Major Nectar Flows of the North East United States (May/June)

Okay where to begin.

About a month ago all the dogwoods were flowering, and while people are very familiar with the main two Cornus florida and Cornus kousa (not native) I've never really been impressed by the attention they get by bees. These are the big flowering dogwoods with the really big white "petals" which are actually bracks, modified leaves that are white or pink colored to act like flower petals. But unlike flower petals, they're able to produce chlorophyll to a degree where as true petals and rays do not.

Pictured above is the Alternate Leaf Dogwood, Cornus alternifolia. This species lacks the big showy white bracks of its cousin and instead easily produces ten times more flowers! This makes them extremely popular with pollinators, and honeybees are no exception. One failing though is I believe the plant is only used for pollen (or otherwise produces an insignificant amount of nectar for bees to bother with) but it's certainly a powerhouse at doing so. Growers will be impressed with the flowering display of saplings and every year they become more and more showy.


Other dogwoods, such as the Red Twig Dogwood, Cornus sericea, take on more of a shrub habit. They have similar flower displays to C. alternifolia but nowhere near the amount of flowers, and thus have to grow considerably larger to get the same pollinator attention.

White Dutch Clover, Trifolium repens, this is a common lawn "weed" that I'm all for planting. It's hard to remain a native plant purest with a plant that spices up the nonnative American lawn. You can buy seeds to this plant by the pound which have about a 40% success rate when seeded into an established lawn. Plants produce their own fertilizer too and are fairly hardy. Even with large patches of this plant in bloom though you only see a hand full of bees even bothering with them. What makes them so successful as a nectar plant though is the fact that almost every lawn has them.

Black Cherry, Prunus serotina. Truth be told, this isn't a very popular plant with any pollinators, but it's bloom time, along with other cherry/plums, fills a gap between a few others. It's also a host plant for the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, the berries are edible though perhaps better used for pies and jam making, or left to the birds as it's one of the earliest to ripen.

Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. Not to be confused with Magnolias, this is one of the fastest growing and tallest trees in the forest. A dozen or so honeybees can work a single flower at a time, though it's not every year that it's flowers are prized. As odd as it sounds, honeybees will only work this tree intensely on years when the blooming is later than usual but also preceded by a rain storm. Rain causes most trees to produce three times as much nectar so on wet years a hive will produce a lot more honey. This tree is also a host plant for Tiger Swallowtails, so it's well worth planting if you've got the space.

Hop Tree, Ptelea trifoliata. This tree has become somewhat uncommon which is a shame because bees go nuts for it. The foliage superficially resembles poison ivy, and can have a displeasing odor when disturbed. They can grow in full shade or full sun, but of course flower best in full sun. Also I've noticed that bees only work the flowers that are in full sun, often high up in the tree. (I would have gotten pictures of honeybees on this one but this isn't my tree and I didn't have a ladder accessible.) Another trait one might be on the fence about; this is the host plant to the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, which is the largest butterfly in North America. The caterpillars mimic bird droppings and have been known to completely defoliate whole shrubs and trees of this plant! So gardeners need to choose between a good nectar plant (assuming it's in full sun) or living with flocks of the largest butterfly in North America flying through their yard. 

Okay that's an ant, not a bee, but even they like to steal the nectar from some of these plants. Members of the Ribes genus are high up on the pollinator list. Red Raspberries in particular are beloved by honeybees but only when allowed to grow into a nice sized patch. Blackberries get a silver medal, maybe bronze compared to the classic Red Raspberries but are still worth growing. 

Spiderwort, Tradescantia sp., these only open in the daylight hours, and are usually closed by 4:00pm. Honeybees work them, usually before noon time when the pollen is fresh. Patches of this plant need to be at least two feet around in order for honeybees to bother with them though. I planted a few dozen plants three years ago and it's taken that long for them to even take notice. Thankfully spiderwort is one of those care free natives that grows, spreads, and goes dormant with almost no maintenance or care. 

Black Locust is another one that's flowering now. It's a medium sized tree with chains of white, wisteria-like flowers on it. I've been unable to find time to get pictures of it so far. The same goes for Catalpa Trees which are also flowering, and have great big white trumpets for blooms.

False Indigo Shrub, Amorpha fruicosa, this is another one that's not often planted. The flowers are fragrant, plum colored with bright orange pollen, and appear similar to Butterfly Bush, but better smelling and with an open habit.

This is another nitrogen fixing plants that produces its own fertilizer. It produces part shade beneath it too so you can grow it fairly close to a vegetable garden with little impact on the crops below.

