Wild Bees for the Win in Georgia’s Blueberry Crops

 

Penstemon smallii

A couple weeks ago I wrote about my garden’s new Penstemon species. They are still blooming – along with several other species of beardtongue – and the bumblebees are having a blast. Soon my St. John’s wort (Hypericum) shrubs will be in bloom and they’ll move on to it, following seasonal bloom cycles as if their life depended on it.

The bees are not just here to amuse me, they have a role to play. An article published this week by UGA CAES highlighted a study of the role of Georgia’s bees in our blueberry crops. Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

“The study, published in Environmental Entomology, recorded more than 5,000 wild bees, identifying 72 species across 26 genera — the most comprehensive survey of wild bees conducted in Georgia blueberry farms.”

“As part of a broader USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) project aimed at boosting blueberry yields by establishing pollinator- and predator-friendly flowering plants around fields, Sarah Rezende focused on how wild bee populations shift across space and time in southeast Georgia blueberry farms.”

This kind of data gives us an important tool to convince farmers and policy-makers that native plants and the insects that they attract can be significant contributors to their crop success. According to the article, “Georgia ranked third nationally in blueberry production.” The study also emphasizes that having flowering plants across all 3 growing seasons is important to maintain a robust population of those native bees.

“The most important thing farmers and residents can do is support a wide variety of flowering plants that bloom throughout the year. This not only helps sustain a diverse range of bees but also ensures their populations remain strong across seasons. Because different solitary and specialist bee species forage at different times, continuous blooms are essential.”

I've written about native bees before and you might find some of these previous posts helpful. They include resources such as books and lists of plants. And I’ll close with a photo of our spectacular specialist bee, the Southeastern blueberry bee. Georgia's farmers and gardeners can’t afford to lose her.

Native Plants for Native Bees

Save the Wild Bees

Bee Welcome - a post about a really useful book!

Southeastern blueberry bee

Common Names – What are they good for?

 

For those of us who talk about plants a lot, common names can be as vexing as they are useful. Common names for the same plant can vary, they can also be used for more than one plant, and they can be confusing as they apply to different groups (coneflower, anyone?).

Redbud, is it? Looks purple to me.

Latin or Scientific plant names haven’t been around as long as common names. I mentioned in an earlier post that Carl Linnaeus proposed the binomial Latin-based structure only 300 years ago. As I said then, this was a far better system than before:  It’s incredible to think that Magnolia grandiflora was once called Magnolia foliis lanceolatis persistentibus, caule erecto arboreo by one person while another called it Magnolia altissima, flore ingenti candido. Common names included “Greater Magnolia” and “Larger Laurel leave’d Tulip Tree.” According to the author, names grew longer as new but similar species were discovered and “some names ran to half a page.”

Scientific names can also be difficult to pronounce, hard to remember, and every now and then the taxonomists change them. I get that. Yet, they give us a name to use around the word, across all languages and common names. I have been to gardens in other countries and the use of the Scientific name allows me to recognize the plant without knowing the local language or common name. Recently I went to the Ghent University Museum in Belgium and found some of our native plants there.

Our native spicebush and many others were in the garden

Let’s get back to common names, because they can be interesting in their own right. My favorite is the collection of names for Carpinus caroliniana. Common names for this Georgia native include: musclewood, ironwood, American hornbeam, blue-beech, water-beech, and leantree. The first 3 are super common and you almost have to mention them all to get someone to recognize what you’re talking about.

Common names might reference the location where the plant was first named, such as Canadian goldenrod for Solidago canadensis. Even that can be inconsistent such as American elderberry for Sambucus canadensis. A comment on a recent GNPS Facebook post implied that a Canadian was outraged that the USA had claimed the plant as American when it was native to Canada (another person clarified that Canada was part of the greater area called North America so the name was still valid).

