After our seemingly endless winter, most of us are itching to load up on plants and get our hands dirty. Whether you grow on a grand scale or tend a couple of pots, chances are you’ll be buying plants at a garden center or plant sale. When you do, a growing chorus of voices is urging you to keep bees in mind.
Bee die-offs, colony collapse disorder and possible causes have made headlines. In fact, bee-friendly gardening was named a top national trend for 2014 by the Garden Media Group.
In smart communities across the country, people have been packing auditoriums for bee seminars, pushing for new legislation to protect bees and beekeepers and urging retailers to stop selling and using neonicotinoids, a widely used class of insecticides that some suspect is playing a role in recent bee die-offs.
Research on neonicotinoids’ impact on bees is underway. But in the meantime, several large players, including wholesale grower Bailey Nurseries, have decided to err on the side of caution and eliminate or sharply reduce their use of neonicotinoids.
Trying not to kill bees is only one piece of the pollinator-protection puzzle, however.
With more and more habitat lost to development and agriculture (corn and soybeans, the nation’s top crops, don’t provide nectar), bees need food, too. And that’s where home gardeners can really help, according to experts.
“The main thing is to plant more flowering plants,” says Heather Holm, of Minnetonka, Minn., a landscape designer and author of the new book “Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects With Native Plants” (www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com ).
Native bees, in particular, have a short flight distance — about 500 yards, she says. “If you and your neighbors aren’t providing forage, they will have a hard time finding food.”
From the pollinators’ perspective, it’s important to have a continuous succession of plants flowering throughout the growing season, Holm says. “In most gardens there is a gap,” especially in early spring and late fall. Holm advises gardeners to evaluate their landscape, identify the flower gaps and fill them. Good early-spring bloomers are woodland plants, such as bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches and wild geranium. Good fall bloomers include asters and goldenrod.
And all flowering plants aren’t equal, from the bee’s perspective. “Stick with straight species” rather than cultivars, Holm advises. “If breeding has changed the flower color, it can also change the fragrance or nectar. It may look better to us, but it may not be attractive to bees.”
When choosing plants, opt for older, simpler varieties, Holm says, even if it means passing up the plants that catch your eye with their showy form or unusual hue. “Rethink how a bee or pollinator would see your garden — not just what you think is prettiest, with double flowers or a brand-new introduction in a cool color.”
Good plants for bees include coneflowers, liatris, salvia, catmint, catnip, hyssop and black-eyed Susans.
Of course, buying plants that attract bees may not be beneficial if the plants themselves are laced with toxic chemicals. A study released last summer by Friends of the Earth-US and co-authored by the Pesticide Research Institute, found that seven of 13 samples of garden plants at some large national retailers in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay area contained neonicotinoids, including plants marketed as “bee-friendly.” That’s why bee advocates urge gardeners to make informed decisions when buying plants.
“Ask first, before you buy, confirm they’re not using systemic insecticides,” says Holm. “Look at smaller, local growers rather than those who buy from others. Do your homework.” The insecticides are so widely used that avoiding them can be a challenge, particularly when buying trees and shrubs, which have a longer growth cycle before they’re brought to market.
“These insecticides are everywhere; they’re so effective, and so safe for humans,” says Jean-Marc Versolato, production manager of plant health for Bailey Nurseries. Nonetheless, the wholesale grower recently discontinued spraying foliage with neonicotinoids, although it is still using small amounts of the systemic insecticides in granular form on some tree crops in the field. “Insects can really affect the growth of trees when they’re small,” he says.
Home gardeners who use insecticides are encouraged to avoid neonicotinoids, especially if they’re growing plants that are attractive to bees. “If people want to use perennial natives or heirlooms, they should not use systemic insecticides,” says Vera Krischik, associate professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota. “They’re completely legal, but they’re absorbed by the plant and can end up in the pollen or nectar.”
If the active ingredients include imidocloprid, clothandin, thamethoxan, acetamiprid or dinotefuran, the insecticide is considered a neonicotinoid and a potential threat to bees. While active ingredients must be labeled under law, inert ingredients are not always listed, but lumped under “other ingredients”; some of these are also believed to be detrimental to pollinators.
Consumers who are concerned about bees should be prepared to accept some imperfections, such as a few aphids on a plant they purchase, says Versolato. “Picture-perfect will be difficult without neonicotinoids.”
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