Monthly Archives: June 2018

Pollen for Honey Bees in a Rainbow of Colours

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You hear a lot about flower nectar, when people talk about growing “flowers for bees”, but you don’t hear nearly as much about pollen. And given that pollen, and by extension pollination, is the principal quid pro quo in the evolutionary pact that sees bees trade sex services for food, much more should be written about pollen. It is of vital importance to the bee larvae, for which it is the protein that develops their growth. In one of my classic old books on beekeeping, Plants and Beekeping by F.N. Howles (1945), he writes: “It has been calculated that about ten average bee loads of pollen are necessary to produce one worker bee and that on an average one pound of pollen rears 4,540 bees, which works out at about 44 lb. of pollen for an average colony’s breeding requirements in a season.” Without sufficient pollen, the colony would die off.

Because I spent several years photographing honey bees (Apis mellifera) for a book idea I once had, I got to see a lot of pollen up close and personal, like the golden pollen being patiently collected from Gaillardia ‘Mesa Yellow’, below.

I saw bee faces completely dusted with sticky pollen; I watched them perform aerial dance maneuvers as they packed pollen into their corbiculae, before settling back onto flowers; and I observed them flying back to the hive, legs laden with saddlebags of pollen in all colours of the rainbow, like the white datura pollen below.

It’s pollen colour in all its wonderful variety that I want to celebrate here, from the first blossoms of spring to the last of autumn.

Let’s start with hardy perennials and bulbs. Crocuses have very large pollen grains. I’ve watched honey bees curling their entire bodies into silken crocus chalices, like C. x lutea ‘Golden Yellow’, below.

Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) produces azure-blue pollen.

Little striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides) rewards visitors with beige pollen.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) can often be seen with bees working the flowers as they open from the bottom of the spike up. Pollen is whitish-cream in colour.

Orchards are filled with bees in spring, among them honey bees, thus ensuring that there will be tasty fruit come late summer. This is the hardy ‘Reliance’ peach (Prunus persica) with light-brown pollen.

The Dutch call alpine rockcress (Arabis alpina) “honigschub’ or honey bush and it’s easy to see why. Very early in spring, before most perennials have thought about emerging, arabis is feeding the bees nectar and a sticky light-brown pollen.

Although forget-me-nots are prodigious nectar sources – especially considering the vast quantities of the tiny flowers in spring gardens – their pollen grains are among the smallest measured and from my observations, not very prominent in corbiculae (pollen baskets). But for a bee to insert its tongue into the narrow corolla of a forget-me-not, the net result will be that some pollen will dust off on the proboscis and the head, which the bee will gather for the hive. And because of that narrow opening, pollen is often mixed in with the nectar that forget-me-nots yield, and is measurable in the honey.

Though the shrubby European honeysuckles like Lonicera tatarica, below, can be invasive, they are good early sources of pollen.

The bright-orange pollen of California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is always a great lure for honey bees.

When the yellowwood tree (Cladrastis kentukea) has a good year for bloom – sometimes just one year in three – the flowers with their tawny-gold pollen are avidly sought out by honey bees and native bumble bees and solitary bees.

Beekeepers always know when Oriental poppies (Papaver orientale) are in flower, because homecoming bees are dusted with black pollen.

Peony stamens are a rich source of pollen, with one count estimating a single peony might have 3.5 million pollen grains.  This is Paeonia ‘Sunday Chimes’, below.

The knotweeds (Centaurea sp.) are excellent plants for bee forage, and beautiful in the late spring-early summer garden.  Globe centaurea (Centaurea macrocephala) offers pollen in golden-yellow…..

….. while Centaurea dealbata ‘John Coutts’ produces creamy-beige pollen.

Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is irresistible to bees when the prominent stamens are yielding their creamy-white pollen, below.

Native American copper iris (I. fulva) is popular with hummingbirds, but on the High Line one day, I watched honey bees patiently working the flowers and securing ample loads of near white pollen.