We shouldn’t have to explain common names. They are just that: a common name that was applied by someone and picked up by others as an easy way to reference the plant. Like Scientific names, some common names recognize people, or denote places, or describe characteristics of the plant: Small’s ragwort, Georgia aster, tall thistle. Many of our natives have been saddled with ‘weed’ in their common names which seems to imply that they are inferior. Others are just plain amusing, perplexing, or even archaic. Here are some of the strange ones I’ve found:

• Flyr's nemesis (Brickellia cordifolia) – more info on that one here.
• Redbud (Cercis canadensis) – so often people ask why it is not ‘purple bud’ instead.
• Fleabane (Erigeron) – named for its usage as a flea deterrent in medieval homes and beds.
• Barbara’s buttons (Marshallia) – alas, the Barbara referenced is unknown, an example of how common names can lose their point of reference.
• Tread-softly (Cnidoscolus stimulosus) – are we afraid to call it what it is? It stings you!
• Turkey tangle fogfruit or frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) – yes, people spell it both ways, even more confusing! Don’t get me started on farkleberry which is also called sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum); just admit you said it wrong!
• Hairy balls plant (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) – hard to disagree with this one but do people really say it? By the way, don’t plant this exotic in Georgia.
• Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) – overly cautious name there, it only means that the seed pod will explode.
• Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) – named not for staying put in the ground (ironically it is an aggressive spreader) but because you can move the flowers and they stay put.

Marshallia mohrii

Cnidoscolus stimulosus

I could go on and on (and will likely think of some great ones right after I hit the publish button). Post in the comments some of your favorites!

 

A Tale of Two Penstemons

 

Long ago, perhaps sometime around 2008, I bought a beardtongue perennial at Home Depot. It was grown by a fairly local nursery and was labeled as Blue Ridge beardtongue (Penstemon smallii). I planted it in my yard, it grew well and made babies which I then shared with others and donated to plant sales. About the same time as I was passing around those babies, my friend Sheri was growing Gulf beardtongue or Brazos penstemon (Penstemon tenuis). As we donated them to the plant sale from our two populations, we joked about how similar they were. You can see where this is going, right?

After we finally figured out that my plant had been mislabeled, I pined wistfully for what I thought I had. It didn’t seem likely that I’d run across this species unless I went north. Enter another friend’s contribution to this story: Richard bought a plant of the real thing (Penstemon smallii) and shared seeds with Sheri and me. Plants from those seeds (all credit to Sheri for growing them) are now finally blooming in my garden!

Penstemon smallii (from seed)

Looking at the key for Penstemon, of the two species, Blue Ridge beardtongue has slightly larger flowers which can be densely bearded, and colors are more purple than pink. The largest leaves can also be about 1/3 larger. That is, generally it is a more robust plant. I can see all those characteristics in the plant I have now.

Plants above: Seed-grown Penstemon smallii on left, purchased Penstemon tenuis on right.

I try to learn from my plant mistakes and I try to help others learn what I learned. I should have done some research much sooner. 

How Can I Help (the book)

 

Doug Tallamy’s new book is entitled “How Can I Help: Saving Nature With Your Yard.” Many of us have heard him speak a number of times and it’s always a treat (you can find videos of him to watch for free on YouTube). This book is a thoughtful collection of many of the questions posed to him with answers that give good, clear explanations (including details that he might not always have time to give in live situations).

The questions are grouped by chapters such as Ecology and Evolution, Native and Non-Native Plants, Home Landscapes, and more (ten chapters in all). One chapter is devoted just to Oaks, a legacy of his book, The Nature of Oaks, and subsequent talks on oaks. I particularly enjoyed seeing the photo of the female flower on oak on page 89!

How can we use this information? The Q&A approach helps answer some of our own questions (page 74 has questions about using cultivars, for example), and the book gives us answers to use for some of the questions that we might get ourselves when talking to people about native plants. I particularly like his answer on page 145 about “If the new species [exotic imports] are more fit than the species here, then they deserve to replace them.” His answer on why that is not true is very thorough and includes points about how modern humans have moved plants faster than ecosystems can adapt. 