It's also a host plant for the Silver Stripe Skipper, the largest of the skippers of North America. Unlike other supposed host plants of that butterfly, I've actually found the caterpillars on the plant! 

And a reminder that I wrote a book titled "Native Plants for Honeybees" last year on that topic. Word of warning, it's self published, and thus not on the best quality of paper. I encourage you to give the free preview a try before commuting to purchase. Reading through some of the negative reviews I see not everyone thinks my opinion on plants was worth their time, also one seemed against self published in general. 

My Meadow Garden

 Being the compulsive plant shopper that I am, I'm so thrilled with the way the meadow garden has turned out this year. I started this project back in 2011, and they say it takes three year before a meadow really takes off. What's odd though is they say that about meadows started by seed because nothing really flowers until year two or three and then some don't flower until year seven or beyond. Meadows otherwise look like a bunch of weeds their first, and sometimes second year.

To avoid the weedy look, I decided to skip seeds and jump right into plugs. Presumably this would let me skip that first weedy year and jump right into to the more established second and third year. While many of the plugs did flower the first year, I have to say it still took three years before the meadow really became thick looking, full and established.

Another reason seeds wouldn't have worked was that my lawn is basically made up of crab grass, which my dad "thinks" he may have planted on purpose years ago becuase it naturally spreads by runners and fills in an area. His theory being that this would lead to a nice thick lawn. While many lawn grasses do this, this crab grass in particular is the most annoying plant I've ever had to deal with. Along the roots it produces corms that are thorn shaped thus pulling them out of the ground often results in me being stabbed and pricked in uncomfortable ways.

To it's benefit though, it does fill in, my meadow is lacking grasses, and it basically marks where I haven't planted things yet.

So here's a short list of what's blooming now.

New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americanus, which is actually a low 3' tall shrub that's covered in little white puffs of flowers. This is the only plant I need to remember not to mow over with the lawn mower each year and it's bright yellow stems really make it stand out. It's often praised as a good hummingbird plant, not because of the flowers, but because of the swarms of tiny bugs that go for the flowers. It's taken three years but sure enough I'm starting to see in the late afternoon this plant is bustling with tiny gnat-like insects. I haven't seen hummingbirds going for them yet but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. During the hotter times of the day nonsocial wasps tend to pollinate it. These types of wasps are beneficial because they're often specialized predators or parasites of beetle grubs, spiders, and caterpillars.

Whorled or Thread-leaf Coreopsis, Coreopsis verticillata, is growing right behind it. It doesn't get that much attention but I'm sure that may change in a few years. This started out as one plant, that is to say one stem that grew up to about 3' tall and produced maybe four flowers in it's first year. It's since reseeded in a non-aggressive way onto adjacent bare soil. This was the first of my native plants that I realized was not only growing happily but also self seeding around. Before then there had been this fear that maybe I'll rip up the lawn, plant everything, but only to watch it all die out slowly over the next ten years. This plant cured me of that fear.

Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa, these flowers are now open but I thought it was a neat shot. This is the host plant to the Monarch Butterfly among a few other things we don't hear enough about. Drought tolerant, loves growing in dry locations, and boasts brilliant orange flowers.

Ozark Coneflower, Echinacea paradoxa, this was a surprise this year because I'd planted this species a year or two ago and it died out. Coneflowers have never done well in my meadow and I'm not sure why that is. So this year I ordered Pale Purple Coneflower, Echinacea pallida, to give that species a try. Well what arrived grew better than anything had before, and when I saw the flower buds I was thrilled... but then the petals were yellow! So so one of the nurseries I ordered Pale Purple Coneflowers had mix up and they'd sent me Ozark Coneflower instead. 

I'm not complaining. These plants seem to be a lot healthier than the first batch of Ozark Coneflowers I tried years ago. I initially wanted that species because the yellow went so well with the orange Butterfly Weed. We'll see if these are better able to establish.

Western Spiderwort

The Western Spiderwort, Tradescantia occidentalis, has really come a long way since I initially planted them. Back in 2011 these little plugs pushed out maybe one flower and that was it, a simple short lived bloom that faded after only one day.

But now each has spread out into its own clump, pushing out several short lived flowers each day. If I recall right this plant dies back in the summer to make room for other meadow plants, but at it stands they're doing an okay job of suppressing the weedy sort of crabgrass I hate so much.

I see early bumblebee workers working them along with our thorn-less blackberries.

