How to Help Bumble Bees

The plight of honeybees is well publicized. But you don’t hear much about other bees that need our help, and that’s too bad because many other kinds of bees are also disappearing fast. In this column, I’m hoping to raise awareness about what’s happening to bumble bees, particularly the rusty patched bumble bee. It’s not too late to help.

Rusty patched bumble bee—Xerces Society, by Johanna James-Heinz

Of the 48 bumble bee species in North America, several are considered to be in decline for a variety of reasons. But in December of 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was endangered because their numbers had declined by 87 percent over the past 20 years.

A happy bumble bee (not rusty patched) collecting pollen. —iStock

One of Minnesota’s declining bumble bee species, the rusty patched bumble bee was the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be declared endangered, but it probably won’t be the last. Minnesota is one of the few states where rusty patched bumble bees can still be found, and they are most commonly spotted in the Twin Cities area.

Reasons for the decline of bumble bees mirror those of other bees: pesticide use, climate change, habitat loss and disease have all seemingly contributed to their demise. The situation is dire, but there are positive things gardeners can do to help. A good place to start is to stop using pesticides, or at least limit their use. Next, if you have a big yard and can allow a small space or two to include a few little piles of leaves or brush, queen bumble bees will thank you for the nice places to nest.

Rusty patched bumble bee specimen in the National Collection at the Smithsonian.

Because bumble bees are out early in spring and are active before many plants are in bloom, consider adding some early-spring-flowering bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees to your yard, like plums, hazelnut, witch hazel, willows, grape hyacinth, scilla (one of my favorite spring plants), snowdrops, crocus, hellebore and Virginia bluebells. Of course, there are many other plants that can be added to your gardens to help bumble bees and other pollinators too.

Unlike honeybees, bumble bees don’t have a lot of honey stored in their nests, so they depend on available flowers.The University of Minnesota’s bee lab has a lot of helpful information on bees on its website, including Plants for Minnesota Bees, which lists several flowering plants that bees like that are suited to most home landscapes. Remember to include plants that offer nectar and pollen because bees need both the protein from pollen and the carbohydrates from nectar to survive.

Rough blazingstar
—Courtesy of Prairie Nursery

In addition to planting bumble bee favorites like blueberries, tomatoes, borage, sage, oregano and thyme, here are some standouts to consider from the bee lab’s list, as well as other sources:

  • Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
  • Autumn joy sedum (Hylotelephium telephium)
  • Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa)
  • Catmint (Nepeta x fassenii)
  • Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
  • Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
  • Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera)
  • Ironweed (Vernonia fasiculata)
  • Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)
  • Primroses (Primula vulgaris)
  • Rough blazingstar (Liatris aspera)
  • Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum)
  • Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
  • Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)

To learn more about bumble bees, including more information on why they are disappearing and what their needs are in terms of habitat, nesting and overwintering, have a look at this section of the Xerces Society’s website.

I’d also like to suggest two great books about pollinators by local authors: Pollinator Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Hayes and Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm.

—A version of this story appeared in Northern Gardener magazine.

Cold Weather Plant Lust

Something went wrong but we are working on it! Credit: iStock

Hey, so, before I start talking about plants, let me explain the confusion with my last post. You may have noticed that I was going on about how I’d changed the name of my blog to Livin’ Thing and yet all you saw was my old Everyday Gardener banner at the top of the page. Technical difficulties, folks. Technical difficulties. But all of that is fixed now, we think.

So onward and upward as they say. It’s been a long, excruciatingly cold winter here in Minnesota so I’ve been comforting myself with dreams about what to plant when the weather warms up. My list of “Wow, I love that!” plants gets longer all the time, so I just try to pick a few each year to try. No firm decisions have been made yet, but here are a few of 2018’s contenders, in case you’d like to look them up and see if you like them too. One thing to note, these are not new plants, just a bunch of not-often-seen lovelies that I’m thinking about.

‘Othello’ ligularia (Ligularia dentata ‘Othello’): I love ligularia for its gorgeous lily-pad-like foliage, and wonderful yellow flowers that open later in the summer when other things are tired and ragged. This variety seems particular nice because its blooms look a lot like daisies, and it grows to only about 2 to 3 feet tall and 18 to 24 inches wide. Like all ligularias, ‘Othello’ does best in shade to part shade, and requires more moisture than many perennials. So plant this with other water-loving shade plants like astilbe, foxglove, black snakeroot, Rodger’s flower (Rodgersia) and foam flower. Plants are hard to Zone 4.

‘Othello’ Ligularia

‘Raydon’s Favorite’ aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium ‘Raydon’s Favorite’): Asters get a bad rap for being tall and gangly. But there are many asters out there that don’t behave like that. This one is among them, growing to just 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. If you’d like to keep bees happy with fall flowers, ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ is a great choice with its lovely lavender blooms. Full sun is best and plants are hardy to Zone 4.