The chapter on Pest Control includes his famous recommendations on mosquito control; that chapter also includes questions on other pests, including deer.

The Home Landscapes chapter includes a wide range of questions including using glyphosate, trees for smaller spaces, assisted migration, and sub-sections on HOA issues and Leaf Litter. From small yards to large tracts of land, from beginners to experienced gardeners, there are questions for all levels in this book. And for those without property, volunteering is always a way to help.

I especially enjoyed seeing that he starts some answers with “It depends!” (see page 223 for two of them) when answers are not black and white. He does go on to answer the question, acknowledging that when it comes to choosing native plants and using them, there are factors that must be considered.

If you’d like to read an interview with him about the book, the Associated Press interviewed him in April about it. Here is a link to that interview. 

I found the interview while I was looking for the answer to a question of my own: why 499 questions? Why not 500? It was a strange point but I was curious so I contacted him. He said it was the publisher’s choice and that he could have included more. 

I’d say that the intense interest that he’s had since 2006 (and all the questions that people ask!) indicates that the desire to be more impactful in the home landscape is growing nicely.

Plant an oak!

A resource section and index is included at the end of the book.

May 2025 Moment in Nature

You've got to celebrate those plants that take your breath away. This week I rounded the corner to my backyard and caught sight of this plant: bigleaf snowbell (Styrax grandifolius). It's been in that location for a number of years, blooming modestly over time. This year the bloom volume is amazing. Every single branch sports these small white flowers and the overall effect is more magical than my camera can capture.

Bigleaf snowbell (Styrax grandifolius)

Native bee on snowbell

As I tried to capture the beauty, the gentle hum of two bees indicated they were going after the pollen and nectar of these graceful blooms. While this was certainly my #momentinnature for May, it's been extra special to visit this small tree all week to enjoy it again and again.

Spring is an amazing time. Get out there and find your moments.

Planting for What I Can’t See

 

For centuries non-edible gardening has focused on what is pleasing to us. Explorers have brought back plants from lands far and wide to entertain human senses. We now know that planting ornamental plants for only our pleasure is not helpful to the local ecosystem when our choices cause biodiversity to diminish at the expense of local insects, birds, and even small mammals. I have written before that at least maintaining native bird populations requires about 70% native plants in our environment.

So I plant things. Native things. Lots of different native things. Some of them I don’t see every day – or at all. My crossvine is blooming now. Bignonia capreolata is a native evergreen vine that I planted at the base of a medium-sized maple tree at the edge of my property. I can see the ropey vines as they drape through the lower part of the tree, but I have to use my binoculars to see the blooms. 

Until they drop to the ground – then I know it’s blooming. Those fallen flowers were the inspiration for my post about The Tiny Hands Project. Those little hands are bigger now; our little sprout just turned 7 this week.

The crossvine is just one example of things that I plant not necessarily for me but to support those who have needed it for far longer than I have been around. As we exit another Earth Week – our 55^th since 1970 (and I have been around for all of them!), remember that what we do is not always for us. Plant something for the ecosystem, your ecosystem.

Hike Local: Woodlands Garden

 

I had a chance this week to visit Woodlands Garden in Decatur, GA. It is an approximately 7-acre park in an urban setting. It is open to the public every day during daylight hours (note: no dogs allowed). Originally a private residence, the garden contains the smaller Morse Family Heritage Garden – which has a selection of exotic plants – and extensive trails of Piedmont native woodland plants. A map of the grounds can be found here.

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium)

The trails are easy walking and have good signage both for directional guidance and for many of the plants you’ll see. Several areas had extensive sweeps of single species of plants: narrow-leaf blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) in a sunny area, fernleaf phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida) just inside the shade, and in deep shade, patches of Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) and interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana) were lush and full of new spring growth.

