guest post by Toni Stahl, Habitat Ambassador Volunteer, Backyard Habitat
Leaf Litter for Migrants
Canada Geese have chased me. They came back from the edge of extinction, but are now flourishing because of the perfect habitat we have inadvertently created for them in many residential areas. We created man-made, open-water ponds surrounded by lawn. If you landscape the pond with native plants (scroll down here), many of the Geese should move to grassy, open-water ponds. The native plants will clean the water so no chemicals need to be added, as well as create a habitat for other native water creatures. Add barley straw to limit algae growth. Canada Geese can be aggressive toward people and nest too closely to people when people feed them. Educate others not to feed them.
This video shows the shocking difference between forest floors with and without invasive, non-native (European or Asian) earthworms. The worms decompose leaf litter and roots too quickly, actually eating the rooting zone out and removing the habitat for seeds, plants and small animals. You can learn to identify non-native worms from the Great Lakes Worm Watch.
No worms should be in glaciated areas (e.g. around the Great Lakes), but worms are slowly invading. The ones to be concerned about are those non-native (all of which are invasive) worms we can control. You can help save forests. Compost without non-native worms (e.g red wiggler from Europe). Discard non-native worms (even fishing or compost worms that appear dead) in the trash. Don’t take anything that could contain non-native worms or their eggs into wooded areas, including dirt off your shoes, livestock hooves, vehicle tires, ATVs, and earth moving and snow removal equipment. Make sure there are no non-native worms in any plants you give away, whether they came from a nursery or your yard.
Good news: Students and parks joined together to create a pathway for migratory birds to go through Broward County, Florida.
Tips for Your Yard
Organic Lawn Care: Apply Corn Gluten (between 3/15 and & 4/10 in the Midwest) as a pre-emergent broadleaf weed killer
Leave the leaf litter to help migratory birds, like the Fox Sparrow in my yard above, which doesn’t reside in my area
Wait until a plant starts to green before cutting it back. As one example, swallowtail butterflies overwinter as a chrysalis attached to the stem of a perennial. They have adapted to look like the plant, so they are almost impossible to see on a stem
In the northern part of the country, put up clean, bird nesting box(es) before mid-March
If you feed birds and want to deter Grackles, switch from Sunflower to Safflower seeds, which Grackles dislike and the other birds eat
Flocks of Grackles and other blackbirds are likely to visit your bird feeder only a few times a year (spring migration before breaking into territories and during fall migration)
If you feed birds in winter, natural food is not available (insects, seeds, berries) when weather first warms. March and April are the toughest times for birds so continue to feed them until insects are flying.
Pick up plastic sacks, trash and other debris and throw them into your trash to keep this dangerous debris from harming wildlife and from going directly into our streams and rivers, polluting our drinking water
Nature News
Earth Hour, turn off lights 8:30pm-9:30pm local time on 3/24
Sometimes the things we view every day are relegated to a lesser role in our lives. They become commonplace, uninspiring, unimportant. That is why we must travel occasionally, even if just for a silent momentary reverie, from which we return and view our daily world anew. Asclepias in all its forms shouts to us from the roadsides and meadows each year with striking flowers, waving foliage and elongated seed pods (follicles). A durable, tenacious and adaptable family that does a lot of heavy lifting for our local ecologies, Asclepias deserves a closer look and greater appreciation!
Credit: Mark Gilson
Asclepias tuberosa
Butterflyweed is a faithful herald of summer in Northeast Ohio, blooming bright orange along our roadways and meadows. A few years ago I noticed the flowers in late-June off Rt 2 in Painesville along the dry road-banks near the Grand River. Had they always been there? Two months later I donned my amateur-plant-explorer hat and set off in search of seeds. Parking on the freeway and climbing the fence would have been the most direct approach, but difficult to explain to Ohio Highway Patrol. Instead, I headed north of the city through a warren of curving streets, small homes and apartments, aiming for the utility wires that followed the highway. Undeterred, I crawled under a locked fence and hiked a quarter mile. A few pods waved among the weeds here and there, but not the multitude I had anticipated. Had the meadow been mowed? Were these truly A. tuberosa or were other species mixed in? Did E.H. Wilson run into these problems as he sought out cherries in Japan?
Above all, gardeners need to be patient.
Credit: Lois Rose
I waited a year, revisited the spot in June and attached orange tagging ribbon to dozens of butterflyweed. In the fall I returned and collected absurd amounts of seed pods from verifiable A. tuberosa.
