When Bees Ignore Blossoms

Posted on June 11, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Keeping Gardens Fruitful

This spring, I was invited to a farm that included a small (20 tree) cherry orchard where the bees were ignoring trees in full bloom. The owner wanted to know what if anything he could do to get some bee action for his blooms. As a rule, bees will snub flowers that are low in nectar and pollen. Even favored blossoms like cherries can be lacking and the bees are evidently able to detect (nobody quite knows how) blossoms with low levels of these important substances. Sometimes this is because other bees have already been there and done that. There is some evidence that foraging bees leave behind a scent marker that other bees can sense. A study done at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California found that when bees approached flowers, then flew away without foraging, the rejected blossoms had about half the nectar of an average bloom.

Foraging is a lot of work. Honeybees boost efficiency by tending to ignore empty flowers in favor of loaded blossoms. The most common reason for low nectar and pollen levels in flowers that normally have high levels is nutrition; poor soil or soil that has been chemically fed or treated can low in nutrients. In this case, some of the orchard trees are mulched with shredded paper or chopped field hay, while other are surrounded with bare soil. Hmm. In an orchard setting where trees are expected to be fruitful, low-nutrient mulches are not adequately helpful. The owner wanted to keep weeds down, and the paper did that, as did frequent scuffle-hoeing of the bare earth areas. However, mulches can also be valuable soil amendments. A nutrient-rich mulch like shredded leaves mixed with grass clippings, coarse compost mixed with fine shredded bark, or chopped hay mixed with shredded leaves could make those trees more attractive to pollinators.

Investments That Pay Off

For one thing, improved soil will boost blossom fragrance, which is one of the factors that can draw in pollinators. Fragrance is costly for plants to produce, and when soil nutrients are low, it’s one of the qualities that can diminish (along with color and flavor). Instead of using paper mulch, or none, I suggested that the owner surround each fruit tree with a generous circle of compost. Fruit trees benefit the most when compost is concentrated in a 3-4 foot wide band around the dripline of the tree. That’s where the active feeder roots are so that’s where compost will be of most use. Pile it on generously, heaping 3-5 inches of compost or aged dairy manure around each tree.

To keep that inner circle weed free, I suggested surrounding each tree with a ruffle of big, easy going plants such as Six Hills Giant catmint (Nepeta), which quickly makes a 2-3 foot mound. That has the advantage of keeping mowers and weed whackers away from tree trunks (important since mechanical injury is a leading cause of death). Catmints are also deer resistant, drought resistant, healthy ad vigorous, besides being highly attractive to bees and other pollinators. To pull in early bird pollinators, plant native annuals such as Clarkia, bleeding heart (Dicentra), poached egg plant (Limnanthese douglasii), and California poppies, as well as calendulas, sweet alyssum, and annual forget-me-nots. One of the prettiest orchards I ever saw was an Oregon hazelnut plantation that was carpeted in blue scilla in early spring. The bulbs had been spreading for decades and the result was a haze of happy bees.

Healing Ground Covers And Mulches

Small home orchards can profitably be sown with an annual soil improver such as crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum), (NOT red clover, Trifolium pratense, which can be a trouble maker). A splendid nitrogen fixer, it will reduce the chore load for you by forming a summer cover crop in empty beds and around established trees and shrubs. Crimson clover is often called a “green manure” since it acts much like compost. Don’t skimp the true compost, though, because flowering and fruiting plants grown in compost-enriched soil have more fragrance, more nectar, and better flavor than fruit given only chemical fertilizer. That’s because the combination of plant- and soil-feeding nutrients in compost increase beneficial biological life in the soil. Healthier soil makes for healthier plants. In addition, compost helps plants take in and store a higher percentage of natural sugars. A sugar meter (called a brix meter) tells organic growers how well their crops have been nourished. The higher the brix, the better the flavor and nutrient quality.

My orchard owning pal recently told me that tiny cherries were forming, so his fruit had been visited by somebody. Who might have been busy in those cherry blossoms? Most native bees are a lot smaller than honeybees and are not as obvious in the garden. Other less visible insects do their share of pollinating as well, from hover flies to little wasps, so it is possible to get some fruit set without seeing the usual big bees bustling about. He had also done some hand pollinating, transferring pollen from blossom to blossom with a small brush. This is manageable for those growing miniature fruit trees in half barrels on the back deck, but a daunting task for a farmer with 20 trees to service.

