Depression-era Republicans campaigned for a chicken in every pot. Penn State Master Gardeners and ice cream giant Haagen-Dazs would settle for a blooming plant in every flower box.
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Alarmed at the continued decline of the honeybee, Penn State's Master Gardeners have launched a statewide campaign aimed at getting Pennsylvanians to set aside space next to vegetables for native plants that provide food and safe havens for honeybees and other pollinators.
The idea behind the Pollinator-Friendly Gardening Program is to give honeybees — and other bees and butterflies — a readily accessible source of pollen, water and nesting space so they won't have to fly far, putting more stress on a population being decimated by the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder and landscape fragmentation.
One in three honeybee colonies have perished nationwide, causing real concerns about our natural food supply.
You can do your part on an acre or as little as a flower box.
"Think about a condominium complex," suggests Ginger Pryor, a Penn State Extension associate in horticulture and state Master Gardener coordinator. "That is a wasteland in terms of habitat for many native species.
"But if every person in the complex planted a pot with flowers to attract bees and butterflies — if even one in every three did it — it would become a haven."
As part of the grassroots mission, launched last year, 48 pollinator-friendly demonstration gardens have been planted across the state.
One is located at Penn State's Landisville Research Farm, officially known as the Southeast Agricultural Research & Extension Center.
The 106-acre center, located on an old farm off of Auction Road in East Hempfield Township, is open from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For directions and more information, go to
http://research.cas.psu.edu/Landisville/gen_info.htm.
Bees are our most efficient pollinators. They pollinate about one-third of all the foods we eat. Bumble bees are the best of all.
Honeybee pollination is essential for the ingredients in nearly half the flavors in ice cream and yogurt sold by Haagen-Dazs.
That explains why the Minneapolis-based manufacturer is willing to underwrite the gardening program to give honeybees an assist. Haagen-Dazs has four Penn State bee researchers on its Ice Cream Bee Board and is helping pay for honeybee research in State College.
The heart of a pollinator-friendly garden is blooming plants. We're talking mainly flowers here, though even trees such as oaks and maples produce pollen.
Plants native to Pennsylvania are best, as bees and other pollinators evolved with them and are four times more likely to be attracted to them, notes Pryor.
Select species so that blooming continues from spring into fall.
Here are some other tips from Pryor:
• Cluster plants of the same species together to make it easier for pollinators to locate them.
• If you want to attract butterflies, select host plants favored by butterfly larvae, such as milkweed.
• Provide a shallow water source. Bird baths filled with stones and mud (for minerals) are popular. You want it moist and shallow so bees and butterflies don't drown. Pryor fills a regular bird bath with sand and sinks it in the ground in the middle of her garden. She keeps it moist.
• Leave areas of bare ground, about 3 feet square, for ground-nesting bees to make a nest. About 70 percent of pollinating bees in Pennsylvania nest in the ground. Typically, bees will only sting if stepped on or harmed. It is wasps that are aggressive and give all bees a bad rap, Pryor says.
By the end of the summer, people who plant a pollinator-friendly garden will be able to get it certified. It will be similar to the backyard habitat for wildlife certification that's been popular through the National Wildlife Federation.
In 2010, the program hopes to work with garden centers around the state so that plants are marked as pollinator friendly.
For more information, e-mail Pryor at
gmp4@psu.edu or contact the Lancaster County Extension office at
lancasterext@psu.edu , or 394-6851.
Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.
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