My goal was to provide seed of ‘local genotype’. As a nurseryman this had never been a priority for me. Then I met the good folks from Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH) and life, horticulture, spirituality became science-based and complicated. I was starting over. Returning home with my bounty, I was visited by misgivings. How can I be certain these plants represent ‘local genotypes’ of native plants? After all, my secret spot was less than a mile from Storrs & Harrison Nursery, one of the world’s largest, which operated for almost a hundred years. Other nurseries and other perennial-growers had flourished all around. What if my ‘genotypes’ had originated in Mexico, Malta or Madagascar? Should I test for genetic markers and, if so, where would I find a reliable baseline reference? Ultimately, I decided to go ahead with my ‘local native plants’ and let Jim Bissell (Botanist/Maven for CMNH) worry about the consequences. Let the buyer beware.
Drought-tolerant and long-lived, aslepias tuberosa is a great candidate for rain-gardens and low maintenance areas with dry well-drained soil. Sometimes called Orange Milkweed or Butterfly Milkweed, this species has less of the milky sap than its cousins. At 12-24” in height the orange flower clusters (umbels), lance-shaped dark green leaves and sturdy stems provide support for taller companions. Favored by Monarch Butterfly caterpillars, hummingbirds and native pollinators, the plant responds to trimming and looks handsome in a well-tended garden. I’ve seen container-plants over at Klyn Nurseries that are so colorful and crowned they resemble a greenhouse pot plant. Native Americans chewed the tap root to treat pulmonary illness, leading to another of its names, Pleurisy Root. Combine it with yarrow, which blooms at the same time (my favorite is the tall, old-fashioned Achillea x ‘Coronation Gold’) for a colorful cut-flower combination. Some gardeners flame the base of the stem before placing it in a cut-flower vase in order to reduce the flow of sap. Color variations from yellow to red occur naturally; cultivars are available from specialty growers and other evil-doers.
Credit: Lois Rose
Be careful promising A. tuberosa to the Spring Plant Sales. It takes a while to wake up and sometimes does not like being forced in the greenhouse.
Aslepias incarnata
Swamp Milkweed, asclepias incarnata, is a comparative giant at 4-5’. With pale pink flowers appearing slightly later than Butterflyweed, this ecologically important native plant is best-known to many of us for the dried pods that explode with cottony bundles in Fall and Winter. Native to wet areas and river bottoms in Ohio, Swamp Milkweed also thrives in relatively dry conditions.
Credit: Laura Dempsey
All these Asclepias form tap roots when grown in the soil, rendering them difficult to transplant in the garden. Yet they grow happily in a container with a well-drained mix. I dug up an A. incarnata once and moved it to a native garden in our nursery. It suffered horribly the first season but later regenerated from roots and took off. Allan Armitage writes about the nightmare of weeding Milkweeds from nursery rows and gardens. Not only do the roots grow down, they grow sideways! One volunteer that I left alone in our nursery spread eight feet in sandy soil before I realized what it had going!
Credit: Laura Dempsey
Asclepias syriaca
Garrett Ormiston, one of those educated folks over at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, corrected my ID of a statuesque milkweed in our nursery. What I was calling Swamp Milkweed turned out to be Common Milkweed, aslepias syriaca. One of the best plants for providing food to butterflies and their larvae, says Garrett, its leaves are broader and it prefers drier areas than Swamp Milkweed. Also, the pale-pink flowers are round rather than flat. I think it provides a stunning although overlooked specimen for gardens and natural areas. If this was recently discovered or developed…it would be touted by Proven Winners!
Credit: Mark Gilson
I collected Common Milkweed seeds and left them in our tool room for over a year (it’s our only roof that doesn’t leak). Busting open the pods makes a mess with all the white fuzzies (a technical term), but after some experimentation I found I could pinch out the silks and find a bounty of round dark seeds beneath, clustered there like tiny coins. I scattered the seeds in late-winter in an open tray filled with regular potting soil. I provided a light covering of sand, although that was probably not necessary. I placed the trays under intermittent mist because it is generally more reliable than my intermittent watering. Alternatively, just moisten the soil and place the tray in a sealed clear plastic bag. A couple weeks later the seedlings began poking up through the sand and soon filled in like the proverbial hairs on a dog’s back. Usually we dibble the seedlings into two-inch cells and offer them that way or later shift them to larger containers. As far as cultural conditions in the nursery, let me just say I am amazed at how much abuse these durable plants can take.