Knautia macedonica is my very favourite pollen producer, yielding a rich magenta-pink pollen that makes honey bee faces look adorable and their packed corbiculae seem like airborne jewelry.

Roses, especially single and semi-double forms with prominent stamens, are often good sources of pollen, which they yield mostly in the morning, apparently. The David Austin shrub below produced amber-brown pollen.

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Certain clematis species are good sources of pollen. One that flowers in early summer is Clematis koreana – and the bee working it had packed a jewel-like pollen pearl in her pollen basket.

Filipendulas are good forage plants and native qneen-of-the-prairie or meadowsweet (Filipendula rubra) provides pollen in early summer for native bees and honey bees. This is the showy cultivar ‘Venusta’ with creamy-white pollen.

Bumble bees and honey bees are always buzzing around globe thistles (Echinops sp.), which yield a whitish pollen from the masses of tiny flowers.

To see a planting of helenium or sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) in full sun in late summer is to see a happy bee festival. And the abundant pollen is rich orange. One source mentions the bitter nature of helenium honey, but at the point where helenium is in flower, beekeepers are often letting the bees collect nectar for winter honey stores.

Japanese anemones (Anemone x hybrida) yield neglible nectar but the yellow stamens are rich sources of white pollen.

With its masses of tiny, white flowers, sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) is very popular with bees. I watched the honey bee below doing an intricate aerial dance to pack in white pollen from a massive vine.

By the end of summer into early autumn, the various goldenrods and asters (Michaelmas daisies) offer nectar that is often vital for bees to survive winter, though most beekeepers must provide additional winter food for their bees. (Goldenrod makes a strong honey that is not generally sold commercially.) But bees also collect pollen from these late perennials, like the very late-blooming showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), below, with its golden-yellow pollen. This will help sustain the hive until spring.

Of the asters, I loved this image of a bee hanging from lance-leaved aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum), its corbicula packed with yellow pollen…..

….. and the beautiful New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) and its many cultivars, like the one below, are well worth growing in every garden – something lovely for you and the bees as the season ends.

Annuals and tender perennials and bulbs can also be good sources of colourful pollen. This is Ageratum houstonianum with lots of pure white pollen.

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) and their many cultivars are a treat for all types of bees, especially the native sunflower bees adapted to this North American flower. But honey bees enjoy nectaring on the tiny ‘true’ flowers and gathering the yellowish pollen, too.

Single portulacas (P. grandiflora) have bright orange pollen, as you can from the bee crawling out of the silky blossom below.

I’ve seen lots of tender S. African bulbines (B. frutescens) growing in summer gardens recently, much to the delight of honey bees gathering pale yellow pollen from the feathery stamens.

Weeds like Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) are never appreciated by gardeners, and many are highly invasive and on noxious plant lists. But you will often see bees of all kinds foraging for nectar and pollen on thistles…..

….. and dusting themselves completely with the white pollen of the pretty blue summer flowers of chicory (Cichorium intybus)…..

…. and flying about with the telltale yellow ‘pollen head’ that is a sure sign that the bee has been in a toadflax flower (Linaria vulgaris).

Finally, I’d like to include a few vegetables that bees like – not for the stems or the roots, but for the flowers that have resulted from the plants “bolting”. This is what happens to a radish (Raphanus sativus) when it’s going to seed – yellow pollen much appreciated by this little honey bee.

Brassicas like broccoli, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts also form flowers as part of their biennial life cycle – and the bees love the yellow pollen that forms.

Last but not least, a perennial vegetable we all know and love for its tender spring shoots – but have you watched bees gathering bright orange pollen from the tiny, yellow male flowers? It is a feat of acrobatics worthy of any high-flying trapeze act!

(PS  – Are you a bee-lover? To see a large selection of my honey bee stock photography, visit my Smug Mug pages.  And you’ll find a load of bumble bees and other native North American bees and bee kin on my page as well.)

