The next time you're in a native garden, notice what catches your attention. Is it colors and shapes, or is it the movement among the plants?
I often glance around to see what's blooming or fruiting, but I focus and really look wherever the pollinators are working. And once the pollinators capture my imagination, I want to know more about them: what are they, what do they do when they're not buzzing the ceanothus or California poppies, say, and where do they live, and is that the same bee I saw last week, and how is it different? Many gardeners can recognize honeybees and bumblebees and carpenter bees, but what about all the other fascinating types of bees? It was John Muir who said that California was “one sweet bee-garden” from one end to the other.
I've long wished there was a handbook for gardeners that described the many kinds of native bees, most of them ground-dwelling and solitary. My wish has come true! This is my new favorite book: California Bees and Blooms: A guide for gardeners and naturalists, by Gordon W. Frankie et al. (Berkeley: Heyday, 2014, 296p.). The book is based on decades of research, including 13 years observing bees interacting with swathes of flowering plants at the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab's Evaluation Garden in the Oxford Tract.
Not only do the authors describe the most commonly seen bees from five key families of bees in great detail, with many photos, but they also reveal what time of year specific bees are active, what plants they are most likely to visit, and often how to identify them by their behavior. The book is so beautifully organized and designed that it's accessible to bee-ginners and seasoned bee followers alike. For instance, the authors address 15 myths about bees and offer hints for photographing and observing bees. But they also offer enough tips to distinguish one species from another to warm an entomologist's heart. It's a wonderful book to browse, a fascinating read for anyone curious about California's bees, and a terrific resource for longtime bee-watchers.
And it's not only for bee geeks. The second half of the book describes commonly grown plants that consistently attract native bees and gives tips for creating bee-friendly gardens. The authors noted that in one study, about 80 percent of the native plants they observed attracted bees “at measurable levels” versus 8 percent of the nonnatives. The website http://helpabee.org also has plant lists for bee gardens.
By the way, another excellent guide for gardeners and other curious people is Spiders in Your Neighborhood: A field guide to your local spider friends, by Patrick Stadille (Berkeley: Heyday, 2013, 32p.). This delightful, irresistible little book focuses on spiders you're most likely to find in the SF Bay Area, with abundant photos and key details. I love the subtitle: spiders truly are your friends. The author admits he used to be afraid of spiders, but “learning the truth about things you fear often causes the fear to evaporate away.”
California sunflower is a fast-growing native perennial shrub that attracts at least a half dozen types of native bees. It can bloom year-round in gardens. For an optimal bee garden, plant at least a 10 sq. ft. patch of each plant, and provide 20+ diverse bee-friendly plants with overlapping bloom periods from February to October.
Grindelia, or gum plant, is easy to grow and attracts native bees over a long flowering season, starting in early spring. Sweat bees, bumblebees, and leafcutting bees are the most frequent visitors.
Bees sip nectar and collect blue-colored pollen from tansy phacelia, a native annual typically grown from seed. As many as 21 bee species have been observed in a phacelia patch.
© 2014 Tanya Kucak