Credit: Mark Gilson
The tray in the photo was moved to a shade house from which it subsequently disappeared. An extensive investigation revealed that a student worker discarded it, remarking he thought it was a tray taken over by ‘weeds’. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Don’t believe the toxicity warnings by Euell Gibbons from 1962. Remember Euell Gibbons and ‘wild hickory nuts?’ Leaves of Common Milkweed have no bitterness when tasted raw and can be prepared like asparagus with no additional processing.
Something is Eating My Plant!
Milkweeds present a conundrum to the gardener and grower. When we say…’beneficial to local ecologies and pollinators’…we mean…’bugs will eat the heck out of them’. Here it is…should we apply pesticides to our native plants? Inspectors for Ohio Department of Agriculture frequent our nurseries and object to any commerce in bugs. They force us to use helicopters each year for gypsy moth control.
Credit: Mark Gilson
Last year the Asclepias in our garden center were visited by two giant voracious caterpillars. My wife, who loves monarch butterflies as much as a good cabernet, took this on as a learning opportunity for our customers. She raised butterflies on the counter in our store, brought in ladybugs, and watched our Asclepias disappear day by day. Once I saw her sell a denuded stem in a No. 2 container. The happy customer responded to her story…’I know…I know!’ The story is getting out. The foliage, after all, grows back pretty quickly, just in time for hordes of orange aphids. In our wholesale nursery, again, we’re not supposed to sell plants covered with orange aphids. Since I don’t like to apply pesticides (it’s one of my least favorite jobs), I decided to leave it up to the customer. Some took the plants along with the teeming hitchhikers.
Credit: Laura Dempsey
While the scientific debate regarding neonicotinoid pesticides, in particular, and their impact on pollinators rages on, we just read in a nursery industry newsletter: “Treating swamp milkweed with neonicotinoids, regardless of active ingredients, application timing and method, resulted in high concentrations of residue in nectar.” (Source: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Journal of Environmental Horticulture, Volume 35, page 24-34). While the effect of pesticide residues on pollinators remains a matter of scientific inquiry, and while it would be heresy for a nurseryman to object to all pesticides (and I don’t!), let’s rely on ladybugs and a judicious blast of water from a hose to control bugs, when we need to, on our Asclepias!
Asclepias…what a great story-plant for teaching the public about natives, nurseries, ecologies, pollinators and how it can all come together in our gardens!
Mark Gilson is a third-generation nurseryman and past-president of Nursery Growers of Lake County, Ohio. Visit: http://gilsongardens.biz/category/marks-corner/
This Thanksgiving, we thought we’d share some of the garden plants we’re most thankful for.
Ann McCulloh:
Seems like I’ll be planting bulbs until the ground freezes solid, and some of my very favorite bulbs are the Alliums. There are many varieties of this charismatic onion relative, which bloom at various times in spring, summer or fall. All the tiny florets provide wonderful nectar for bees and butterflies. Best of all, the deer don’t like ’em!
The appeal of Eastern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica) for me is the wonderful fragrance of the leaves and berries. Since this salt tolerant, semi-evergreen shrub makes a beautiful hedge when pruned regularly, there’s plenty of opportunity to enjoy the scent when trimming it. Lots of birds eat the berries, too!
I welcome frost this time of year, once the houseplants are safe inside – it means a break from laboring in the garden! Another benefit is the softening, sweetening effect it has on the fruits of the native persimmon, Diospyros americana. The variety ‘Meader’ is hardy, self-pollinating and can be easily kept at 12′ tall. Beautiful orange fall color, too.
Catherine Feldman:
Pyncnantheum… native mint. Grows in part shade. Fresh pepperminty smell. Extremely attractive to pollinators midsummer through fall. Spreads by runners. Lovely blue grey foliage — color seems to deepen as the season passes.
Elsa Johnson:
A pleasing combination in fall is Amsonia hubrichtii, Sedum spectablis, and carex.
Amsonia hubrichtii… the amsonias are big clump forming perennials, though not at first, so patience is needed for the first couple years, especially in semi shade. All amsonias have pale, pale blue flowers in spring. Hubrichtii has fine thread-like leaves that turn a deep gold in the fall and is an aesthetic wonder, adding both color and billowing soft texture.
Sedum spectablis…a common garden perennial that is also a great pollinator attractor. The blossoms darken to shades of rosy russet in the fall and really stand out against a background of amsonia hubrichtii.