 

 

Chic and Sleek in Austin

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We visited all kinds of gardens in Texas during our May Bloggers’ Fling, but one stood out for its sophisticated, yet restrained, palette of plants; its geometric division of a relatively small property, making it seem much larger; its bold use of colour; and its functionality, featuring well-designed spaces for outdoor living while offering a sense of leafy enclosure and sanctuary.  That garden, in Austin’s Brentwood neighbourhood, belonged to the eponymous designer behind B. Jane Gardens. The sun was hot and the light was harsh for photography by the time we arrived, but I took note of the drought-tolerant plants in her front garden, including myriad succulents and desert species.

I loved seeing silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea) – a plant I’m familiar with in Toronto as a pricey trailer in containers of succulents – deployed as a groundcover with asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’) around whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia), a wonderful species and so popular here, we would see it in virtually every garden on tour. The bowl fountain in the background splashed gently, adding to the street appeal.

A small sign in the front garden acted as business card.

The limestone walk led to generously-proportioned steps leading to the gray house with a pretty orange front door…..

….. and a comfy turquoise glider with orange accents to match the door. I’m a big fan of turquoise-and-orange, and this garden would be a great illustration of that combo.

Heading around the house, the back garden’s prominent feature was a rectangular swimming pool overlooked by a dining alcove, outdoor kitchen….

…. and grill area, with wood stacked nearby for the fire pit in a far corner of the garden.

A grouping of planters arrayed against the walls of one of the poolside home offices added a splash of green (and basil for cooking). One very cool detail is the line of accent tile beneath the pool coping in shades of orange, peach, blue, turquoise and gray, picking up the house colour and hues used elsewhere in the garden.  Speaking of hues…. those floating beachballs in the perfect colours!  What a fun accessory!

Sometimes (especially on a busy tour like the Bloggers’ Fling, and particularly if I’m waiting for people to clear a scene), I focus on the small details and forget the big ones – like a wide angle shot of the back garden. So you’ll have to imagine that the lawn this blogger is crouching on formed a large rectangle beside the pool that is a welcome play area for the family’s two dogs.

And all along the lawn at the property line was this pretty raised planter, perfect for sitting, filled with Knockout roses and a privacy wall of bamboo

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…. under a flowering ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense).

At the far end of the swimming pool was a raised deck with chaise lounges, and accent tables in orange.  I love the inner wall here, not something many gardeners consider, but it can be effective for hiding mechanics (of swimming pools, for example) and creating a dramatic background for a feature.

Here’s the side view, showing the raised planter around the lawn and the very edge of the fire pit.

Is it any wonder that B. Jane’s garden is in the Summer 2018 issue of Garden Design magazine?  (Click here to subscribe to beautiful Garden Design, one of the generous sponsors of our Bloggers Flings.)

Moving around the house to exit the garden after a much-too-short visit, we came to the spa off the master bedroom. What a great privacy screen that bamboo makes.

One of the two family dogs dropped by to bid farewell…..

…. as I took in the succulent design on the table…..

…. and a cool collection of cacti. Note the way all the colours are chosen for that brilliant palette.

The Texas heat was rising as I passed the lovely outdoor shower with the tropical ipe wood floor, and I imagined how welcome this would be after a few hours of gardening.    But for now, it was time to bid farewell to this chic little Austin garden and head back to the bus.

Birds, Bling and Beguiling Brown

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Colleen Jamison has two gardens in the Highland Park area of Austin, Texas. There’s the one she tends around her home, which is lovely and full of intimate spaces and sweet decorative touches. Then there’s the one she shares with the street. Literally, with the street! In fact, it’s part of the street. During our May tour of Austin gardens during the Garden Bloggers Fling, we were treated to a stroll through this remarkable, leafy community space, which Colleen began designing years ago to disguise her view of a neighbour’s parked trucks through a neglected median strip which had become a messy, wild place where deer browsed. This is what it looked like on a (too) sunny morning in early May, as the emerging Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) tickled the legs of a variety of beautiful garden benches.

