup from. You will be rewarded with an up close and personal 'friendship'....and, pollinated crops!

Here is what I want you to do~Get as close as you can to a bumble. Close enough to hear their buzzing. Now watch and listen carefully. Bees beat their wings approximately 200 times a second, but, the buzzing you're hearing is not their wings. It's the vibration of their thorax muscle! A muscle in their chest that's designed to pump and warm them internally. This warmth allows them to lift and fly about the garden on cool days. They are the first pollinators up and about each morning and the last to leave my garden at night!

Now, when I see them sleeping in the cool autumn morning~I find myself waiting and ready to announce~

Bumbles start your engine!


xxgail