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Plants 'n Pollinators
If you love to watch pollinators at work in your garden--especially the honey bees and the bumble bees--first you have to provide the plants.
Promise yourself to plant pollinator plants periodically.
But which ones?
The UC Davis Arboretum staff gets asked that question a lot. As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the Arboretum has scheduled a Member Appreciation Sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9 at its plant sales nursery on Garrod Drive.
Folks can become members on the spot, and the privileges are many. "Members of the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and the Davis Botanical Society not only receive 10 percent off their plant sale purchases but they also receive an additional $10 of of their purchases at this sale," said Missy Gable, public engagement manager (mjgable@ucdavis.edu).
The Arborteum prides itself on providing "the area’s largest selection of attractive, low-water, easy-care, region-appropriate plants, including Arboretum All-Stars." Live music, free refreshments and children's activities are also planned that day.
Three more spring public plant sales are upcoming (folks can become members then, too):
- Saturday, April 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Sunday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Saturday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (clearance sale)
Here are some of the pollinator plants that will be available for sale:
- Salvia clevelandii, Cleveland sage
- Saponaria x lempergii ‘Max Frei’, hybrid soapwort
- Leucophyllum frutescens, cenizo
- Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Mozart’, Ed Carman’s rosemary
- Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’, coronation gold yarrow
- Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Little Spire’, little spire Russian Sage
- Dasylirion wheeleri, desert spoon
- Salvia chamaedryoides, Mexican blue sage
- Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’, azure bush germander
- Epilobium canum, California fuchsia
- Origanum ‘Betty Rollins’, Betty Rollins oregano
- Salvia microphylla, Graham’s sage
The plants above are among those showcased at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
And, have you heard about the UC Davis Arboretum Shovel Drive? At each of the plant sales, you can donate an old shovel, spade or trowel to the Arboretum for a campus/city sculpture project!
Just think, the garden tools you not longer need or want will be sculpted into something quite spectacular.
A honey bee navigating an azure bush germander. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bees are fond of Cenizo, Leucophyllum frutescens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, heads for Cleveland sage, Salvia clevelandii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Table for One, Please
Ah, what an intoxicating scent!
If you've ever been around the winter daphne, Daphne odora, cultivar "Aureomarginata," you know that its aroma precedes it.
You'll ask "What's that fragrance?" before you even see the showy pink-and-white blossoms and its green leaves edged in gold.
The winter daphne, an evergreen, is now blooming in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden on Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum.
The Storer Garden is aptly named. Ruth Storer, Yolo County’s first pediatrician, loved gardening.
We think she would have liked the honey bee hovering today in the dappled shadows of the daphne. "Table for one, please!"
Table for one, please! A honey bee in the shadows of a daphne bloom at the Storer Garden, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Adopt a Bug
Nature's Gallery, a ceramic mosaic mural installed in the UC Davis Arboretum's Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, is gathering lots of visitors--and lots of donors.
This amazing mural by the UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program, directed by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick, is comprised of more than 140 tiles, all hand-crafted by students, staff, faculty and community members.
Earlier showcased in the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., where it drew more than 300,000 visitors, it is now "home sweet home" in the UC Davis Arboretum.
The good folks at the UC Davis Arboretum are seeking donors for the remainder of the plants and insects depicted on the mural. It's sort of like "Adopt a Bug" or "Adopt a Plant." Donors' names, or names memoralizing loved ones, are engraved on the wall.
So, back to the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). The art work is beautiful, but no one has stepped forward to adopt it. Also available are the giant crane fly (Holorusia rubiginosa), the white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata), a scarab (Bolbelasmus horni), and the meadow spittle bug (Philaenus spumarius).
Our family scooped up the shining leaf chafer beetle (Paracotalpa puncticollis), but only because the honey bee (Apis mellifera), our favorite insect, was unavailable. "The honey bee was among the first to go," Ullensvang said. UC Davis alumnus Dr. Jonathan Bowman donated it in memory of his parents.
If you prefer plants to insects, there are a few plants available: acanthus (Acanthus mollis), Cypriot woundwort (Sideritis cypria), black mondo grass (Opiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'), and Euonymous or “Emerald ‘n Gold” (Euonymus fortunei). (See what's available.)
So, if you're looking for a perfect holiday gift (good cause and lasting legacy), there's an Argentine ant-donor tile that could have your name on it.
Unless, of course, you'd prefer the meadow spittle bug...
Kathleen Socolofsky, director of the UC Davis Arboreteum, at a ceremony honoring the donors. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Colorful plants and insects grace Nature's Gallery. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Plants, Pollinators and UC Davis
If you've never been to a UC Davis Arboretum plant sale, you should.
The last plant sale of the year will take place Sunday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive.
If you're looking for plants that will attract bees, or plants that will attract butterflies, or plants that will attract both, experienced gardeners there can help you. Check out their inventory.
Nearby is the Nature's Gallery Court Mural, showcasing plants found in the Storer Garden and the insects that gravitate toward them. The mural is the work of the UC Davis Art/ Science Fusion Program, co-founded and co-directed by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick.
If you take a stroll through the nearby Storer Garden, you'll see such plants as white flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa "Contorta"), cenizio (Leucophyllum frutescens) and winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum).
The honey bees love 'em.
Honey bee on a cenizo, Leucophyllum frutescens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee on a white flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa "Contorta." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee on winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's Raining Rain Lilies
It's raining rain lilies in the Carolee Shields White Flower Garden of the UC Davis Arboretum.
The Argentine Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida), also known as the White Rain Lily, White Fairy Lily and White Zephyr Lily, is drawing a few honey bees, but the bees like the lavender and sage best.
The white Zeph is one of the "Arboretum All-Stars," a list of 100 plants that thrive in the Central Valley and stay attractive most of the year. Most of the All-Stars are also drought tolerant, require little maintenance, and are relatively pest free, Arboretum officials say. A few--about 15--are California natives.
You can find the All-Stars (and other plants) at the Arboretum's periodic plant sales; the next sales are Oct. 3 and Oct. 17.
"Bee there" for bee-friendly plants and other selections.
At the last sale, we picked up some sage and a carnivorous plant.
To be honest, we were happy the carnivorous plant died. It ate one of our honey bees.
The UC Davis Arboretum has been working to develop a list of plants that are specifically chosen for the Central Valley. This list, called the “Arboretum All-Stars,” has been developed over many years using the Arboretum and other research sites to test and trial plant species. The official “roll out” of the program is planned for spring 2009, but the plant species list and other information is available now at http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu. In addition to creating the list, the program plans to encourage wholesale nurseries to grow these plants in large enough quantity to supply an interested public, and to educate the public to look and ask for these species.
All of the 100 plants on the list had to meet the following criteria: they must be attractive most of the year, thrive in Central Valley conditions, and have been tested at the UC Davis Arboretum. Many of them are also drought tolerant, require little maintenance and can reduce use of pesticides by being relatively pest-free and by attracting beneficial wildlife that feed on pests before they become a problem. About 15 of the species are California native plants.
Honey Bee in Rain Lily
Pollen Galore
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