An allée of crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia) created shade at one end; they would be full of blossoms later in the season. At the other end was a retama allée (Parkinsonia aculeata). A crushed stone path wends its way down the centre, and small solar lights create ambiance after dark. It is one of the most generous gestures I’ve seen, and quite remarkable in a world where neighbours tend to get out of their cars, unlock their front doors, then close them on the outside world.  When I asked Colleen if she’d had any trouble with city bylaws, she replied: “The city has had a ton of chances to complain, but not one peep from them.  In fact, they seem to appreciate it!”

Imagine taking your breakfast coffee and the newspaper and sitting here as the wind blows through the leaves.  Colleen tells me that there hasn’t been any theft through the years, but someone, likely kids, spray-painted the cushions once.

The garden is accessible to both sides of the street.  Says Colleen: “The neighbors do use it a lot!  Parents walking their kids to school, runners, and folks walking around the neighborhood mostly.”

(Alas, the sun was shining brightly when I was there and created difficult shadows for photography. Pam Penick has done a very informative blog on Colleen’s street median garden, photographed in much kinder light, which I certainly can’t improve on. Have a read.”

Let’s start at the front of the house, where a pretty verandah is the perfect place to sit. And what I loved was the colour scheme, which is quite uniform for the upholstered pieces throughout the garden. Since I’m a big fan of red, I was entranced with how beautifully it plays with the rich brown woodwork everywhere.  And I always say that a painted front door is one of the easiest ways to add sex appeal to a house facade and enhance a front garden colour scheme.

It was on their verandah that I photographed Colleen Jamison, a retired executive and now garden designer, and her husband Bruce Baldwin, whose creative carpentry is on display throughout the garden.

The understated browns and reds even play a role in the scheme of this lovely window box.

Bruce turned a former door into the gate into the back garden….

….. and transformed garden tools into the gate handles.

There was a busy bird-feeding station in the side yard and I loved that this blue jay posed beside Colleen’s garden sign. “Everybirdy, maybe, but ME in particular!”

I liked how Bruce designed these shadow boxes for the fence, which Colleen planted up with white pots and crockery.

And here was the first of a few frogs in the garden, in an eternal yoga pose…..

…. while this one seemed ‘stumped’ about something.

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The lizard was just happy to be there, gazing at Colleen’s bling.

The back garden patio and vine-wreathed pergola continued the lovely red-and-brown scheme of the front porch – even the candles are red!

And I’ve seen lots of bottle trees, but this kind of ‘bottle tree’ makes a lot more sense to me…. Bottoms up!

There was a splashing stone water feature surrounded by Salvia greggii – and what a fun idea, to mount a pretty plate in the foliage.

The back of the house was planted with roses and vines and featured….

….. a protected alcove with a comfy chaise lounge, all in red-and-brown. And yes, that’s red bougainvillea in the pot.

But it’s not red-and-brown everywhere. I love a purple pop in the garden, and this little painted metal bench fits the bill perfectly. (In fact this photo made me realize that I want a small metal bench like this in my own urban prairie garden, for those times when I get tired standing on the flagstone path to weed and water.)

And Colleen had blue on her mind with this lovely gathering of deck containers.

A wooden box planter with an ingenious steel rod trellis featured tomatoes. And bling, of course.

Speaking of bling, I’m going to finish this blog with a look at a few of Colleen’s pretty little suncatcher flourishes.  Because a garden is more than its plants and its hardscape and its four-season stucture, it’s also a place to let your personality shine through, whether in sophisticated pearls…..

….. or faux aquamarine…..

….. or all the jewel colours of the rainbow.

Singing the Praises of Woodland Sage

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‘Tis the season for one of the loveliest perennial stalwarts in my little pollinator garden: woodland or meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa). Nemorosa means “growing in groves or woods.”  I grow two types (both unlabelled), a deep indigo-blue that may be ‘Mainacht’…..

