My Asters And Other Ways To Attract Bees

A quick footnote to my last post about Asters: the bees love my new plant! I've noticed an increase in their numbers since its arrival, and every time I stop to look at the flowers, I see several bees hard at work.

This got me thinking about pollinating my fruit and veggie plants in the back yard (I planted my Asters in the front), and I thought what a shame that Asters are late bloomers. But wait, I could certainly look into other bee-attracting tips, couldn't I?

Here's what I found out:

• Plant a variety of florals that will bloom in stages all season, that way you always have a place for bees to come.
• Bees like a wider variety of blooms (as opposed to many of the same kind).
  
• There are many herbs that attract bees (check! I have some in my garden already).
• Provide a water source (like a small pond). Bees need water as well as nectar.
  
• Do not use pesticides. I already don't, but it's still an important point (and one that makes sense).
• Leave a portion of your garden as bare dirt (i.e. mulch and plastic free) to allow for bees that lay eggs in small tunnels under ground.
• Leaving blooming weeds, such as dandelions, buttercups and white clover, can attract bees as well.
• Here's a link to an article that lists good bee-attracting plants: Buzzworthy Plants That Attract Bees, by Brian Clark Howard.

The wheels in my head are turning now, generating a to-do list:

1. Get a bird bath for the veggie garden.
2. Plant some marigolds all around the perimeter of the veggie garden, and maybe some black eyed susans inside.
3. Add more herbs, and spread them out throughout the garden instead of having them clumped in one area.
4. And the list goes on...
   

Happy bee luring!!

Plant Avenue Home

Pollinating Strawberries, and Hand Pollination

Strawberries, while technically being self-pollinating, do benefit from some help. Many gardeners find that hand pollination of their strawberry plants produces a better yield.

There are several ways you can hand pollinate:

• use a cotton swab, and gently wipe each flower (using the same swab for all)
• use a soft clean paint brush and carefully brush the blossoms
• gently shake the plant (this may not work for plants with flowers that don't have both male and female parts)

Hand pollination is commonly used in greenhouses in lieu of bees, and it's a useful tool to know about.

My strawberry plants are thriving, but as I write this, they're not producing the quantity of fruit that I would like. I have tried all sorts of things including watering more and trimming off the runners, but it hasn't really made a difference. The one thing I haven't tried yet is hand pollinating. Now I'm going to!

Pollinating Blueberries

Last year I bought two small blueberry bushes, which both had flowers at the time of purchase. I brought them home and planted them on either side of our considerably large yard, thinking I'd end up with better spacing that way. The flowers, which had already been pollinated, turned into berries, and I thought the plants were doing well.

This year, one of the plants has died, and the other, while still very healthy, has not produced flowers OR fruit. What I'm learning now is that blueberry bushes are not self-pollinating, and need to be planted close to each other so that they can cross pollinate. While blueberries have both male and female parts, they are self-sterile and cannot be pollinated from their own pollen.

Bees are important for blueberry pollination, and they prefer warm sunny weather. Next spring I plant to purchase more plants and put them within close proximity of each other, in a sunny, bee-friendly location. Hopefully this will produce better results!

Pollination Terminology

Pollination is a fairly involved topic that I am just beginning to learn. Here is some basic terminology:

Male flowers: produce pollen and have only male parts (stamen, anther, and filament).

Female flowers: produce fruit and have only female parts (pistil, stigma, style, ovary, ovule).

Imperfect flower: a flower that has either all male parts or all female parts, but not both.

Perfect flower: a flower that has both male and female parts.

Self pollination: refers to the transfer of pollen from the male flower parts to the female parts of the same flower.

Wind pollination: pollen that is transferred to other flowers via air currents over a long distances.

Cross pollination: pollen that is transferred, mainly by insects, between flowers.

Self sterile: a plant that cannot be pollinated by its own pollen.

Self fertile: a plant that can be pollinated by its own pollen.