Phacelia bipinnatifida

Osmunda claytonia

You might spot several of Atlanta’s champion trees. I was able to see the champion devil’s walking stick (Aralia spinosa); it was so mature that the only spines I could see were 6 feet high on the otherwise smooth trunk. 

Foamflower and Phlox

Blooming native spring flowers were sprinkled throughout: woodland phlox and foamflower, tiny wood anemone and native ginger, and gorgeous native azaleas. In the parking area, a flowering native coral honeysuckle lit up the front of the office building while the flowers of wild white indigo (Baptisia alba) and false indigo-bush (Amorpha fruticosa) kept the native bees busy.

Two of the native azaleas

The garden is a well-managed mix of intentional design and woodland wonders. As with any truly urban garden, exotic invasive plants creep in. The staff and volunteers have regular workdays to manage weeds and keep the trails open. If you're looking for inspiration or just to enjoy some natural beauty, stop by and visit this urban gem.

Amorpha fruticosa

 

April is Native Plant Month

 

Beginning in April 2021, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating April to be National Native Plant Month. [Since this is a Resolution and not a Law, this legislation needs to be reintroduced each year.]  That designation has continued each year, and each year the message spreads a little further. In Georgia, the native plant society has been using social media to highlight chapter activities around the state, using the national momentum to encourage people get involved locally. The Society’s executive director also wrote a great article to share about ways to celebrate: planting native plants, removing invasive plants, and educating others. Notice that two of those ways don’t even require you to have a garden!

Various national organizations are using the designation to highlight how essential native plants are to creatures that people like: birds, butterflies, and bees. Yes, science has shown us that there is a reason that native plants are required for our native ecosystem to thrive and I’ve written about this before:

Why Native Plants Matter to Birds

Why Native Plants Matter to Bees, Butterflies, and Bugs

Pollinators in Georgia: A Compilation of Articles

I also think that using native plants in our Georgia landscapes help anchor a sense of place and celebrate the natural beauty of our state. That certainly is one of the founding principles of this blog: Using Georgia Native Plants.

I hope you enjoy April and all our natural beauty. My native Piedmont azalea, Rhododendron canescens, is currently in full bloom outside the front window, serving as this week’s installment in gorgeous native flora in my yard (although the golden ragwort, Packera aurea, is certainly trying hard to rival it).

April 2025 Moment in Nature

This month's #momentinnature is really a two-fer. I noticed a row of insect eggs on the twig of an American beautyberry in my yard. As I leaned in to look more closely, I realized there was a very young gray tree frog nestled into one of the branch crotches.

While March has produced some wonderful early blooms, April promises to be amazing! Keep your eyes open for lots of special moments.

Impactful Shrubs

 

What’s in your yard? You probably don’t have room for everything you want, but small and urban yards can plan to maximize the wildlife value of their plantings. We talk about trees a lot, but shrubs can provide good ecological value for smaller spaces. Here are some thoughts on impactful shrubs to plant that make a difference.

Impactful means that they contribute to the food web in one of 3 ways: their fruit is good for wildlife (like birds), their foliage serves as a host plant to insect herbivores (like caterpillars), and/or they are a good source of pollen/nectar for insects (like bees and butterflies).

Blueberry specialist bee helps us get the most fruit

Shrubs that support frugivorous birds (those who use fruit as a major source of their adult nutrition) include native viburnums (Viburnum spp.), hearts a bustin’ (Euonymus americanus), spicebush (Lindera spp.), elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), holly shrubs (Ilex spp.), chokeberry (Aronia spp.), shrub dogwoods (Swida amomum, C. foemina and others), St. John’s wort (Hypericum spp.), beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), huckleberry (Gaylussacia spp.), and sumac (Rhus spp.).

Shrubs whose foliage serves as a host plant to butterflies and moths (these feed caterpillars) include spicebush (Lindera spp.), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), plums (Prunus spp.), and paw paw (Asimina spp.). Some of these support specialist insects like the Zebra swallowtail that can only use paw paw.