….and a pink-flowered one without a name (maybe ‘Pink Friesland’) that looks gorgeous with my catmint (Nepeta ‘Dropmore Hybrid’)…..

That’s the creamy, double-flowered Camassia leichtlinii ‘Semi-Plena’ with them, below.

The pink one came in a pollinator plant pack that was subsidized by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, which included it with butterfly milkweed and echinacea. And though I’ve yet to see a monarch on my woodland sages, they do attract loads of bees for their nectar and pollen, including natives like bumble bees…..

…. and fluorescent green sweat bees….

…. as well as honey bees.  Look at the pollen on this little girl!

In my wildish gardens at Lake Muskoka, the ubiquitous Salvia nemorosa ‘Mainacht’ (‘May Night’) finds its own partners, like self-seeded pink musk mallow (Malva moschata)……

….. and common oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare).

Let’s look at some more late spring-early summer design ideas for woodland sage from some of my favourite public gardens. Dutch designer Piet Oudolf uses meadow sages liberally in his designs, including the entry border at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Here is Salvia nemorosa ‘Amethyst’ with wine-red Sanguisorba menziesii.

And here it is in a tone-on-tone combo with the big globes of Allium cristophii.

The honey bees from the TBG’s beehives love ‘Amethyst’, too.

I loved this combination of  woodland sage with Astrantia major ‘Claret’ and red feather clover (Trifolium rubens). Unfortunately, the clover is not long-lived.

The dark wands of woodland sage make a good partner to the luscious peony ‘Buckeye Belle’ in the Oudolf border, below.
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In the perennial border at the TBG, Iris pallida ‘Variegata’ combines nicely with Salvia nemorosa ‘Mainacht’.

At the Royal Botanical Garden (RBG) in Hamilton, near Toronto, Oriental poppies and chartreuse lady’s mantle pair up with Salvia nemorosa ‘Blue Hill’ (‘Blauhugel’)…..

…. which is also a lure for bees of all kinds.

The RBG does an interesting pairing of common rush (Juncus effusus) with ‘Caradonna’ in their wildlife garden.

At Montreal Botanical Garden, this mass planting of Salvia nemorosa ‘New Dimension Rose’ with ‘Profusion Cherry’ zinnia caught my eye.

Perhaps my favourite design using woodland sage was at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania. (Read my 2-part blog on this spectacular garden.) In their Gravel Garden, ‘Caradonna’ was combined with annual, white Orlaya grandiflora and red corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas).

The dark wands are repeated down the Rock Ledge garden at Chanticleer with other June flowers…..

…. like hot-pink sweet William catchfly (Silene armeria)…..

….and orange foxtail lilies (Eremurus) along with blue globe onion (Allium caeruleum).

Near the ponds at the bottom of the Rock Ledge, ‘Caradonna’ was used like a crescent-shaped brush stroke through rushes and Artemisia, with big ‘Lucille Ball’ alliums bobbing behind.

And finally, in the Tennis Court Garden at Chanticleer, ‘Caradonna’ was used to provide dark accents alongside the chartreuse leaves of ‘Hearts of Gold’ redbud (Cercis canadensis), alliums and pink-flowered spireas.

Don’t you think it’s time you had meadow sage in your own garden?

Texas Rhapsody in Blue

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After getting to know Pam Penick during previous Garden Bloggers’ Flings, it was fun to visit her Austin, Texas garden in early May when bloggers from that lovely city who had hosted the very first fling in 2008 celebrated by hosting another 10 years later. Pam, a long-time blogger and author whose work can be seen in Garden Design magazine and other publications, was the one who had the idea for that first fling and organized it along with three other bloggers, including Diana Kirby (whose lovely garden was essentially rained out the previous day).  We got out in a pretty neighbourhood and walked under the multi-stemmed Texas live oaks (Quercus fusiformis) in her front garden.