Carex… this is a cultivar I found ….it reminds me of hair. I find that if carex looks too much like ordinary grass my non-gardener clients think they are grass and weed them out. A non grass color like variegation seems to help.
Nyssa sylvatica… one of my favorite trees. Common name Black Gum . This is an easy to grow tree that is adaptable to many environmental conditions once established, and resistant to many diseases and pests. Has shiny dark green leaves that turn to crimson in the early fall. Deer like to browse the young leaves, so protection is needed while the tree is young.
Sassafras… Tends to grow in a thicket. In a good year the leaves turn marvelous mixed shades of yellow and gold flushed with coral.
Tom Gibson:
My favorite pollinator attractor? Without question it’s boneset, eupatorium perfoliatum, which not only attracts the usual cast of honey bees and bumblebees, but all kinds of wasps, beetles and flies that often rely on pollen for just part of their diet. I’ve already written about boneset, but the annual early August show continues to pull me in. I will stand for 15 minutes at a time just to watch the ecstatic, oblivious activity of the dozens of insect visitors. Here’s an ailanthus web worm with a mason bee:
Another favorite is the hardy ageratum (Conoclinium coelestinum). It’s not mentioned nearly as much as milkweed as a food source for monarchs, but the butterflies always make a stop on these light blue flowers on their way south during the fall.
Finally, there’s Jacob’s ladder. It’s one of the first plants to bloom in the spring and is a great source of early nourishment for queen bumblebees, whose self-heated “blood” enables them to begin establishing nests in cool weather.
Jacob’s ladder grows prolifically in my shade garden. It happens to bloom at the same time as my red and black currant bushes, so Jacob’s ladders provide a nice assist in getting fruit started.
In the heart of a Cleveland summer, hundreds of people stroll the city’s neighborhoods, invited to soak up the special character of each one, meeting residents and admiring their unique and welcoming gardens. GardenWalk Cleveland, a free, self-guided and volunteer-organized tour has been the vehicle for this special invitation since 2011.
Last year (2016) Gardenwalk Cleveland took a one-year break, for a bunch of reasons that included an already crowded public event calendar (RNC, a national community gardening conference, to name two) some changes in funding sources, and the need to establish independent non-profit status. In hindsight, the break may have been an especially good idea, given the punishing drought we gardeners suffered all season long!
GardenWalk is back for 2017, and I for one am thrilled. Two neighborhoods have been chosen as definite hosts for the July 8 & 9 tour: Detroit-Shoreway and Collinwood. As many as two more will be added as planning for the event continues. A special focus on gardens that use native plants is planned for next year, too.
GardenWalk 2017 has mounted a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost of producing maps, updating the website and other expenses associated with putting on the event. Contributions are already underway through November 18th at https://www.ioby.org/project/gardenwalk-cleveland-2017
Inspired by a similar event in Buffalo, New York, GardenWalk Cleveland’s mission is “to build community, beautify neighborhoods, and encourage civic pride.”As a transplant to Cleveland (pun intended) I have been delighted to discover the neighborhoods of Cleveland (Old Brooklyn Hough, Larchmere, Tremont and more) and meet the truly charming and individual gardeners who live and garden there.
The two times I put my own garden on the tour I met a steady parade of wonderful fellow gardeners, and had many inspiring conversations. One visitor even came back a day or two later with a gift of special plants from her own garden! You can learn more about GardenWalk, and get involved! at http://www.gardenwalkcleveland.org/
Last fall Gardenopolis Cleveland decided to offer to help people develop pollinator pockets, starting with soil building via lasagna mulching in the fall, then returning the following spring to plant pollinator attracting flowers. But, of course, before we began, we had to have a sign…so we designed one.
When you see this sign around town, look for a nascent pollinator pocket.
Next, we sent our idea out into the ether and in a short time-voila!-we had a handful of takers.
The original idea had been to place our pollinator pockets on tree lawns or front yards for visibility (else why need a sign?) and make them all the same–a formula–but we quickly ran into a hitch–nature doesn’t do formulas. Each site we looked at was different than the one before.
Since our sites were all different–one long, skinny and very shady, several sunny, one on the edge of the woods–we realized that we needed a variety of plants to meet a variety of conditions. Our goal was that each pocket had plants attractive to pollinators across one complete growing season, i.e., spring to fall. Now we needed to consider plants that could handle a broad spectrum of environmental conditions. Surely a job for (drum roll) native plants!