Zebra swallowtail as caterpillar and adult

Shrubs whose flowers are a good source of pollen or nectar for bees and butterflies include native viburnums (Viburnum spp.), buckeyes (Aesculus spp.), elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), holly shrubs (Ilex spp.), chokeberry (Aronia spp.), shrub dogwoods (Swida amomum, C. foemina and others), St. John’s wort (Hypericum spp.), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), huckleberry (Gaylussacia spp.), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), and sumac (Rhus spp.).

Buckeyes are good for bees and hummingbirds

You can see that some plants might serve 2-3 ecological purposes (for example, blueberry and spicebush support both birds and insects), allowing smaller yards to benefit from these shrubs quite a bit. Make your choices count!

Previous blogs on shrubs that you might find useful:

Native Shrubs in the Georgia Piedmont

Native Shrubs for Supporting Birds

Underused Native Shrubs

Enjoy Each Season: Spring

We've been waiting for spring for literally months; now that it's finally here, I have to remind myself to appreciate each plant in its turn. For all their benefit to the ecosystem, spring native plants aren't always as showy or large as the exotics that are so widely planted.

I am enjoying the Sweet Betsy trillium (Trillium cuneatum) just starting to bloom in my yard. We recently rescued some of this petite perennial from a construction project; so many of these small, ephemeral things get overlooked and yet I imagine a time when they might have carpeted the woodlands around here.

Trillium cuneatum

This week I had a chance to stop by Stone Mountain. I was interested to see what spring granite outcrop plants might be blooming. The woolly groundsel (Packera dubia) was just getting started but the elf-orpine (Diamorpha smallii) was not yet flowering. You can see photos of flowering elf-orpine at my Heggie's Rock post from 2013. One young serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) was flowering like mad, ahead of  all others I've seen. 

Amelanchier arborea

Diamorpha smallii - not quite ready

Packera dubia

On the way back home, I enjoyed the many flowering redbuds that lined the edges of wild roads. By next week, many of them will be done. I was glad I got out to see them at their best. Don't rush through spring - take time to notice the diversity of our native flora during their season.

Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Surely It’s Spring Compilation

It’s spring – or is it? These longer, warmer days in Georgia have us all seeing a few blooms and anticipating what’s next as we await the official arrival on Thursday the 20^th.

Flowers above (not yet blooming!) are clockwise from upper left: beardtongue (Penstemon), Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), mouse-eared coreopsis (Coreopsis auriculata), foamflower (Tiarella), pink phlox (Phlox subulata), red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), and Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens).

When it comes to native flowers, what can we expect? And what should we consider when we realize our spring doesn’t have enough native flowers? You can imagine that over the last several years, I’ve written about spring flowers a time or two.

Here is a list of spring topics you might want to read. I hope that you find something inspirational for this season.

Plant specific posts:

Coreopsis 2017 

Violets are Blue Too 2013 and Violets Are Complicated 2017 

Trilliums - a Georgia specialty 2012 

Tiny Spring Anemones 2017 

Houstonia, We Have ... Tiny Flowers (Bluets) 2019 

Green & Gold 2023 

Plant collection posts:

Native Spring Perennials 2011 

Favorite Native Spring Perennials for the Garden 2014 

Bluets, Beauties and Bloodroot – oh my! 2012 

Spring Blues 2011 

Pass the Mustard 2015 

Ephemerals – here today, gone by summer 2011 

Spring Trees – Alternatives 2015 and AlterNATIVE: Native Choices Instead of Ornamental Pears 2020 

Garden Ideas: 

Pollinators in Georgia 2022 

Native Plants in Containers 2013

Field Trips for Spring:

Sosebee Cove Trail in Spring 2015

The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain February 2017

The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain March 2017

 

March 2025 Moment in Nature

Sometimes our #momentinnature moments are fleeting, but this week I got to enjoy one that lasted a long time: miles and miles of time.

