Gardening for the health of pollinators

Attracting pollinators

Photo: Judie Steeves

A native bee gathers nectar from an echinacea blossom while pollinating it.

The third week of June has been declared “pollinator week” by Pollinator Partnership Canada.

This organization supports pollinator health through education, conservation and research, and envisions a future in which pollinators thrive. From June 17 to 23, all those small critters that have such a huge effect on our economies, environment, and agriculture will be celebrated. Without them humans would starve.

Pollinators move pollen from one flower to another, allowing plants to create seeds for subsequent generations. Bees are vital pollinators but are aided by wasps, flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds and bats.

Many people think of honeybees when they think of bees, but they are part of an introduced species from Europe and are not native to North America. There are, however, more than 350 species of bees that are native to the Okanagan. These native Okanagan bees are extremely efficient at pollinating. Unfortunately, pollinator numbers are in decline due to their death from pesticides, disease and habitat loss.

We can all support pollinators by eliminating the use of pesticides, supplying a water source in our gardens and choosing to grow plants specifically for them.

Many xeriscape plants, both native and non-native, make excellent choices for pollinator gardens. Use a mixture of annuals, perennials and bulbs, including very early-flowering plants and very late, to offer a succession of bloom.

Consider early-blooming native plants such as Amelanchier alnifolia, Saskatoon bush and Mahonia aquifolium, Oregon Grape and late blooming Heterotheca villosa, Hairy Golden Aster or Ericameria nauseosa, Rabbitbrush. Crocuses and Chionodoxa are early blooming, non-native bulbs, paired with a wide variety of non-native Sedums and Aster frikartii for blooming that will continue through until frost.

As a general rule, bees are drawn to blooms in shades of blue, purple, yellow and white. Butterflies prefer red, blue and purple flowers and moths are attracted to white and pale flowers, which are more visible in the dark. Red and orange tubular flowers attract hummingbirds.

Research has shown Achillea millefolium, our native yarrow, is the best perennial to plant for the largest number of pollinators. They like any plant with an umbrel shape on which they can sit and snack.

In our xeriscape demonstration garden, Nepeta racemosa (“Walker’s Low”) is always a swarm of pollinator activity and we typically get three flushes of blooms resulting in lots of nectar throughout the season. Planting large drifts of drought-tolerant long-blooming perennials, such as Coreopsis, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, and Gaillardia, will help you attract more pollinators to your garden than with individual plants.

The Okanagan Xeriscape Association plant database at www.okanaganxeriscape.org includes many xeric plants that support pollinators and it allows you to search by bloom time to choose those season-extending plants.

I will be touring Okanagan nurseries and garden centres throughout the gardening season supporting the many benefits of the Make Water Work plant list and campaign. Keep an eye on our social media for my schedule and stop in to say “hi” and to talk all things xeriscape.

The Okanagan Xeriscape Association is grateful for the ongoing financial support of the Okanagan Basin Water Board and is proud to be collaborating with them on their Make Water Work campaign.

Sigrie Kendrick is a master gardener and executive-director of the non-profit Okanagan Xeriscape Association.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.