Plant Native Perennials for Native Bees
This time of year is a great time to add native perennials — or any perennial. Native perennials have the added value of providing pollen and nectar for our native bees.
Why are bees so important? If you enjoy big juicy tomatoes, strawberries, squash, and pumpkins, then you’ll get higher yields and even an increase in fruit size by encouraging native bee populations. I’m referring to bees, not wasps, as important pollinators.
To keep year-round populations sufficient for pollination, you must provide a diverse food source from early spring through late fall, meaning nectar and pollen from a wide variety of plants throughout the season. Modern orchards provide a flush of overwhelming bloom in the spring. Then it can be starvation and a toxic environment the rest of the year.
In landscaping your garden, think diversity first, in different tiers, from trees to shrubs, to herbaceous perennials and annuals. The more native plants you include, the better buffet you’ll provide to have native bee populations survive and establish. A steady supply of nectar and pollen will keep native bees around. Native bees feed on nectar and gather pollen to take back to their nests to feed their young.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bee Lab in Logan, Utah, found that a 20-acre woodland park that was not sprayed with pesticides had at least 100 species of native bees on a summer day.
Mason bees, carpenter bees and leafcutter bees are called cavity nesters because they like to make their nests in fence posts, firewood, holes of trees and plant stems. So, as you clean your garden for winter, its best to leave one- to two-foot stems of perennials rather than cutting them down to the ground so that the bees can lay their eggs in the hollow end of the stems. Many ground-dwelling bees lay their eggs in tubular burrows. Bumblebees make their home in vacant rodent holes.
Native mountain mints are some of the best pollinator plants. Pycnanthemum virginianum, P. muticum and P. incanum are three species. Purple coneflowers provide pollen. Bees love yarrow and many other herbs such as basil, feverfew, anise hyssop, thyme, lavender and bee balm. Milkweeds, black-eyed Susans, cup plant, goldenrods and asters are all important bee plants.
Take advantage of late-season sales at local nurseries for native plants and perennials to increase pollination for next season.