I become more enthralled all the time with the relationships between flowers and the insects that pollinate them. Essentially, flowers look and smell the way they do, because they need to attract members of an entirely different biological kingdom to help them reproduce themselves! This usually benefits the insect in some fundamental way as well. I hope everyone spends a moment or two at some time in their lives thinking about these complex and miraculous relationships. The Bugged Out! exhibit at the Garden puts a special focus on the fascinating insect world.

There has been a lot of reporting in the media lately about the plight of the honeybee. First, two different kinds of mites were found to be attacking bee colonies. Beekeepers began observing weakened or ruined hives more than 10 years ago. More recently, the creepy phenomen called "Colony Collapse Disorder" has wiped out great numbers of bees around the world, causing well-founded alarm about reduced or ruined food crops. Crops affected range from tree fruits to berries, melons and strawberries. The familiar honeybee (Apis mellifera) is not native to the Americas, but neither are most of the food crops that we rely on them to pollinate.

Honeybees are general feeders - that is, they gather nectar and pollen from a wide variety of flowers, throughout a very long season. Since some of the hive members stay alive during the winter, they are especially eager to fly out in search of food whenever the air temperature rises. As a gardener and an avid consumer of honey and bee-pollinated fruits and vegetables, I know it’s important for them to find it! Early-blooming varieties of fragrant flowers like crocus, hyacinth and early-blooming witchhazel, planted in largish clumps and drifts, help winter-starved honeybees survive until spring is really in full swing.

Entomologists, agronomists and beekeepers are hard at work figuring out what’s going on with the honeybees and how to slow or prevent their decline. Others are busy studying other kinds of pollinators (solitary bees, bumblebees, flies, and wasps to mention a few.)  In the meantime, I hope the early spring flowers in the Garden help sustain at least a few neighboring hives.

Posted by Ann McCulloh