A bumble bee circles overhead, then quickly drops altitude and zooms headfirst into a foxglove beardtongue, jubilantly buzz pollinating inside. (It’s the cutest thing, really. All you see is a little bumblebee bottom sticking out the end of the flower.)
A stone’s throw away, the collective buzz around a Virginia spiderwort plant rivals the sound of a faraway passing plane as various bees take their turns dipping into the native plant’s welcoming blossoms. And under a nearby walnut tree, mason bees, carpenter bees, and pollinating flies flock to the delicate blooms of an American black elderberry shrub.
I watch all of this with a great sense of wonder and gratitude. At 43, I still find myself spending hours along the field edges, meadows and gardens simply watching. Anyone who says there’s nothing to do around here has clearly never spent time around native plants, watching the interconnection between plants, bees, birds and other critters.
Bumblebees love to visit Virginia spiderwort plants. Tradescantia virginiana prefers full to partial sun and medium to dry to dry soil conditions.
That said, late spring can be a tumultuous time for bees and other pollinators. Early spring blooms are long gone, with April blossoms now transforming into berries or seeds, thanks to the services of pollinators. While summer flower buds are on the horizon, many are weeks away from opening and offering pollen and nectar to our insect friends.
With careful planning and incorporating the species above, you can create a garden that doesn’t skip a beat when it comes to providing continuous native Pennsylvania blooms that best support pollinators. Penstemon species like hairy beardtongue and foxglove beardtongue are particularly important, given that they’re a favorite dining spot of newly hatchedbumblebees, according to the Xerces Society.
Tomorrow kicks off Pollinator Week, a global effort to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and help people better understand the valuable ecosystem services provided by the bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, moths, wasps and flies that sustain us (in more ways than one)!
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are more than 4,000 native wild bees in the United States providing pollination services to agricultural crops. In fact, insect pollination provides an economic impact of $34 billion a year.
So I challenge you: what will you do to support pollinators this week? Purchase organic to promote the use of fewer pesticides in agriculture? Take a little chunk of turf grass away to tuck in beneficial native plants?
Join a bioblitz on the Seek app by iNaturalist to help document (and learn about) the myriad pollinators in our county? Every little bit helps. Perhaps the most important? Open up your own sense of wonder again. There’s no age limit when it comes to appreciating nature. Get out and explore with a childlike wonder!