Make Room for Plants in Your Basements, Garages, Barns
Depending on what source you consult, the last killing frost for our area in the Thumb is anywhere from June 1 through June 10. This consideration will affect the Caro Garden Club’s annual spring plant sale, because Szcygiel’s Plant Farm, which supplies our plants, will not be able to hold them for us as long as they have in past years. It will be up to club members to find a place to protect our purchases until we can safely plant them in our home gardens as well as in the public gardens in Caro that our club works to beautify each year.
When Planting for Bees, More of One Kind of Flower is Better
It’s easy when perusing the flower catalogues to be tempted to pick one each of many kinds of beautiful flowers for spring planting. But if you want to help bees, be sure to plant large clumps of one type of flower. That’s because bees tend to stick with one type of flower throughout a day of feeding.
According to an article published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, many insect pollinators show a preference to visit flowers of just one species during a foraging trip. That behavior is known as “flower constancy,” and it probably benefits plants by insuring one type of plant is cross pollinated by a member of its same species.
How does flower constancy benefit pollinators? While there are many theories, it may be that pollinators find it more efficient to expend their energy foraging in a single large patch of the same flower species. “Lower rewards in both volume, concentration and number lead to lower levels of constancy,” according to the NIH article.
But many flowers bloom only for a few weeks of the year, and pollinators need food all summer long. So, consider this as well when planning your garden but remember “more is more” where pollinators are concerned.
Rethinking Dandelions
Botanist and herb grower Gary Carter says it‘s time to rethink our attitude towards the dandelion. For one thing, dandelions are nearly impossible to eradicate. And why would you want to? In an article for Horticulture Magazine entitled “Rethinking the Dandelion,” Carter notes that you can eat the young leaves, which are high in vitamins A and C, beta carotene, potassium, iron and copper. “Not only that,” Carter writes, “dandelion flowers are a great magnet for bees, providing them fodder early in the season when other sources can be scarce.”
And let’s admit it, dandelion flowers are pretty and can look nice in flower arrangements!
Dandelions are pretty in flower arrangements. When was the last time you truly appreciated the dandelion?