Creating an Oasis for Pollinators
Homeowners have an opportunity to restore native habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife.
Pollinators
Bees for Pollinator Week
The Xerces Society emphasizes that we can help bumble bees thrive by providing three key types of habitat: plants offering pollen and nectar on which to forage, nesting sites, and places to overwinter. Extension Master Gardeners encourage the public to create, protect, restore, and enhance high quality bumble bee habitat. By implementing these practices and creating corridors between habitat, we can help slow, stop, and reverse the recent decline of bumble bee populations.
The Pollinator Victory Garden
If you are looking for planting strategies with the potential to improve the productivity of your vegetable garden, or if you have heard about “companion planting” and want to know what science supports, Plant Partners by Jessica Walliser is a good resource.
Pollinators Under Threat
Pollinator Week 2020
Without pollinators and other insects, life as we know it would cease to exist. Learn how pollinators are under threat.
Great Backyard Bird Count February 12–15
Learn how you can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count–all you have to do is watch birds for at least 15 minutes, at least once, from February 12 through February 15, 2021...Also, learn how to improve the habitat on your own property to make it more inviting for birds and butterflies.
Flowers That Attract Pollinators and Robbers to a Garden
The shape, color, structure and odor of a flower usually determine the type of pollinators it attracts. A flower requires a pollinator that will visit it regularly and successfully transfer pollen in and/or between it and other flowers of its species to ensure fruit and seed production. For the service of pollination, the flower provides a reward: usually food such as nectar and/or pollen. Thus plants and their pollinators enjoy a mutualistic relationship.
🐝 🐝 BEE-havior: The Bubble Bee – Hylaeus
At a mere ¼-inch long, Hylaeus bees do not dominate a flower like fuzzy bumble bees three to six times their size. However, if you have sharp eyes or a zoom camera lens you can appreciate their unique appearance and BEE-havior.
🐝 The Perils of Pollinia and More about Milkweed 🦋
Imagine being a pollinator drawn to a fragrant flower that offers abundant nectar . . . It's Pollinator Week!
🐝 Happy Pollinator Week 2020! 🐛
Pollinator Week 2020: Happy Pollinator Week!
Join the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia in observing this week, June 22–28, 2020, by learning more about some of the insects, birds, bats and other small mammals that pollinate at least 80 percent of our flowering plants and about 33 percent of our food crops as well as what you can do to sustain pollinators.
Nature is a Respite during Disconcerting Times, Part II
Spring is a season of hope and renewal and yet we find ourselves battling together, in isolation, an unseen enemy–coronavirus or COVID-19. Staying home, does not necessarily mean staying indoors and physically distancing ourselves from one another does not mean distancing ourselves from nature.
Nature is a Respite during Disconcerting Times, Part I
Spring is a season of hope and renewal and yet we find ourselves battling together, in isolation, an unseen enemy–coronavirus or COVID-19. Staying home, does not necessarily mean staying indoors and physically distancing ourselves from one another does not mean distancing ourselves from nature.
Updated Website Resources on Best Bets for Particular Uses
As a supplement to the Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid- Atlantic fact sheets, the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia updated the Best Bets: Plants for Particular Uses in the Mid-Atlantic (found under Resources on the menu bar). The Best Bets recommend groups of plants that can help you address specific issues or a distinct set of growing conditions on your property. Although the plant lists are not exhaustive, they do reflect the local experience of Master Gardeners.
Great Long-Blooming Plants for Pollinators
A 2013 plant trial conducted by Penn State Extension, Bees, Bugs & Blooms, ranked three species native to our Mid-Atlantic region as among the best plants for flowering longevity, and in attracting desirable insects. An additional benefit is that deer dislike all three plants. Learn more . . .
The Glencarlyn Pollinator Garden and the Importance of Pollinators
Support pollinators in your own back yard—it's easy. To help guide your plant choices, stop by the patio area at Glencarlyn Library Community Garden to check out our newly revamped pollinator garden.
Insects Make My Food and . . .
Recent studies are documenting dramatic declines in the number and diversity of insects around the world. Entomologists, ecologists, and other scientists are expressing shock at the speed and scope of these losses, and they are pointing to these steep declines as a sign of broader ecosystem collapse.
New Native Bee Habitat in the Teaching Garden
Local Girl Scout Julia Wine takes on habitat loss affecting solitary bees by build a bee box in the Master Gardeners Teaching Garden at the Fairlington Community Center - and wins a Girls Scout Gold Award in the process!
I See Differently Now
In 2008, I attended a lecture by Dr. Douglas Tallamy about how suburban gardeners can make a significant positive impact on our environment by using native plants. His talk was full of fascinating facts and examples. It spoke to my long-held concern for the problems facing the natural world , and gave me hope that I could actually make a difference just by how I gardened – something I loved doing.
Small Space Gardening for Pollinators
Homeowners with small yards or apartment dwellers with balconies may wonder what role they can play in supporting pollinators. The good news is that by selecting smaller sizes of woody plants and making creative use of containers, gardeners with limited space can enjoy appealing landscapes that attract a wide variety of these creatures.
Tongue under Chin
To end Pollinator Week we bring you a tongue-under-chin story. In this short video, a queen Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumble bee) rests on the petals of a hydrangea.
Pollinator Protection Vital to Urban Agriculture
Besides showcasing a number of Virginia Tech resources, the Pollinator Protection Vital to Urban Agriculture poster, created for Pollinator Week 2017, lists eleven Best Management Practices for Pollinators in Northern Virginia.
Five Annuals for a Pollinator Garden
Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds gravitate to gardens that bloom throughout the growing season and that contain an abundance of the same plant species as well as a diversity of species of like colors arranged together. Annuals, with their extended bloom period, ensure a continual nectar source for pollinators when perennials have yet to flower or are in decline.
Five Things You Didn’t Know About . . . Annuals
Unlike perennials, which live for more than two years, annual plants sprout, bloom, produce seeds, and die in a single growing season. If the garden was a stage, perennials would be the leads and annuals would be supporting performers.
For Your Pollinator Garden
Do you want to create or add to a pollinator garden? Do you look at lists of plants that claim to be superior at attracting pollinators, then wonder which ones really perform best?
If you wish to target bees, then consider native Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot).
On the Echinacea – What’s that Insect? Answers!
We wrap up pollinator week with one last challenge: can you identify the insects in the video? These hairy pollinators were buzzing around the Echinacea at Green Spring Gardens on Wednesday.