Enlisting Help From Friendly Natives

To encourage visiting bees, he decided to plant more flowering native shrubs around his farm. This will most certainly help to bring in bees and other pollinators. Some good choices for those with fruit trees are early bloomers like native mahonias (Oregon grapes), Indian plum (Oemleria cerasifolia), and flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum). Later blooming fruit crops may be boosted by adding summer bloomers like native roses and ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), which drapes the wood verges with frothy plumes of ecru lace right about now. It’s one of my favorite natives, since besides being a bee magnet, nectar rich ocean spray is a great favorite with butterflies, including Spring azures, pale swallowtails, Lorquin’s admirals and Gray hairstreaks.

Onward!

 

 

Posted in composting, Early Crops, Easy Care Perennials, Growing Berry Crops, Pollinators, Soil, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living, Weed Control | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Foxglove Magic

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Nurturing Peloric Plants

As I was working in the library garden this week, I was happily singing a little ditty with the refrain “We are marching to Peoria” and wondered aloud what on earth the marchers planned to do in Peoria? Another Friday Tidy volunteer kindly explained that they were headed for Pretoria, not Peoria, during the South African Boer war. I soon realized that the song stuck in my head was triggered by the foxgloves I was weeding around. A week or so ago, I had noticed a lovely mutation on several foxgloves growing at the library. The top bud on each stem in this small clump opened into a bowl shaped blossom rather than the usual tubular form.

I took a few pictures and through consultation with knowledgeable plant folks (thank you, PNW Plant Geeks!), I learned that the unusual flower form is the result of a more or less common mutation. The tendency of normally asymmetrical flowers to become symmetrical (or vice versa) was first described in 1744 by Carl Linnaeus, who codified the plant naming system still in use today. Linnaeus called the phenomenon ‘peloria’ after a Greek word that can mean either monster or prodigy (in the sense of being larger than usual). Ahah! These prodigious foxgloves were marching to peloria, a different drum indeed.

Preserving Pelorism

It seemed like an excellent idea to try to preserve the mutation by saving seed. Having experimented in the past with capturing unusual plant forms, I am aware that some variations are easier to preserve than others, and that some plants are more amenable to domestication. Millennia old landrace seed strains of heirloom tomatoes and traditional corn varieties are largely stable, but even so, to keep them true to type, they must be grown in groups and in relative isolation if their seeds will be saved. This particular clump of foxgloves is on its own, far from any kin, so there’s a chance that the seeds might contain the mutation.

I’ve been hearing anecdotally that many people have seen peloric foxgloves from time to time, so I’m enlisting friends who will mark any plants that present the mutation and save those seeds as well. An online search turned up a few commercial sources for peloric foxglove seeds, though all are sold out for this year. Commercial seed strains of all kinds are grown in strict isolation from anything that could potentially cross with the intended plants. Each season, the growing fields are scrupulously rogued to eliminate plants that don’t show the desired characteristics. Even so, gardeners who have raised plants from such strains report that not all of the resulting plants will display the desired mutation.

Raising A Horticultural Ruckus

When pelorism was first discovered, it caused quite a ruckus, since Linnaeus believed that genera and species were an expression of divine order and therefor could not possibly be changed. (Remember, this was over a hundred years before Gregor Mendel made his daring experiments with peas.) In foxgloves, generally only the terminal or top flower displays the peloric mutation. Some hundred and fifty years later, Darwin would speculate that this was because terminal buds have the most sap. Intrigued by pelorism, Darwin also observed that some species seem especially prone to pelorism; for instance, certain orchids frequently display peloric tendencies.

Darwin also found noted that while certain plants, such as foxgloves and snap dragons, had “a strong latent tendency to become peloric, there is also a still greater tendency in all peloric plants to reacquire their normal irregular structure.” Basically, that means that even if we manage to create a seed strain that produces a fair number of peloric plants, over time their offspring will tend to revert to their normal form. More recent research indicates that pelorism can be triggered by environmental stresses, including changes to a site (such as the removal of a shade-casting tree), changeable weather, and weather-related diseases such as mildew. With 100 year weather events occurring every few years now, this may be a splendid time to find peloric plants in our own backyards.