Let’s move a little closer to the house, past the raised bed….

….. that holds a lovely ‘Green Goblet agave and beautiful blue, ceramic spheres.  Blue, as you’ll see when you finish this blog and scan the photos, is a favourite colour of Pam’s, and she does it well.

There is no front lawn here, just gravel mulch and fabulous, minimalist containers of succulents and generously-proportioned, poured concrete slabs leading to the front door.  It’s not surprising that Pam wrote two books that are illustrated so well in her garden. The first on conserving water is titled The Water Saving Garden:  How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water (2016). The other is Lawn Gone: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard (2013).

I liked this little garage wall planter with its Buddha reposing amidst cacti and succulents.

Sticks on fire (Euphorbia tirucallii) from South Africa makes a great container subject.

Pam is on hand to answer questions about her garden and plant choices, about which she has said: “I enjoy growing plants native to central Texas, supplemented by well-adapted and drought-tolerant non-natives, many from northern Mexico.  Mixing it up with architectural agaves and colorful salvias, feathery ornamental grasses and golden yuccas, I’m striving for a garden with four-season interest and cat-like tendencies—meaning it doesn’t need my attention every single day. I like to play and relax in the garden, not just tend to it.”

A long border softens space between the Penicks’ house and the neighbour’s driveway.

At the end of the border is a dramatic arrangement of dark-leaved dyckias with an heartful metal heart.

This is a beautiful combination, whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia) and  Salvia greggii…..

…. and behind it, a perfect little vignette in a galvanized trough.

Pam’s love of blue is certainly on display in this sitting area just outside the house door….

…. including a little blue bird in a blue dish with succulents.

Like the walls of any indoor dining room, Pam’s house wall gets the outdoor dining decorative treatment, too.

I do a lot of photography of colour in plant design, but people often forget that a spray can or a gallon of stain can be their best friend when wanting to inject colour in the garden, as with this fun perforated table and its blue and green accessories.

The property descends in the back quite steeply towards a greenbelt, so the deck has container-laden stairs leading up from ground level.

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I’m willing to bet these vintage metal lawn chairs didn’t start out this colour, but met Pam’s clear love of all things blue!

Another Agave ovatifolia, with the small yellow flowers of hesperaloe and the reflections of the sky in a green gazing globe. The deer are so fond of “antlering” the hesperaloes and agaves that Pam surrounds them with black wire fencing from autumn until early spring.

There aren’t many colours here, just the cool blues of the pots and the myriad greens of the variegated yucca, Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) and other plants.

At the bottom level of the garden is a swimming pool (sorry about the harsh light but we definitely preferred the sun to the previous day’s rain torrents)….

….. with a fun focal point.

A poolside Adirondack chair sports just the right colour of cushion.

Pam has a great fondness for galvanized stock tanks and troughs that she buys at farm supply stores. They add sophisticated lines and a unity of colour that looks great with all her greens and blues. I loved this simple row of pail planters.

And this is the mother of all stock tanks! With lovely aquatic plants.

If I was building a water feature to replace the labour-intensive, in-ground lily pond I already have, I’d create a simple fountain like the one below. Just enough water splash to create a little music in the garden.

No southern garden is complete without a bottle tree, and Pam’s unsurprisingly is blue!

And of course, of Pam’s collection of ornamental sages, blue Salvia guaranitica strikes just the right colour note.

It was time to head on to the next garden and I returned to the front via the sloping, gravel path on the other side of Pam’s house.

What could have been a blank, uninteresting garage wall along this path had been turned into something quite special with the addition of four trellised mirrors that reflected back sunlight and the greens of foliage.

Even here, there was a spot to sit and enjoy a moment of quiet. The light also reflected from the mirrored globes in the basket…..

….. and above my head, I caught sight of myself in yet another mirror, standing under those Texas live oaks, pointing my camera up at a final image in Pam Penick’s lovely Austin garden garden.