Our selection included milkweed, aster, coneflower, pink turtlehead, agastache, lobelia, geranium, eupatorium, native solomon’s seal, golden road and salvia. This mix tended toward mid-summer to fall bloomers–we found it interesting how so many of our native wildflowers are late season. We used only plants that were designated as unappetizing to deer.
We usually buy plants in one or two gallon containers but because we needed a variety of plants and needed to keep our costs down we purchased very small plugs from a native plant mail-order nursery.
Checking on our pollinator pockets this fall we found varying results. One that had not been watered was basically gone. But, the rest were growing and doing well–though it will be next year before they mature and fill their purpose.
If the idea of a pollinator pocket in your garden seems appealing, just let us know. Our goal is a pocket in every garden!
FYI
*A lasagna mulch consists of layers of soil building materials-newspaper, manure, compost, green and dried leaves, straw and wood chips or cover crop-that break down over time to increase the organic composition of the soil.
*A pollinator pocket is an area of at least 5’x5′ planted with a range of plants that help sustain bees, bugs, butterflies and birds throughout the year. Ideally, such pockets would exist in every yard so that the pollinators could travel from one to the next fulfilling their needs.
Submitted by Cathi Lehn on behalf of the LEAP Native Plant Promotion Committee
The Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership for Biodiversity (LEAP; www.leapbio.org) is a consortium of forty-five (45) conservation-related organizations located in the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau ecoregion.This ecoregion is defined by a common glacial history and climate and includes northeastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York.LEAP member organizations are dedicated to the identification, protection and restoration of biodiversity in the region and to the increased public awareness of biodiversity.Current LEAP members represent park districts, conservation organizations, universities, and governmental agencies in Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
The LEAP Native Plant Promotion Committee (NPPC) was formed in 2008 in response to the threat of invasive plants to our natural areas.The mission of the NPPC is to educate the public about the many benefits of native plants in the LEAP region and to join the nursery and landscaping trade in promoting the purchasing, selling, propagating and planting of our area’s native plant species.In 2011 the Committee initiated a Native Plants of the Year campaign providing the gardener with three choices each year through 2022 of recommended native plants which are easily found in local nurseries.
Using native plants in public and private landscapes and gardens can help reduce the threat of invasive non-native species to the region’s biodiversity.The LEAP Native Plants of the Year campaign highlights native species that can make exceptional additional to area landscapes and gardens.Native plants in the garden offer the following benefits:
Attract native wildlife
Reduce soil erosion
Require less fertilizer and watering
Promote native regional biodiversity
Thrive under natural conditions
Connect people to nature
LEAP Native Plants of the Year 2016
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
Spicebush is a deer-resistant shrub with early-season nectar for butterflies and bright red berries for migratory birds.The common name refers to the sweet, spicy fragrance of the stems, leaves and fruits when bruised.
Photos courtesy of Judy Semroc
Swamp Candles or Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia terrestris)
This showy perennial blooms vivid yellow in mid-summer adding color to rain gardens and wet areas.Its sturdy stems make it an excellent cutting flower.Native pollinators, like this syrphid flower fly, are attracted to the flower’s nectar.
Photos courtesy of Bill Hendricks (top) and Cheryl Harner (below)
Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
A colorful native prairie grass with striking blue-green foliage and pink overtones.In the fall, its foliage takes on a coppery hue. It works well in areas prone to deer damage.
Photos courtesy of Bill Hendricks (top) and Roger Gettig (below)
Also found on this page is a Native Plant Nurseries map created by Cleveland Metroparks that provides information on nurseries that sell native plants to our region.
Brief Biography
Cathi is the Sustainable Cleveland Coordinator for the City of Cleveland Mayor’s Office of Sustainability which is a member of LEAP. Cathi serves as the Chair of the LEAP Native Plant Promotion Committee and the LEAP Wildlife Conflict Committee. She has recently revived the Sustainable Heights Network and serves on the Composting Committee. Her true passion is in addressing the threat of plastic pollution to our waterways and hosts the Great Lake Erie Boat Float each year at Edgewater Park.
News from the trenches: GARDENOPOLIS Cleveland proposes planting Pollinator Pockets around the city!
The need to establish habitats for pollinating insects has been much in the news lately. Many homeowners have been inspired to do their part and we are inspired to help them to do so. Our grand goal is to facilitate the planting of a series of carefully curated 5’x5’ pollinator pockets throughout the Cleveland urban area. According to a number of sources these small plots are enough habitat to nurture and sustain a variety of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, moths and other needed insects.