Create Your Own Seed Strain

Developing a (more or less) stable seed line can be a pleasing project for the home gardener, though the selection process can take years. I treasure a lovely strain of California poppy developed by the late Connie Caunt in her tiny garden in Victoria, B.C. The strain includes many shades of cream, pink and lavender, from palest baby ribbon pastels to vivid rose and near purple. However, even after many years of Connie’s patient work and my continuing efforts, genetically dominant orange poppies recur every season and must be removed lest they overtake the rosy ones. Similarly, creating a reliably peloric seed strain is probably not the work of a few seasons, thanks to that tendency to revert to the norm.

While most foxgloves are biennials, forming a leafy rosette in the first year and blooming the next, quite often in our climate they will rebloom a second year. If the original bloom stalks are removed, a whole cluster of shorter bloom stalks may appear a few months later or even the next season. While weeding, I found a plant tag identifying the peloric foxgloves as part of the Camelot series, a semi-perennial strain that has been blooming at the library for several years. Though they were definitely not peloric in the past, we’ll eagerly watch to see if these same plants bloom this way again next year.

Make Like A Bee And Hand Pollinate

Foxgloves are mainly pollinated by bumblebees, which are especially attracted to the color purple. The flowers have adapted to suit the chubby bumble body, lining the path to the nectar with little hairs that block smaller insect’s journey. You can play the part of the bumblebee by using a cotton swab to gently exchange the pollen from open flowers on peloric plants. To discourage bumbles from barging in with unwanted pollen from who knows where, remove the petals from your pollinated blossoms and mark the stems with yarn or soft ties.

According to Kew Gardens expert Paula Rudall, “Breeding experiments have shown that the terminal flower mutation in Digitalis is inherited as a simple Mendelian recessive, and can be reproduced from seed via either the peloric or normal flowers of the same plant, which are all fertile. Mutations that can be inherited and reproduce by seed could theoretically be capable of establishing new plant lineages…”

Onward!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Winding The Spirit Spiral

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Walking With Fragrant Herbs

A few days ago, I wound my way around a low hillock, following a spiraling path. After some twenty years, the spiral garden was in need of some editing, but the rock edged path felt serene, imbued with spirit. I’ve designed and worked on several spiral-based gardens and though each shares a distinct character with its gardener, they also share a common serenity and peaceful sense of purpose. Spiral meditation paths are both engaging and soothing; engaging because it’s impossible not to ponder life’s spirals while walking such paths, and soothing because they help our thoughts move with our feet from the open edge into the tighter, concentrated middle and back out into the wide world again.

This particular garden had winding beds between the path loops, filled with herbs and traditional medicinal plants. The gravel path was just wide enough for one and the beds were about the same width. With a few modifications, the same modest amount of space (about 12 x 20 feet) can hold a labyrinth, a pattern of sacred geometry that was often incorporated into the stone flagged floors of medieval European cathedrals. Unlike mazes, which seek to deceive with blind alleys and false turns, labyrinths use a single continuous path that winds in usually circular patterns into the heart of a space and back out again without retracing or crossing itself. You can’t get lost or led astray. You always find your way to the very core of whatever has you walking and you always come safely home.

Free Wheeling Meditations

Years ago, I helped to make a beautiful wheelchair accessible, herb filled labyrinth at Harmony Hill. The Hill is a retreat center above Washington’s Hood Canal. It’s also a sacred space, a community of hope and healing where over six thousand people come each year, and none leave unchanged. Whether they come for a concert, a workshop, a meditation practice or a cancer retreat, all are touched by the place and the people who live and work there. The Hill’s main labyrinth is appropriately enough on a slight slope, so the paths are level and the beds slant to make up the difference. That first year, we filled the running beds with hardy herbs and fragrant annuals that barely brushed the fingertips of anyone traveling the labyrinth.