‘Raydons Favorite’ aromatic aster won’t tip over like many asters do. Credit: Wikimedia

 

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum): This prairie native is really striking because plants can grow to 8 to 10 feet tall and about 3 feet wide or more. I’ve seen these in the back of people’s gardens a few times, and I’m always wowed by them. The name comes from the cup-like shape that is formed where the leaves of the plant meet the stems. It is said that wildlife and pollinators can sometimes get a sip of water from those rain-filled cups. That’s a reason to buy this plant, right there! The yellow blooms look like a cross between daisies and sunflowers. If you want to try these, put them in the back of the garden in a sunny spot. To keep them from being too tall and gangly, I recommend cutting them back by half in early summer before they set blooms. Plants are hardy to Zone 4.

Cup plant is tall, hardy and loved by pollinators. Credit: Hardyplants

 Purple Japanese burnet (Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Purpurea’): I’m not totally sure about this one. Look it up online and you’ll see what I mean. With its little purple pipe cleaner-like blooms perched atop long grassy spikes, it’s either cool looking or just too weedy for my taste. But I keep going back to it because those little pipe cleaners are pretty neat. Plants grow to 3 to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The long stems emerge from a nice-looking clump of foliage close to the ground. Hard to Zone 4, this beauty should be planted in full sun and needs moist soil.

‘Purple Prince’ epimedium (Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Purple Prince’): If you don’t have epimedium in your garden, run out and get some as soon as spring comes. I’ve only recently added some at my house, and I can’t say enough good things about these pretty perennials. Like most other epimediums, ‘Purple Prince’ has dainty heart-shaped leaves that last all season and look great. Purple, almost orchid-like flowers, appear in spring and plants grow 12 to 15 inches tall and wide. Full-sun to partial shade is best, and plants are hardy to Zone 4. This epimedium is not commonly sold but can be found online at Rare Find Nursery in Jackson, New Jersey.

‘Purple Prince’ epimedium. Credit: Rare Find Nursery.

 

‘Golden Fleece’ goldenrod (Solidago sphacelata ‘Golden Fleece’): If you haven’t yet noticed, I can be a sucker for late-blooming flowers. Not only do I appreciate having something in bloom from August and into fall, I love to see bees happily finding something to nourish themselves with when other flowers are long spent. Goldenrod is always a bee favorite and ‘Golden Fleece’ is unique in that it grows to only 12 to 18 inches tall and wide, making it much more compact that other varieties. Plants will do best in full sun, but can take partial shade, and are hardy to Zone 4.

Nice Plants for Northern Gardens

Before I start nattering on about plants I like, let me first tell you that, as always in the fall, the Little Free Seed Library is up and running at my house. You’ll find it on the boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. South. I’ve already started putting out seeds I’ve collected from our gardens, and neighbors have been dropping off more. I hope you’ll consider bringing some seeds to share, and if you do, please bring them in envelopes or baggies that are clearly marked with the name of the plant. I’ve put small, coin-sized envelopes in the seed library so people can choose seeds from larger envelopes, and pack them up easily to take home. (For more information on the seed library, check out this blog post.)

Okay, now let’s talk about plants. I like to buy a few new plants every year. It’s fun to have something new in the garden, and it’s always interesting to see how they do—or don’t do, as is the case with nearly every Japanese anemone I’ve ever planted except Anemone tomentosa ‘Robustissima’. That beauty has survived whatever my brown-thumb problem is with these plants.

‘Chocolate Shogun’ Astilbe

Anyway, I’d like to tell you about a few plants that I’ve tried and come to love over the past couple of years. First up: Astilbe ‘Chocolate Shogun’. The dark purple foliage of this unique astilbe looks beautiful in my shade gardens where I’ve paired them with hostas, ligularia and yellow-leaved ‘Sun King’ Japanese spikenard. Hardy down to horrifyingly cold Zone 3 (Minneapolis is Zone 4), ‘Chocolate Shogun’ grows 18 to 24 inches high and does best in partial shade. Even when established, these plants need to be watered so try to group them with other plants that like a little extra moisture, such as ligularia, dwarf goatsbeard and foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia).

‘Sun King’ Aralia—courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries

If you’ve never grown epimedium, let me introduce you. There are several varieties to choose from for our region. I’m partial to Snowy Epimedium (Epimedium x youngianum ‘Niveum’), which is hardy to Zone 4. These delicate-looking shade-loving plants grow 6 to 8 inches tall and up to 18 inches wide. The heart-shaped foliage is pretty enough to make this a must-have for me, but the miniature white flowers that appear in early spring are a much-needed respite from winter.