Life in the Meadow Garden

My little meadow garden is much farther along this year than it was this time last year. Mostly this is due to plants spreading both by seed and underground rhizomes, bulbs, and other such root divisions. I need to weed out some of the Creeping Charlie becuase it's climbing all over everything. But otherwise it's fairly weed free. Rudbeckias are coming up all over the place and should form a nice carpet of yellow later in the year, but for now I have the bright pink blooms of Western Spiderwort, Tradescantia occidentalis, to enjoy.

The earliest bumblebee workers as well as an assortment of hover flies have been pollinating them. I love how soft looking the pollen anthers look; as if they were made out of foam or something.

Elsewhere in the garden hover fly larva feed on aphids, and somehow go unnoticed by ants or even other aphids.

Along the Coreopsis tips a plethora of lady beetles have landed (free of charge) and help to control the aphid numbers. There are four of them in this picture alone.

Pavement Ants, Tetramorium species E. have taken to tending some of the aphid herds. This is somewhat unusual becuase pavement ants don't usually climb plant life to obtain a meal, at least it seems less in their nature as seen in other ant species.

Leaf Hoppers are a distant cousin to the aphid, but they've opted for mobility and don't have as many associations with ants.

Young Baptisia alba, plants I'd started as plugs when I first planted the meadow garden three years ago are finally going to flower. I'm not sure if the addition of this plant was a good idea or bad. Because they produce their own fertilizer, they're nitrogen fixing, and encourage certain types of plants to grow better than others.

Also flowering for the first time this year is Purple Milkweed, Asclepias purpurascens.

How My Prairie Did: Year 1

So earlier this year I started a prairie garden, the wrong way. Generally you're supposed to either suffocate or herbicide everything in the desired location for a full year. Had I taken that seriously I might have simply used the space as a vegetable garden with plastic mulch. I have several family members who use this stuff for their gardens and have great results. There is virtually no weeding.

As this relates to a prairie garden though I read eliminating everything from the site has to be done in order for most seeds to germinate, and for most seedlings to get through their first year.Another thing I've read is that turning the soil over (like I did) disrupts the seed bank and causes a mass germination of weeds. For both of these reasons I decided to lay down a wood mulch, and rather than using seeds I went with plugs.

Plugs are generally plants that have already been growing for a season that typically come in 4' pots. My theory was these plants are more mature and are better able to hold their own against the weeds. Sure enough many of them flowered shortly after planting. This Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium reptans, above was actually flowering in the pot (also a sign of root stress).

Their flowers actually turn blue with age and when mass planted one almost gets a misty cloud effect. They will grow in full sun, full shade, somewhat dry, to somewhat wet, and there are assorted cultivars with all sorts of foliage options. I went with the true species of course. 

Western Spiderwort, Tradescantia occidentalis, is for whatever reason listed as Native to New Jersey, and New York and otherwise restricted to the western half of the US. I didn't know what to expect with this plant. I needed something grass-like but wanted it to flower too.

This was a great choice because I love bright colors. And this sure went with the orange of the Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa.

Things were going nicely at first. Generally the warm season grass that comprises our lawn hadn't taken over yet.

 

Almost all of the butterfly weed bloomed this year.

As summer got into full swing the grasses started encroaching with root tubers. A sunflower from the adjacent bird feeder started growing from seed as well. Behind this garden against the fence I planted a native dogwood, Cornus florida, and found a spot for some Anise Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum, to go.

From another angle we can see my solution to all the crap laying around in our yard is to plant gardens in front of them. Actually the glider just needs covers or something on them and it will look nicer. The truck cab in the middle there holds straw under it supposidly for wildlife to live but really I could do without it. We've been stacking old PVC pipe and logs on top of it for convenience.

Adjacent Iron Weeds in various gardens started blooming. I noticed this caterpillar that I keep forgetting the name of. Basically they turn the color of whatever type of flower they happen to be eating. I've found them in all sorts of colors.

Come August the Showy Goldenrod, Solidago speciosa, started budding. Now I've herd two opinions about this plant. A source in Missouri from the Shaw Nature Preserve says this plant is down right thuggish, and loves to spread everywhere. The guy who maintains the prairie at the Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware says they've grown a few plants there right next to their meadow garden for years and it's never reseeded. So your local variety and how it reacts to your soil type may vary.

The Monarchs found the milkweed though I noticed none of the caterpillars in the prairie garden made it to adulthood. I suspect it's due to the lack of cover, and having a bird feeder right next to door sure didn't help. Even though they're toxic to eat, birds and spiders will still take bites out of them until they learn not to do so.

You know it's the end of summer when things start falling over. The Showy Goldenrods are pretty much laying down, though it's not entirely displeasing. The Tall Coreopsis, Coreopsis tripteris, (at right) did a great job standing up all by itself. I love tall perennials but hate it when they fall over.

