The Spring Ephemerals Are Awake!

The soil had barely warmed up before they pushed out and began to unfurl their leaves and buds. 

 leaves trap warm air to protect the buds from spring cold snaps

 Such remarkable and fragile beauties. Ephemerals emerge early each spring, taking advantage of the rich, moist soil and full sunlight streaming through the bare branches of the deciduous trees. In the short period of time before the tree canopy emerges and blocks the sunlight they must grow, leaf-out, flower, be pollinated, produce seeds and die back (retreat underground).

the earliest to bloom are closer to the warm soil

The earliest to bloom in my garden are Cut-leaved toothwort/Cardamine concatenata, Hepatica and Spring Beauties/Claytonia virginica. They're just what this gardener needed to remind me that even though it's been cold and gray that spring is on the way.(Spring Beauty post)

These are flowers that one never has to worry will be nipped by the vagaries of our spring weather! They grow very low to the sun warmed soil and they often have either hairy leaves/stems or leaves that wrap around the emerging buds that trap warm air and keep them from freezing.

Isn't nature amazing!

dense hairs trap heat and protect the blooms

I don't mind crawling around on my hands and knees to look into those pretty faces.

they are visited by all kinds of critters

Of course, they're more than just a pretty face!

They're a vital food source for pollinators at a time when there is little food available. They are visited by many different critters, including honeybees, bumbles, carpenter bees, flies, beetles and their seeds are a primary food for ants. (Ants have a special relationship with the seeds of ephemerals, but, I'll save that story for another time!)

If you're like me and want to help pollinators get a good start in spring, then plant more spring ephemerals in your woodland garden. Please don't dig them them from the wild and be sure any you purchase are certified nursery grown!


The pollinators and other beneficial insects will thank you by making a home in your garden.
xoxogail

PS It bears repeating...If you want a happy and healthy garden with lots of insect visitors then never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides and be careful which flowers you bring home. You want to make sure they haven't been pre-treated with any pesticides that might harm your pollinators.


 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. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Every where you turn people are talking about pollinators

....and that's a good thing.

The news we share is often not good. Native bees, monarch butterflies and a host of other pollinators are still in peril and sharing that information with as many people as we can is important. Knowledge is essential for action and change to happen.
 
Habitat fragmentation and loss, the use of neoniconoids and other pesticides and herbicides (by the agriculture/horticulture industry and home owners) and the introduction of non-native species are known causes of both wide-scale losses in biological diversity and pollinator declines.


But, we must not give into despair or throw in the trowel...We can help pollinators.

It's really quite easy, we must plant more flowers.

Lots and lots of flowers that bees and other pollinators prefer.

Flowers that are rich in pollen.

Flowers that are rich in nectar.

Colorful flowers that appeal to bees and hummingbirds.

Flowers that have a range of shapes and sizes to attract  butterflies,  bees, hummingbirds and even flies!

Flowers that bloom until frost for any late visitors.

Early blooming flowers that are pollinated by gnats and flies or the occasional honeybee out and about on warm days.

Flowers, trees and shrubs that are hosts for the larva of caterpillars and beneficial bugs.

Flowers that are native to our part of the gardening world.
 

Annuals and herbs are also attractive to pollinators and beneficial insects.

There's one other thing that we can do to help pollinators!

Learn to accept that there is beauty in imperfection and step away from the bug spray!

We can pledge to never, ever, ever use pesticides in our gardens.   

A corollary to not using pesticides in our gardens is to make sure that any plants we bring into our gardens have not been pre-treated with neurotoxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids.  They're systemic pesticides that have been found in the pollen and nectar of commonly sold bee-friendly plants.  Scientists now suspect that even small doses, like those that might be in a plant's pollen and nectar, can act to confuse the bees, making it hard to collect food and/or find their way to their hives. (go here for full Pesticide Research Institute study)

So what's a gardener to do! 

We can ask our independent garden centers to stock plants that are not pre-treated with systemic insecticides or to identify the ones that have been treated. 

We can look for locally grown organic plants.

We can grow our own. 

We can share and trade plants with other gardeners. 

We can become proactive and seek change~ Get the word out and work toward change of state and federal guidelines. 

We can change our perception of beauty to include the damaged petals and leaves of plants not treated with systemics.

It might not be easy, but, they're so worth the effort. 

Happy planting.
xoxogail

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) 
Where Have All My Pollinators Gone (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. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.