Feeling pretty sick of bee balm looking great and then getting covered with disgusting powdery mildew by July? Me too. That’s why I’d recommend Eastern bee balm (Monarda bradburiana). Hardy to Zone 4, plants grow to about 2 feet tall and wide, and they are nicely clumped rather than floppy like some bee balms can be. Plant these in full sun to partial shade and bees and hummingbirds will zoom in to enjoy them.

I’ve got a couple of different varieties of goatsbeard in my gardens, but my current favorite is ‘Horatio’ (Aruncus ‘Horatio’). Hardy to Zone 4, plants grow to about 3 feet tall and wide and will do best in partial shade—though they can tolerate full sun. I love the dark green leaves on this variety, as well the white, fringed blooms, which have a faintly sweet smell.

‘Raspberry Splash’ lungwort—courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries

 

Lungwort (Pulmonaria) sounds like a horrid plant, but it’s really quite lovely despite its name, which came about because the plants’ leaves were long ago used unsuccessfully to treat lung infections. Over the years I have added many varieties of lungwort to my gardens. All have their good points, really, but Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’ is my favorite. Hardy to Zone 4, these plants grow to about 12 inches high and are said top out at about 18 inches wide. In truth, the ones in my front gardens are much wider, so huge, in fact, that people often wonder if they are “some kind of spotted hosta”. Plants will do best in partial shade and are covered in early spring with raspberry-colored blooms.

Gardening Q & A

Summer is winding down, which means it is once again time for my semi-annual roundup of some of the more unusual, or at least less-common, gardening questions I answered this season. Hopefully there’s something here that you’ll find interesting or helpful.

How do I save tomato seeds?

It’s easier than you might think. Scrape the pulp from a few of the same tomatoes into a jar with some water in it and stir. Put a lid on the jar and let it sit for a three or four days at room temperature, stirring a couple of times a day. You want seeds to drop to the bottom so add more water if you need to and continue to stir. Once there are many seeds on the bottom of the jar, skim off floating seeds and any mold, if you see some. Carefully pour out some of the water and add fresh water before skimming the top again. Once the container looks clean and there is little to nothing floating, pour off all of the water through a fine strainer and spread your seeds out to dry. I use a dinner plate, but you can also use screen or a cutting board, whatever works.

Saving tomato seeds is easy.

Can I use Milorganite to condition straw bale gardens before planting?

I’d say gardeners have to decide this for themselves. Here are the facts: Milorganite is a fertilizer made from treated sewer sludge from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. The sludge, which comes in pellet form and smells kind of gross, but not in the way you would think, is marketed as being great for trees, shrubs, lawns and home gardens. It is also a good deer and rabbit repellent. The problem is, while Milorganite is deemed safe for consumer use by the US Environmental Protection Agency, testing has shown that it contains contaminants that the treatment process cannot remove, such as heavy metals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals and other toxic chemicals. Because of this, I steer clear of using it on or near edible plants. If you’re going to plant a straw bale, there are many other safe, organic fertilizers to choose from.

I want a red-blooming delphinium. Is there such a thing?

Happily, there are some varieties of red delphinium, and I would suggest ‘Red Caroline,’ which has coral-colored blooms that darken to red as they mature. Like most delphinium, they will do best if you stake them so they won’t topple over. Pollinators and hummingbirds love these flowers, and plants are hardy to Zone 4, so they will survive our horrifying winters. While you might find these in garden centers, it’s probably easier to go online and order either seeds or plants.

Is garlic a good insect repellent?

Yes, it definitely can be. You can buy various types of garlic-based sprays and oils, or you can make your own by tossing two large cloves of garlic and 4 cups of water into a blender. Strain the mush through some cheesecloth once or twice and dilute what’s left with another cup of water. Test the garlic repellent on a plant or two that you don’t care about so much before spraying it widely; just to be sure you’re not causing any damage. Tests have shown that whiteflies, some types of beetles and aphids are all repelled by garlic, though be aware that your garden’s going to be a bit smelly for a few days.

Battling Japanese Beetles

In the last half an hour since I came in from the garden, at least two Japanese beetles have flown out of my hair, headed for who knows where in my house. But that was nothing compared to the one that just crawled boldly out of the waistband of my jeans. I squished it. Just one week ago I was breathing a sigh of relief that our Southwest Minneapolis neighborhood seemed, once again, to be mostly dodging the Japanese beetle plague after being hit really hard in 2011. And then I spotted them on my roses, and the Virginia creeper and the grape vines and the river birch trees. Soon they will move on to other plants they love, including my basil, and I will hate them for that, especially.

Japanese beetle orgy on my grapevines.

