Fall Plant Sale Preview: Celebrating Pollinators

Pollinator habitats in the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden.
Photo by Sue Lannon.

 By Jason Holmes

While visiting Mount Mitchell State Park in western North Carolina over Labor Day weekend in 2016, I witnessed a native bee pressing open the lipped petals of the pink turtlehead (Chelone lyonii).  It made me think of the importance of that moment and yet how that bee had already visited hundreds of flowers that day in order to collect pollen on the side of her legs. I quickly yelled to my son to come get an up-close view. This was a perfect opportunity to show him the importance of that little creature.

Insect pollinators may seem like a small part of our daily lives, but they have an enormous impact on us. Fortunately, gardeners’ interest in pollinators appears to be growing, judging from sales of pollinator plants at our Fall & Spring Plant Sales. That's heartening for horticulturists like me, who are devoted to attracting pollinators to Duke Gardens and teaching visitors about these species’ roles in our lives.

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) on a
rudbeckia flower in the Discovery Garden.
Photo by Kathy Julian.

Most people don’t realize that honeybees are not native to North America and that thousands of other insect species were responsible for pollinating many plant species before their introduction. Bees and wasps, flies, butterflies and moths, and beetles are among the thousands of plant pollinators across North America. These beneficial insects are responsible for all insect-pollinated fruits and vegetables that provide us with most of the nutritious vitamins and minerals that we need daily, and they also broaden our diets beyond just meat and wind-pollinated grain foods.

This act of pollination allows many types of plants to produce fruits and seeds, helping to create vigorous plants over many generations.

Approximately 75 percent of all plants in the world require animals for pollination. These animals are part of many humans’ daily diets, something worth keeping in mind as we seek ways to help the plants around us thrive.

At Duke Gardens, we celebrate and promote all types of pollinators.  In the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, a sustainable organic food garden, we donate over a ton of fruits and vegetables every year to local food relief organizations.  This is an amazing total, considering that we only garden on 2/10 of an acre.  We could never produce this incredible amount without assistance from the thousands of pollinators we see daily buzzing around the garden. In the Brody Garden, and in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, we have gardens designed specifically to attract these fascinating little pollinators.  We have nine honeybee hives in the Brody Garden. And with the help of dedicated volunteers, we have been building pollinator houses that we’re pleased to see attract many different beneficial species.

If you’re excited about helping pollinators, try planting species that will bring them to your garden. “Attracting Native Pollinators,” by The Xerces Society, is a great resource to learn more. If you already have these plants, consider leaving perennials longer through the fall and winter for habitat. Many of these species will create nests within the dead stems of perennial species.  Get creative and build pollinator houses or insect hotels. They’re similar to bird houses, but you leave off the front wall and pack it with small stems of bamboo so that solitary insect species can build nests inside.  Remember, if you build it, they will come!

FALL PLANT SALE INFO:
Date: Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018
Time: 9 a.m.-noon
Member benefits: Duke Gardens members get 10% off all purchases, plus access to the members-only previews sale from 8-9 a.m., and a full list of plants in advance! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted. Please see Duke Gardens' pets policy here.
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing the event on Facebook and inviting your friends.
Thank you!

Jason Holmes is curator of the Doris Duke Center Gardens at Duke Gardens. This article is adapted from a previous post in Sept. 2016.

How to Serve Your Bees

Mason bee
Photo by Charles Twine

By Sara Smith

Gardeners can become a little obsessive about “the birds and the bees”; after all, these creatures are couriers for flowers.

I recently decided to investigate how I can help my own garden better serve the bees that, in turn, serve my garden. I learned that our native bees are mostly mason bees, gentle and nondestructive bees in the genus Osmia. Two of the bees native to North Carolina are the orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria) and the blueberry mason bee (Osmia ribifloris).

Many of our wild bees feed on a diversity of plants, but these two types of bees tend to specialize. On family farms and in urban gardens, the native mason bees do most of the pollination. In some cases, they can do even more than honeybees do. For example, tomatoes do not attract honeybees because the blossoms contain no nectar and the pollen is deep inside the anthers, so they are pollinated by wind. However, the native bees have a way of vibrating the anthers to dislodge the pollen, which significantly increases cross-pollination between plants, which in turn increases the fruit set by almost 50 percent.

Mason bees are so named because they use mud to build compartments in hollow reeds or holes left by wood-boring insects. After cleaning out the hole, the female begins to load it with pollen and nectar, finally laying a single egg and sealing off the compartment with a thin layer of mud. By repeating this process, she works until the hole is nearly full. Finally, she seals the hole with a thick plug of mud. Once the eggs hatch, each larva consumes all its provisions and then spins a cocoon to pupate. The larva transforms to an adult stage toward the end of summer, but it remains in the cell throughout the winter to emerge in the spring.

Three basic provisions allow the mason bees to prosper: housing, food and water. Gardens, both vegetable and flowering, provide nectar and pollen for the bee population.

For housing, I found a simple construction plan for a mason bee box in N.C. State University’s Cooperative Extension publication “How to Raise and Manage Orchard Mason Bees for the Home Garden."

Food is supplied by the amazing dance between flowers and bees, each supplying the other with a life essential. I plan to designate space for native wildflowers and plants.

I’ll provide water and open ground at the drip line around my air conditioner for them to make mud. If that doesn’t hold enough water, I’ll dig a small hollow in which water can collect.

This year, I hope that you, too, will consider helping out our native bees. They will forage in your garden and vegetable crops from summer until fall, literally making possible the flowers, fruits and vegetables we love and need to survive and prosper. By providing shelter and food for these amazing creatures, we support sustainable agriculture as well as wild and “domesticated” plants that they service. It’s a win-win for both the bees and us.

If honeybees are your interest, you may want to sign up for Duke Gardens’ beekeeping course on two Saturdays, February 4 and 11, from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information or to register please call 668-1707, email our registrar or visit gardens.duke.edu.

Sara Smith is the education registrar and a volunteer propagation team member at Duke Gardens. This column first appeared in the Herald-Sun.