Here you can see the grass encroaching among the other plants. It's a little tough to pull out of the ground, so hopefully next year I can pull it out just as it starts growing. I've noticed some other plants in my other gardens do push that grass right out of their way. So hopefully when things get better established the grass will get shaded out.

Here's the tall Coreopsis, though not as tall as it's supposed to get. I read online they grow to be 5' to 8' tall.

I learned the hard way that Sky Blue Aster and Smooth Blue Aster look exactly the same. The only difference is Smooth Blue has a slightly larger flower, and Sky Blue has extra leaves around the stem. Neither are distinguishable at a glance. The flower color is exactly the same. (You're looking at Smooth Blue Aster in case you were wondering.) Both are pretty but I don't seen the need to own both.


Things I planted but didn't get to see:
Lace Leaf Coreopsis - grew and flowered but not very well. 
Stiff Coreopsis - grew but didn't flower. This plant reseeds freely and spreads by root suckers. They're not very big plants but can be a slight problem in mass.
Blue Star - Will probably get to big for this spot but we'll see what happens.
Blue False Indigo - Will probably get to big for this spot but we'll see what happens.
Purple Prairie Clover - Grew, but wildlife kept nibbling off the flower buds before any of them bloomed.
Ozark Coneflower - This went dormant right when I planted it. I'm not even sure they'll come back next year. 
Orange Coneflower - which looks exactly like Black Eyed Susan. Supposedly it's longer lived.
Meadow Liatris - Well worth your money if you can grow them. One of the best Monarch nectar plants.
Aromatic Aster - More people should grow this for it's natural dome habit. As for the smell they're only slightly fragrant but it's nothing special.


Backup Plan:
To plant more of what works.

Touring a Pollinator Garden

The second half of the meeting was devoted to Gardening for Pollinators. So naturally our hostess had a good pollinator garden setup.

Let me start by saying how hilarious placing this sign in a patch of Bachelor Buttons is. Bachelor Buttons, aka Cornflower (not Coneflower) are a common road side weed. Other members of this genus are called knapweed. Very few are native, and the majority are invasive.

This isn't the worst invasive and to her credit it was being controlled. Her property is located in the middle of farm country and apparently they hose down the road sides with Round Up annually. I'm not kidding, they just hose down the road sides with this stuff. It helps control weeds and keeps farm crops that would otherwise spread wildly under control. Signs all over her gardens had them marked as Don't Spray and Don't Mow.

There were several patches of this flower about. The sad truth right now is we're in a bit of a low point. There are very few late spring flowering plants, and only a hand full of early summer flowering plants that are native. Filling the gap with a few nonnatives is acceptable I suppose.

Passiflora incarnata (our native passion flower) was growing like a weed on her property. Carpenter bees I think are the ideal pollinator for this plant but I didn't see any around.

Coreopsis were blooming all over the yard. And were the perfect draw to the hover fly.

These beneficial insects double as both pollinator and pest control. The larval stage eats aphids.

A Flower Fly on a Coreopsis that's seen better days.

A Milkweed Beetle (Four Eyes) working it's way through some Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa. This is the first time I've seen this beetle and I didn't realize what it was when I took this shot. They get the common name four eyes because the antenna comes right out of the head in the middle of the eye. This divides each compound eye in half. BugGuide

Milkweed is my favorite flower I think. There's just something about the little fangs that I love.

A number of plants were scattered around the yard. There was even a patch designated as a Monarch Rest Stop.

Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, was sort of blooming. You can really make out the fangs on these slightly larger flowers, and they're fragrant too! The only issue with this garden was most of the plants were considerably young. They only had one cluster of flower if any at all and none were taller than 18 inches. I didn't see to many fall nectar sources either.

Black-Eyed Susans were also in bloom. Rudbeckia hirta. There were a few others like Brown-Eyed Susan too but I honestly can't tell the difference. You can tell from the silky threads on the flower that a caterpillar of some sort has inhabited the plant. Similar to Milkweed Rudbeckia are host to a number of Lepidoptera. The issue is they're all small and nibble mostly on the flowers. They're no where near as showy as the Monarch either.

The Hover Fly was dead center when I took this shot I swear. It darted just a bit to quick for me but still came out in perfect focus somehow a few inches to the left.

The only real plant I don't have a lot of was the Spiderwort. There was loads of this in the front garden and the bees were working it fair enough. I want to say planting more of this would help fill the gap in bloom between spring and summer.