Category Archives: Pollinator Gardening

Horticulture Report: Alpine Geranium

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Plant Name:  Erodium reichardii
Common name:  Alpine Geranium
Plant type: Perennial Herb
Height:  6”
Spread:  12”-14”
Bloom Time:  Spring to early summer
Flower Color:  Pale Pink with Deep Pink Veining
Exposure: Full Sun to Part Shade
Soil Requirements:  Gritty, well-drained Soil
Water Needs: Drought Tolerant
Attributes:   Attracts Bee; Deer Resistant; Long Blooming
Note:   Propagate by Seedlings or Divisions
Uses:  Ground cover; Rock Gardens; Pollinator Gardens, Perennial Gardens, Cottage Gardens
Native to: Mediterranean
Oregon Native:  NO
USDA Hardiness Zone:  7 – 10

Submitted by: Viki Ashford, Ashland Garden Club

Photo by: C T Johansson [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]  Wikimedia Commons

Attracting Pollinators: Part 3

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Food:  A pollinator garden, with carefully chosen plants, will provide pollen and nectar for pollinators, but you can also supplement with special feeders for birds, hummingbirds, and even butterflies with Butterfly Feeders.

Water:  Birds, bees, butterflies, all living creatures need water!

 Make a Butterflies mud puddle!
For butterflies:  Butterflies are attracted to water along the edge of rivers and creeks, which provides them with salt and nutrients. You can create a “mud puddle” watering station for them. Use a shallow dish such as a plastic or terracotta plant saucer in a sunny area of your garden that is protected from the wind. Fill the bottom of the pan with sand, gravel, and a few small stones, add water to the dampen sand.

Bees: Bees drink water, but they also gather up to a gallon of water a day in hot weather to create “air conditioning” to cool the hive. Bees can drown while gathering water, so it’s important to provide them an escape; this can be done by adding pebbles, rocks, wood, or other types of “bee rafts” into a dish of water, birdbath or bucket of water. Bee rafts can be anything that floats like wine corks, small pieces of wood even packing peanuts.

Birds: provide a bird bath, a dish of water, install a water garden or a fountain.

Submitted by: Carlotta Lucas

Attracting Pollinators: Part 2

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 Grow Organically

Pesticides, even organic ones, can be toxic to bees, beneficial insects, birds, animals and other organisms.  If you must use pesticides then take the organic approach, it’s a safer method.   You can also work with nature to control pests and diseases by using plant ecology and soil management, such as planting disease-resistant plants, practice companion planting, rotating your plants in the vegetable garden, and applying organic fertilizers and mulch. These methods create a healthier garden thereby creating strong plants and creating unfavorable conditions for pests.

Shelters

All pollinators need shelter to hide from predators, get out of the elements and rear their young.

Ways to create shelters:

  1. Leaving a dead tree standing for butterflies, native bees and birds to make homes.
  2. In the fall don’t rake your leaves out of your flowerbeds. Many beneficial insects use leaves for winter protection. You can shred your leaves then put them back into your flowerbeds as mulch, this benefit plants, worms and insects.
  3. Also in the fall, leave dead flowers standing. Many beneficial insects hibernate or lay eggs on flower stems and leaves. Birds also feed on the seeds, so wait until spring to clean out your flowerbeds.
  4. Provide undisturbed spaces for pollinators to overwinter. Leave a log, or a pile of pruned branches lying on the ground in a sunny location, even a pile of leaves can create a winter shelter.
  5. Providing a natural habitat is best, but creating artificial nesting boxes are can be helpful to pollinators, especially in the case of Mason bees, bats and some birds.
    • Mason bees will use a wooden block for nesting if it has the

      Insect house in Parkend, the Forest of Dean, UK (photo from Wikipedia)

      proper-sized holes drilled into it, or you can build a fancier Mason Bee House.

    • For mosquito control buy or build a Bat House.
    • Click here for Birdhouse Plans
    • Butterfly houses can be built or purchased but they are less successful than creating natural habitats.

Attracting Pollinators: Part 1

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Any size garden can attract pollinators by carefully selecting flowering plants that provide a succession of blooms throughout the growing season but, before you buy plants, research which pollinators are native to your region, and then choose a selection of plants to support a variety of pollinators.

Some examples of host plants for butterflies:

  1. American Lady Butterfly: Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) also provides nectar for Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and a variety of other butterflies.
  2. Anise Swallowtails: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Dill, Parsley, Carrot tops
  3. Chalcedon Checkerspot Butterfly: Snowberry (Symphoricarpos), Pacific Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), Ocean Spray (Holodiscus)  and Wild Lilac (Ceanothus) -all these plants are used by birds & wildlife, too.
  4. Common Checkered-Skipper: Hollyhocks and Mallows: Malvas, Hibiscus, Lavatera trimestris   
  5. Gray Hairstreak: Lupines (Lupinus)
  6. Monarch (Danaus plexippus): Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), Heart-leaf Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens)
  7. Painted Lady Butterfly: Globe Thistle, Hollyhock, Sunflower
  8. West Coast Lady: High Mallow ( Malva sylvestris) and Marshmallow (Althaea officinali)
  9. Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly: Willow trees (Salix scouleriana) Also used by Mourning Cloak & Lorquin’s Admiral butterflies.

Resources:     Southwestern-Oregon-butterfly-garden-guide.pdf

Oregon.gov/ODF/CreatingAButterflyGarden.pdf

Submitted by: Carlotta Lucas

Gardening: Prepare for Winter

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In the Rogue Valley, fall is a good time to plant perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs. Just bulbs.jpgremember to keep new plants well watered until winter rains begin.

Plant Spring Bulbs: Plant daffodils, tulips, crocuses in October and into November until the ground freezes.

Watering: Cut back watering established perennials, shrubs and trees to prepare them for winter. (Remember to continue watering new plants until rains begin.)

Deadheading & Clean up:  To provide food and habitat for pollinators & birds throughout the winter, Do Not cut or remove perennial stems and flower heads until the spring.   NOTE:  If you must have a prim garden, then cut back perennials stems to 6-8 inches on plants that have finished blooming for the season.

Leaves: Rake and remove leaves from the lawn, use leaves as mulch in your flowerbeds, or compost them to make leaf mold.  Shredded leaves break down faster and are easier for worms to turn into compost. Placing shredded leaves in flowerbeds over the winter helps protect plants, suppresses weeds, and will provide nutrients by late spring.

Dig Bulbs.  Tender bulbs such as dahlias and gladiolus should be dug up in cold winter areas.  When foliage begins to yellow and die, cut back foliage, dig up bulbs, and store them in a cool, but freeze-free, area like in an insulated garage, under your house or in an spare refrigerator.   When digging be careful not to damage the bulb.  In lower elevation areas of the Rogue Valley you can cover tender bulbs with 6-8 inches of mulch for winter protection.  

Mulching with leaves, hay, or even evergreen boughs can provide an extra layer of protection for tender perennials. These mulches will catch and hold snow which helps insulate them.

Feed Plants. Fall is a good time to feed perennials by working in a 4 to 6 inch thick layer of compost in your beds. This compost slowly breaks down over winter providing nutrients to the plants and improves soil structure.

Article by: Carlotta Lucas