This is the first season we have the pleasure of enjoying our golden ragwort blooms here in the DC area, but I was surprised to note virtually zero pollinator activity, even on warm sunny afternoons. Well this week I finally proved that at least some spring pollinators are having their fill.
Curious if this community feels there are any popular perennials or shrubs that tend to see much less daytime pollinator activity. Last year I posted a similar question about black eyed susan and many folks agreed. I also don’t see a lot of action across phlox species, but just because I don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening!
by Specialist_Ice6551
4 Comments
I know you said daytime but moth diversity is so great that you definitely shouldn’t rule them out. Wonderful, beautiful creatures.
I think Phlox seems to be geared more towards butterflies and moths. I use phlox paniculata ‘jeana’ as a butterfly bush alternative because it’s so good at it and is technically a wild plant, but the large flowered cultivars are regularly passed over.
Is your pic of *Packera aurea* or *obovata*? (Just curious). More than anything I noticed aphids (& ants farming them) on my *Packera aurea* this year; granted they’re just in their 2nd year so the swath of them I put in are still a lil sparse. (It’s my least established planting & was for decades a ratchet Bermuda front yard with zero biodiversity or life, but it’s starting to come alive!) Re: phlox species, I didn’t think they saw much action either but this year I saw hummingbird/clear wing moths almost daily, zipping about & probing about the creeping phlox & the *Phlox divaricata*. I credit the uptick in activity to them now being within a much more diverse planting. (They were there prior to my huge install last year, lil islands surrounded by hard pan, janky turf, & dead/starved soil, ack.)
Attaching the only photo I took (without my glasses apparently) of a wee out-of-focus pollinator on my Packera. If you plant them they will come (even if you’re not there to see them!) 🥰
https://preview.redd.it/c7q4n8y08oug1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df6fff222fe66d05f6d5971f84bbb537de9bd12e
https://preview.redd.it/dvajy99ydoug1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c3001f0c907b73639379c1fe7699eb51e05c26d
This bee in my mason bee house approves.