POLLINATING AND GERMINATING LSU AG CENTER
M
ay is really the month to get outside and get our gardens and landscapes into apple pie order. There’s so much to be done this month, it’s hard to know where to start! POLLINATOR GARDENS With the spring bloom comes the spring nectar flow. Consider planting an area of your landscape specifically for attracting a variety of pollinators. Give special consideration to butterflies and honeybees. Butterflies will need plants for both feeding and for laying eggs. The use of milkweed by monarchs is well known. But, other butterfly species will be attracted to your yard or garden if you plant the right things. Giant swallowtails will use citrus trees, spicebush swallowtails will use spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Black swallowtails will use dill, parsley, fennel, rue, and Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). You may notice a more productive vegetable garden if you can attract bees. Beans, cucumbers, and squash always attract a variety of insects. For flower beds, bee-friendly bulbs include flowering onions (Allium sp.), grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), and openpollinated varieties of daffodil (Narcissus spp.). Flowering perennials that will attract honeybees include anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), cornflower (Centaurea cyanis), goldenrod (Solidago sp.), and fall asters (Symphiotrichum spp.). Bee-friendly herbs include borage (Borago officinalis), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), mint (Mentha spp.), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), rue (Ruta graveolens), and thyme (Thymus sp.). A surprising number of native trees are good honeybee attractors. These include red maple, American holly (male and female plants), black locust, eastern redbud, tulip poplar,
16 MAY 2020 | WWW.BAYOULIFEMAG.COM
magnolias, sycamore, and interestingly, Chinese tallow tree. Yes, it’s an invasive, exotic tree. But it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, so we might as well make the best of it. The real stars of the show in spring are seeds. If you’re gardening for the first time or are still a relative newbie, locally purchased seeds are the way to go. Our local garden centers and hardware stores are excellent sources for quality seeds. Have you noticed the resurgence in popularity of many heirloom varieties of flowers and vegetables? Variety names like Georgia Rattlesnake watermelon, Brandywine tomato, Musselburg leeks, balsam Impatiens, and many more are all becoming more and more popular. Seeds are remarkable things. They can be as large as coconuts or as small as grains of sand or smaller. One of my professors in graduate school explained that seeds were basically babies with a blanket and a bottle. That is, a seed contains an embryonic plant (the baby) that is supplied with a temporary source of nutrition (the bottle) and is
enclosed in a protective coating (the blanket). So, the analogy seems pretty accurate. I’ve always considered starting plants from seeds a daunting prospect. My grandfather, however, had it down to a science. He had his own little version of the Manhattan Project going on in his greenhouse, which was a greenhouse in only the academic sense. He could have tomato seeds germinated in as little as three days! But, when you think about some basic principles of plant biology, starting seeds shouldn’t be scary. Just as seeds come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, seeds also have a wide range of environmental requirements for germination. Also, just because you read it in a book doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the gospel truth. For example, I can tell you from personal experience that certain bags of soil are labeled specifically as seed starting
VARIETY OF SEED PACKETS
POLLINATING BEE