I’ve walked many labyrinths over the years, and for me, designs which include plants make spirit walking particularly joyful. If the site is in full sun, I like to lace the paths with fragrant hardy herbs such as creeping thyme, oregano, pennyroyal, and Corsican mint. Where paths are mainly used by one or two people, many of these toughies are walkable, recovering well between meditations. The gentle wafts of scent released by our footsteps are relaxing and refreshing and the herbal carpet hushes the crunch of gravel (maybe I’ve watched too many noir films, but I find that sound mildly disturbing). These walkable herbs are willing workers both in garden paths and as infill between pavers or flagstones.

Walkable Herbs

I love to use many forms of oregano in gardens, both as bed edging and in pathways, especially since they form wide, evergreen mats that look handsome all winter. Most forms of Origanum vulgare make good ground covers and are at least fairly decent walkables, including Westacre Gold, Golden Crinkled (O. v. crispum) and Aureum Gold (O. v. aureum). Dense, low growing Compact Oregano (O. v. compactus) is lovely underfoot, as are Mini Compact and Dwarf Greek (O.c. Nana). Greek Mountain oregano (Origanum herocleoticum) is happiest in rocky beds, gravel paths, and hot, exposed positions such as a sunny patio and tolerates moderate foot traffic quite well.

Chamomile lawns have been popular since medieval times, usually made with Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). Treneague, a non-flowering form, is especially appreciated by those who like to walk barefoot and want to avoid bees. Similarly, thyme was an important lawn ingredient before grass came onto vogue with the invention of the lawn mover in 1830. (Before that, grass lawn care was managed by sheep or laborious hand scything.) Where drainage is good, Woolly thyme (T. praecox subsp. arcticus Lanuginosus) is a common plant pick, though Elfin thyme (T. serpyllum minus) works very well in gravel paths and on rocky walls. Other especially attractive forms of creeping thyme include Pink Chintz, Red Creeping, Snow Drift, and White Creeping, all low carpeters that spread willingly.

A Harmonious Meditation Retreat

Anyone with a bit of room can create a meditative garden that combines favorite plants with calming pathways. If you need a little inspiration, I encourage you (particularly anyone whose life is touched by cancer) to come and see what Harmony Hill is all about. A great deal of thought and work has gone into creating a healing environment that is as wholesome and free from stress as possible. The staff practices deep and soulful hospitality, from fresh garden flowers by guest bedsides to marvelous vegetarian meals made with organically grown foods that nourish the whole person. It’s a great place for a family reunion, a staff retreat, or a lovely day of strolling the meditation labyrinths.

For more information and directions, contact:
Harmony Hill Retreat Center
7362 East State Route 106
Union, WA
360-89 82363
www.harmonyhill.org

 

 

 

Posted in Drainage, Easy Care Perennials, Hardy Herbs, Health & Wellbeing, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Of Beans And Bees

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Bean Teepees And Bee Magnets

A few years ago, I was asked to design an interactive children’s garden in a remarkable accessible play space. Owen’s Playground was built to accommodate anyone and everyone who might want to play or even watch kids at play. There are climbing structures, nets, and swings and roundabouts that can be used by anyone, however abled, and there’s also ample path space for wheelchairs and walkers and comfortable seating for parents and grandparents. My own favorite part is Hannah’s Garden, a spiraling garden that twists up a sloping path to the top of a little hill topped with a bench and a beautiful crabapple tree. The beds are full of plants that can be picked and petted, tasted and tucked into braids. While the main paths were laid out by design, others appeared as “lines of desire” that indicate the way real people decide to use the space.

The way real people use the garden has also shaped the way the beds are planted and what the garden holds. Initially, we were very careful to choose plants that are not toxic, don’t shed a lot of pollen, and don’t have extremely strong fragrances, since they can cause problems for folks with compromised immune systems, allergies, or potent sensitivities. The trickiest part was picking plants that aren’t especially attractive to bees, since combining kids at play with lots of bees isn’t a good idea. Fortunately, there are plenty of low pollen producers, from female sunflowers to columbines, dusty miller, geraniums, pansies, petunias, phlox, verbenas, and zinnias, all of which we planted in abundance.

