Part 1 of 3 in a series about bees.

by Cherry Dodd, Edmonton-based Native Plant Guru, author of ‘Go Wild with easy to grow prairie wildflowers and grasses’, and lead coordinator of the Edmonton Naturalization Group

Have you ever wanted to be Premier and be able to declare 2009 as “Take Your Dog to Work Year” or “Donuts Every Day  Year”? Me too! So, within the confines of the Wildflower News, I’m going to declare 2009 as  “Be Kind to Bees Year”.

Why do bees deserve special attention this year? Well, we are still losing our honey bees at an alarming rate. No one yet has pinned down the cause of the massive die offs, but pesticides seem to be one of the main culprits.

Honey bees are imported, and not native, but Edmonton does have a lot of different species of native bees as well. For instance, all the bumble bees that you see are native.

We also have Mason bees and Leaf Cutter bees among others. Native bees are, for the most part, solitary. They don’t live in hives. They are gentle and rarely sting.

There is an astonishing diversity of native bees across Canada. About 4,000 species have been identified and catalogued in North America. They range in length from less than one eighth of an inch to more than one inch. They vary in color from dark brown or black to metallic green or blue, and may have stripes of red, white, orange, or yellow.

Since most don’t fit the stereotyped image of a bee (black-and-yellow-striped, living in a hive, and apt to sting) they are easily overlooked.

Out of sight, out of mind they gently get on with foraging, and in doing so provide the vital ecosystem service of pollination.

It makes sense to support our native bees, since they are in trouble too – their numbers are also declining along with the honey bees. Fortunately, it takes very little effort to boost the local population – just some more food and shelter, and less pesticides.

In the next few months I will be giving you some tips for increasing the native bee population in your yard. We’ll start this month with their food supply.

You probably already have some native flowers in your yard. Take a look in your garden this spring and see if you have a diversity of plants that bloom throughout the season. What bees need is a season long supply of pollen and nectar.

Bees are especially vulnerable in early spring when they come out of hibernation. However, there is one (non-native) species of early spring flowers that they love, and really depend on…………so don’t dig out all your dandelions!  Leave a few for the bees.

Other non-native plants that bees can use are the salvias, different herbs, sunflowers  and raspberries. A lot other common garden flowers are not accessible to native bees, and therefore useless to them. Take a look in your garden this summer and make a note which flowers are the bees’ favorites.Then you’ll know which plants to put in next year.

Here is a list of native flowers that are particularly attractive to bees.  (Bloom times are in brackets) Make a resolution to add one or two this year.

All Asters – smooth aster, showy aster, lindley’s aster, tufted white prairie aster, purple-stemmed aster. (Late summer and fall)
Fireweed – (Summer) – Caution – this one spreads!
Giant Hyssop (Summer)
Gaillardia (Summer)
All Goldenrods (Late summer, fall) – low goldenrod, stiff goldenrod, showy goldenrod.
Heart-leaved Alexanders (Late spring)
Low Milkweed (Summer)
Meadow Blazingstar (Summer)
Prairie Crocus (Early spring)
Slender Blue Beardtongue and other native penstemons.
Sunflower (Common Tall Sunflower) (late Summer, fall)
Wild Bergamot (Monarda) – (Summer)
Wild Chives – (Summer)

Resources
http://www.seeds.ca/proj/poll/ – developed by Seeds of Diversity. Tons of info. plus a chance to become a pollinator observer.
www.wildaboutgardening.org – I have recommended this site before as it also has lots of good info on native pants.
http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/xerces_publications.htm – a great American site – click on the links to the pages that interest you.
http://www.xerces.org/native-bees/ – this is the link that I clicked on.
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=411 this is a good “all about nature” website – lovely page on bumble bees.