We think this is a great idea—a manageableand incremental way for each of us to do our part. And, just think how beautiful it would be if each block had a series of such plantings!
Right now we are preparing the soil of 7 sample plots around Shaker and Cleveland Heights using the lasagna mulching technique (layers of newspaper, straw, leaves, manure, compost and wood chips.)
In the spring we will installpollinator plants for all-season bloom and deer-resistance. We will provide participating homeowners with an instruction manual for the maintenance of the chosen plants. You will be able to identify our Pollinator Pockets by the yard signs posted near the pollinator pockets. Sound appealing? Next year you may yearn for one of your own. We will keep you posted as to pollinator plot progress and how you may sign-up.
Many people are concerned about the health and survival of bees, including honey bees, native bumble bees and the hundreds of lesser-known native and wild bees that call Ohio home. Bees are threatened by an assortment of factors such as pests, pathogens, pesticides, climate change and a lack of nesting habitat and forage plants.
Bees and flowering plants have a critical relationship. Flowering plants provide nectar and pollen for a bee’s diet. Pollen is an essential source of protein for developing bee larvae, and nectar provides a carbohydrate source. Honey bees convert nectar into honey by adding an enzyme which breaks down the complex sugars into simple sugars. Bees, in turn, transport pollen from flower to flower as they forage, allowing for plant fertilization and the production of seeds and fruit.
While trees provide many well-known ecological benefits, the importance of trees as a source of food for bees is sometimes overlooked. Ohio trees can provide food for bees from early spring through late summer, with most tree species in Ohio blooming in spring and early summer. This factsheet describes some of the Ohio trees that provide food for bees. Trees included in this list have been described as important by multiple researchers and bee experts.
Other trees not listed here can also provide food for bees. For example, Ohio horticultural experts have noted significant bee foraging activity on trees such as Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina), seven-son flower (Heptacodium miconioides), goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) and Japanese pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) in landscape settings.
Consider selecting from this list of trees when choosing species to plant in urban, landscape and rural settings: Maple. Buckeye, Alder, Serviceberry, Catalpa, CommonHackberry, Red Bud, Yellow Wood, Cornelian Cherry, Hazelnut, Hawthorne
In the City, many people can be put off by ‘bugs.’Maybe it is because people think the bug may bite or sting you.Or maybe they are just annoying and buzz.Often people are simply flat out scared by something flying around them – even a beautiful butterfly. While city culture may bristle at the thought of bugs, we must work to cultivate a vision that embraces bugs and can tell the difference between a pest and a pollinator, because our survival may depend on it.
How can that be so?Well, three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce.Flowering plants equates to most of the fruit, vegetable, and seed crops we eat – and other plants that provide fiber, medicine and fuel we use; these plants are pollinated by animals.*
What kind of animals you may ask?Pollinators are not just bugs like bees (though this is an essential one!) and beetles, they also include bats, butterflies and birds.These pollinators are by no means ‘pests,’when we support them we can actually support the reduction or effect of pests in our garden and life (ie. Bats eat mosquitoes, parasitic wasps make their cocoons on the backs of tomato hornworms!).For the sake of this post, we’re going to focus on just a few pollinators you may find in your garden- especially if you have some plants that provide them food and habitat.**
1st photo: Goldenrod Soldier Beetle or Pennsylvania Leatherwing (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) with two bees I’m not able to identify.
2nd photo: Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae) on tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)
6th photo: Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae), two bees, and one Eastern yellow jacket Vespula maculifrons or- wasp (most likely yellow jacket- but hard to tell)
Thank you for getting to know your neighbor pollinators!Together we can support our long-term livelihood by supporting theirs!
Blue Mistflowers (Conoclinium coelestinum) are that lovely shade of periwinkle which falls between lavender and powder blue…
A hardy (to zone 5) native perennial, its late-season nectar attracts lots of butterflies. It really comes on beautifully in September, making a nice, fresh contrast to the prevalent yellows and whites of other fall wildflowers. The stems are a sort of dark cherry color, and at 24″ stand taller than the similar annual Ageratum often sold for springtime bedding. A bit further south this plant is considered a too competitive, but here in Northeastern Ohio it’s often a welcome addition to partly shady or damp gardens. In our current bone-dry season, my newly-planted specimen required only occasional watering. Here it is on September 25, 2015.