I have been battling Japanese beetles in earnest for five days now and, as you probably already know from having experienced them yourselves—I am losing. There are a lot of reasons for that; the biggest being that they are demons from hell and there is nothing mortals can do to stop them. But that aside, I also don’t like to use chemicals outside or inside, so my strategy for getting rid of them amounts to going around knocking them off of my plants and into a plastic bowl filled with soapy water. Yes, I do wear a glove on the beetle scooping hand. I have heard anecdotally that the beetles can bite, but that has never happened to me. I just prefer to keep them off my hand skin whenever possible.

Caught all of these Japanese beetles in my gardens in 30 minutes.

Before I say more about how to deal with these gross creatures, let me first explain a bit about Japanese beetles for those who have been living in a cave or condo for years, and/or are just new to the perils of gardening. About the size of a dime with futuristic-looking, gold and green bodies, Japanese beetles are actually kind of attractive if you’re into metallic bug robots. They were first spotted in Minnesota in 1968, but with the exception of a brief period in 2000 and 2001, they didn’t become much of a problem until about 2005.

Though the Japanese beetle life cycle is a short 60 days or so, they can do a lot of damage in that amount of time. Females lay eggs beneath turf grass in the summer, and around June or early July the following year their offspring emerge and fly off to their favorite plants (they are attracted to about 300 different plant species) where they mate in zombie-like orgiastic piles while skeletonizing leaves and pooping everywhere. Pheromones released by the beetles during this whole scene, which I swear I am not exaggerating, attract more and more beetles, and in a short time the areas where they gather are both denuded of foliage and reeking to high heaven, as my grandma used to say.

Anyway, let’s get back to how to get rid of them. Because the pheromones they release attract more beetles, it’s best to reduce their numbers if you can. So, as I said earlier, I go around murdering them every day with a glove on one hand and a bowl of soapy water in the other. I do this by slipping the bowl under a bunch of them, and then I gently brush the beetle piles into the water and move on to the next spot. Even when they are not enraptured by beetle sex, these are not fast-moving creatures—unless they start to fly—so it’s pretty easy to knock hundreds of them into a bowl of water in about 20 minutes.

Here’s a tip—don’t get super ambitious like I did today and try to brush a wide swath of them into the bowl at one time because loads of startled beetles will fly up and into your hair, your shirt pockets and your jeans—one even ricocheted off my lips. And here’s another tip—don’t hang up one of those Japanese beetle pheromone traps because they do work by attracting lots of beetles. The problem is they attract a whole lot more beetles to your yard than that trap will ever be able to deal with. Study after study has shown this and yet hardware stores keep selling out of these traps. Spread the word.

Don’t use JB traps unless you want to invite more beetles to your house.

If you don’t handpick Japanese beetles or use ill-advised traps, all of the other reasonable-sounding ways to control them involve insecticides, either synthetic or organic, and most, if not all of those are toxic to pollinators and other living things in one way or another. I love my gardens and it pains me to see them torn apart by ravenous, sex-crazed beetles. But, it doesn’t make sense to me to resort to chemicals that are known to be harmful, even when used according to their labels, which often advise spraying at night so the product will hopefully be dry by morning when bees start visiting plants. What? No. I can live with a few beetles in my hair.

Free Seeds Still Available

The Little Free Seed Library at my house (on the boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. South) has been busier than ever this year. People have donated so many seeds; I’ve had to put them out in batches because there isn’t enough room to hold them all. A few weekends ago, when we were out gardening, we lost count of the number of families who came by, often sitting down on the sidewalk together, to sort through the seeds packets and decide what they wanted to take home.

“Mommy, make sure you get some red peppers,” one little boy yelled. At suppertime, a teenage boy and his mother showed up because he had walked by earlier and seen that the library also included free seeds. “I went home and told her that we had to come back because this is so cool,” he said. All of this happiness made us happy too, so thank you to all of you joyful people who came by to get some seeds. And thank you, too, to everyone who has brought over seeds to share.

What’s in the Little Free Seed Library is always changing, but with all of the donations it’s safe to say that there is a still a big supply of vegetable seeds, including several varieties of corn, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, squash and lettuce. There is also a variety of herb seeds, as well as a wide variety of flower seeds, including lupines, snap dragons, morning glories, zinnias, coreopsis, Shasta daisies, Echinacea, moon flower, impatiens, delphinium, foxglove, four o’clocks, bachelor buttons and many more. Come by and take what you need, or drop off extras you’ve got!

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Hi. My name is Meleah Maynard and I garden in crazy-ass cold, zone 4 Minneapolis, Minnesota. My book, co-authored with Jeff Gillman, Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations, was published by Timber Press. Click here to email Meleah.
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