Walk Right In, Sit Right Down

We let the new paths guide our planting patterns, making sure there was plenty of room both for people to sit and play and plants to spread and clamber. We also interplanted flowers with food that can be eaten out of hand, notably many kinds of strawberries and blueberries and lots of herbs. There are greens galore, especially colorful kales, which many kids love to nibble as they play. The important part is that there’s nothing they can’t touch and no place they can’t go. Yes, some plants definitely suffer from this interactive aspect, but we also see kids being very respectful of the plants, even treating them with tender affection.

I knew this free range approach could work because it worked with my own kids and their friends. I think their respect was in part due to the fact that we planted lots of things together, from strawberries in their first “truck garden” (heavy on the trucks) to sunflowers that towered over their play spaces. What they planted, they tended and enjoyed, from pulling up rainbow carrots or picking sweet, tender peas to collecting handfuls of blueberries and raspberries. With this in mind, we created friends for Hannah’s Garden by inviting community members from 4-H and scouts to classrooms and homeschooling families to grow plants and come plant them. We also organized weekly care groups to keep beds weed free and replace plants as needed. Most of these care groups include kids who play in the gardens, which also helps establish a culture of caring and sharing.

Beans And Bees

Among my own kids’ favorite garden experiences was the making of bean teepees, which we did by weaving sturdy cones of bamboo stakes and tall branches collected from the woods after winter storms. Wired together at the tops, these became a framework for the teepee, which was a favorite hideout in summer. We’d surround the cone with runner bean starts, which scrambled up the twiggy branches with alacrity. At Hannah’s Garden, our amazing Parks crew built a charming hobbit house for beans, which we trimmed with sunflower heads to bring in the birds after the beans were done.

One thing that did make me a bit nervous about the bean teepee idea is the way bees love bean flowers. On warm days, those bean plants would be abuzz with bees busily harvesting pollen and nectar from the scarlet blossoms. However, the flowers are entirely on the outside of the structure, with the kids tucked snugly inside. In all the years we made these teepees, nobody every got stung, probably because bees are not at all interested in stinging people unless they feel threatened. As well, the lower growing blossoms were pollinated first, and as soon as bean pods started plumping out, they were quickly harvested until all the blossoms and beans were out of reach.

Keeping Bees Out Of Reach

Sunflowers are also highly popular with bees, but by growing only the taller varieties, the bees can do their thing well out of range of kid activities. Again, in all my years of combining kids and plants, nobody ever got stung except me (and that was when I picked up a tipped over pot that happened to be full of paper wasps in August. Oops.) I’m also tickled to notice that these days, most kids seem very aware that bees are in trouble and need help. They like the idea of creating bee friendly plantings and even understand that native bees like native blossoms (!).

I’m especially excited about introducing kids to the natural world and the foodweb because I think that’s a good way to grow new gardeners. Most passionate gardeners have stories about being welcomed into a garden as a youngster. Many gardeners are good cooks too, thanks in part to the encouragement of an older family member, neighbor or friend. And by now, everyone knows that food-fussy children who help plant and pick edible crops are more likely to eat things they grow themselves.

Make Room For Hands On Play

Similarly, children who are allowed to play and explore in a garden setting are likely to become lifelong gardeners themselves. Perhaps the best way to engage children in gardening is to begin not with chores but with pleasurable projects. Small children love to help and they delight in working closely with adults. Find a space where enthusiastic but unskilled garden activities won’t wreak havoc with your main crops and invite the kids in. The result may be the most important seeds you ever plant!

If more than one child will be in the garden with you, find a spot for each child to make their own. Toddlers will love a space that combines a sandbox and digging tools with a bit of planting ground. My grandson’s sandbox, which can double as a fire pit with the addition of a large metal fire bowl, is full of dinosaurs and dump trucks, with kale and carrots on the side. A short hose (drinking-quality) with an easy-to-use spray nozzle provides endless pleasure in watering plants, filling buckets, and occasionally soaking an unsuspecting granny. In a tiny garden, give each child a huge tree pot filled with sand (for playing) or soil (for growing). Tiered strawberry and lettuce planters can fit on the smallest deck or terrace, and many edibles can be grown in vertical gardening structures and containers designed to hang over fence railings.

 

 

 

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