Pollinator Week 2018!

Happy National Pollinator Week!  There are many ways to celebrate pollinator week:

1. Plant Native Plants. Native plants provides native pollinators with food in the form of pollen and nectar. Select plants that have a long bloom time. Also grow a wide selection of plants so you have plants blooming April through October.
2. Let your yard get a little messy. Leave unhazardous snags for nesting places and stack tree limbs to create a brush pile, which is a great source of cover for pollinators. Build an insect hotel or bee house in your landscape.
3. Create or protect water sources. Bees need water to drink. Create a water feature with rocks for insects to land. Be sure to keep birdbaths clean and change the water three times per week when mosquitoes are breeding.
4. Limit or eliminate pesticide use. By using fewer or no chemicals in the landscape you will help keep pollinator populations healthy.
5. Identify non-native invasive plants. Work to remove them from your yard. Do not bring any new invasive plants into your habitat. Invasive plants do not provide as much quality food or habitat as native plants do and can threaten healthy ecosystems.

If you live in or near Lincoln, attend this event:

 “Pollinators on the Plaza”  

Wednesday, June 20, 2018   4-6 pm

Union Plaza, 21st & P Streets, Lincoln Nebraska

Public educational fair for all ages including:

• Pollinator planting/garden tours
• Information/educational booths with handouts and/or hands on activities
• Food vendors using pollinator based products (honey, etc)
• Pollinator bee displays, honey bee observation hive, monarch display, native bees
• Pollinator Yoga
• And more….

MJ Frogge

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Monarchs!

Monarch butterflies and caterpillars have been spotted in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. Our habitat has over 300 stems of common, butterfly, swamp and whorled milkweed for monarchs and other beneficial insects. Please consider planting more milkweed and other native plants in your landscape to benefit pollinators.

MJ Frogge

June: Leaf Cutter Bees & Flowers

Lots of activity in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat this month. Soni added new blocks to the solitary bee house. It did not take long for solitary leaf cutter bees to start filling them up.

There is also many flowers blooming this month. Common milkweed, butterfly milkweed, purple poppy mallow and yellow sweet clover.

MJ Frogge

May Blooming Plants

Spring blooming plants are important for early pollinators. This morning in the habitat I saw a queen bumblebee on a dandelion flower. Blooming this month we had pasque flower, wild plum, prairie ragwort, peach leaf willow and redbud.

MJ Frogge

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Blooming Spring Bulbs

The spring bulbs I planted last October are blooming in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. Grape hyacinth, crocus and glory-of-the-snow all bloomed this spring. They are excellent early blooming plants to add to your pollinator habitat. Consider planing spring flowering bulbs this fall.

MJ Frogge

Celebrate Earth Day All Week

Yesterday was Earth Day. This was the first nice weekend day that was not cold or snowy. My family and I celebrated by hiking at Pioneers Park through the Fleming Woods. It was a beautiful day, we saw many migrating birds and early blooming wildflowers. Blooming now is cut-leaf toothwort, white fawn lily and false rue anemone.

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Here are a few suggestions to celebrate Earth Day this week:

Plant a tree. Trees for Lancaster County Nebraska:

https://lancaster.unl.edu/factsheets/282.htm

Recycle. Most large cities have drop off recycling sites.

Lincoln NE: https://lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/solid-waste/recycle/dropoff-sites.htm

Go outside and celebrate.    Attend Lincoln Earth Day Celebration, Saturday, April 28th, 10 am – 3 pm at Union Plaza, Lincoln NE. More Information: https://lincolnearthday.org/

MJ Frogge

Fields of White & Gold — GRO Big Red

“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” A.A. Milne Who doesn’t love dandelions? They are the most well recognized flower anywhere you go. 473 more words

“…Early spring pollinators need a balanced diet much like people. Too much sugar and not enough protein will not provide the queens with essential elements for healthy progeny. White clover does produce nectar but not in the same quantity as dandelions. However, unlike dandelions, the protein content of white clover pollen is high and contains all the essential nutrients needed for pollinator health…”

“…Dandelions and white clover together make for a happy and healthy diet options for pollinators. However, they do not make for a happy homeowner. The last 50 years we have become obsessed with a thick, lush, weed-free lawn. We spray, pull, and weed-out anything that is not turf grass from the lawn. This leaves very little options for our insect friends….”

Learn more. Read Fields of White & Gold — GRO Big Red from our Nebraska Extension in Douglas-Sarpy colleagues.

Here’s to sharing the Buzz!

Soni

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Starting Seeds Inside

Last week I started flower and herb seeds under grow lights. Some are already germinated and growing!  Growing your own transplants is a great way to add annuals, perennials and herbs to your landscape for pollinators. I started basil, borage, blue salvia and calendula.

Spindly growth is a common problem when growing transplants indoors. It is best to place the seedlings under artificial light.  It is not necessary to have a grow light plant stand. A standard shop light fixture with one cool and one warm fluorescent tube light works fine. For best results, the lights should be approximately 1 inch above the seedlings. Raise the light as the seedlings grow.  Leave the lights on 12 to 16 hours a day.

Many flowers do well or better as direct planting outside. Plant zinnia and sunflower seeds after the chance for frost has past and the ground temperature is consistently warm, over 55 degrees F. This usually occurs in mid to late May.

MJ Frogge

Snowdrops!

Snowdrops are blooming in my home habitat.  It is one of my favorite plants. We have had snow and ice, but snowdrops can handle this type of weather. This stunning and tough little flower benefits pollinators. If the temperature is above 45 degrees F when it is blooming, you will find honey bees visiting these delightful flowers.

 

Other spring flowering bulbs that benefit pollinators include Scilla, Glory-of-the-Snow and Crocus. Consider planting these bulbs this fall in your pollinator habitat.

MJ Frogge

Resolutions to Help Pollinators

Happy New Year!

Here are a few ways you can help pollinators this year. This is a resolution that will be fun and easy to keep.

Honey bee visiting a birdbath.

Butterfly milkweed

Four sizes of bee houses. Pick one that works best in your habitat.

Offer a Drink & a Home
Bees need water to drink. Create a water feature with rocks for insects to land. Be sure to keep birdbaths clean and change the water three times per week when mosquitoes are breeding. Build a bee house or insect hotel to provide nesting and shelter for pollinators.
Plant Native
Plant native plants in your landscape. There are so many amazing plants to choose from. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: plains coreopsis, pasque flower, pitcher sage, purple coneflower, smooth aster and rough gayfeather. Do not for get trees and shrubs!
Bloom all Season
It is important to have native flowers blooming the whole growing season. Pollinators need plants blooming March through November.
Plant Milkweed
Monarchs need our help. Provide food for monarch butterfly caterpillars. There are several milkweeds to choose from: butterfly milkweed, common milkweed, whorled milkweed and swamp milkweed.
No Chemicals
Protect pollinators by eliminating pesticides from your landscape. Plant native plants that have few pest or disease issues. Maintain a healthy soil by composting. Healthy soils produce healthy plants.
“Bee” Involved
Learn more about organizations that support pollinators such as Pollinator Partnership. You can participate in citizen scientist programs for pollinators such as Bumble Boosters-University of Nebraska, Bumble Bee Watch-Xerces Society, The Great Sunflower Project-San Francisco State University and the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project-Monarch Watch.

MJ Frogge