We drove down to Florida and the roadside trees in all 3 states were beautifully festooned with yellow flowers. These were the flowers of Carolina jessamine vines (Gelsemium sempervirens) that twined among the bare twigs of the trees on the sunny edge. 

Some had just a few flowers while others created large masses of yellow.  I could not help but smile to see so many.

Unfortunately we were not able to stop and take a picture (below is a photo from 2014 and it really does not do it justice). However, we stopped at Buc-ee's in Auburn, AL and found them using this same plant as a shrub (or at least a very bushy groundcover) See the photo above.  

Roadside Carolina jessamine

The Hidden Life of Trees (the book)

 

I’m always looking for creative ways to reach people about the importance of plants and my husband recently found a book that I think could be a great resource for young folks and people that are more receptive to graphic depictions of information. The Hidden Life of Trees was originally published in German in 2015 by Peter Wohlleben. Later, an illustrated version was published with numerous photos but still lots of text. In 2023, the version that I’m reviewing was published: The Hidden Life of Trees: A Graphic Adaptation.

The book starts with some good explanations of physical processes to set the stage: how do trees breathe, nutrient uptake, pollination, even how new trees grow and the challenges that seedlings have to reach maturity. Also included in the beginning are the role that trees play in their ecosystem: the creatures that trees support over time from leaves, to bark, to nest cavities, and even the support they play in death.

Chapters are titled Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter and the beautiful illustrations follow that progression. A final Section, The Return to Spring, is a bit of a post-2015 exploration of the impact of his first book and musings on the impact of climate change and the human impacts on global forests. The book is a love letter to trees while imparting information about how important they are and helping us to understand how special they are to our world. I downloaded the following page graphics from the publisher’s website:

 

I hope that this creative approach will reach more people through its innovative approach. By the way, other books have also been created using parts of the original to help communicate Peter’s message. You can find them here.

Got (Native) Trees?

 

As housing lots get smaller and smaller, more native trees are cut down for those developments than are planted back. It’s a trend that we need to reverse. And we can do that with our own actions: plant more native trees.

Sweetgums support life!

Whether it is a pristine woodland lot or a scraggly former cow pasture with early-succession trees, these areas contain plants – maples, sweetgums, oaks, tuliptrees – that support our native insects and they get wiped out when development comes through. What is planted back are rarely plants that sustain our insects. We usually get turf grass, exotic shrubs, and one tree in these new ¼-acre yards. The tree might be a native maple, but it just as easily could be an exotic elm or crape myrtle.

The population of butterflies and birds just took a dive in the new area because the carrying capacity of the area is diminished. We know from research that birds need about 70% native vegetation in order to stay at reproducible numbers (maintain the same population). Large trees like oaks, sweetgums, maples and tuliptrees significantly contribute to those kinds of numbers.

Photo from the City of Woodstock's FB page

Friday was Arbor Day in Georgia. I write about this almost every year (and my post in 2022 was a good summary of why we have it in February and why native trees matter) because it is always a good opportunity to remind people of the importance of native trees. Last year, I specifically profiled red maple (Acer rubrum) for my Arbor Day post because of its statewide profile.

I hope you will take some time to look at what you have in your yard and consider adding a new native tree to increase your biodiversity. You might even consider replacing any non-native tree that you have already.

Double- toothed prominent caterpillar on native elm

I don’t have a yard, How can I help?

 

Georgia has 11 million people in the state and not of them have homes with a place to plant things. Some of them are renters and some of them – especially in more urban areas – have very small lots or none at all (e.g., townhomes and condos). The movement for using native plants, conserving habitat, and removing invasive species has never been stronger, but not having a yard doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to that movement.

People all over are inspired to make a positive impact on the environment. Opportunities include the following:

Volunteer – You can donate your time to help guide, to remove invasive plants, to be on a committee or even lead one for your chapter or state organization; there are volunteer tasks for people of all abilities.

Educate others – You can give talks to garden clubs, HOAs, school groups, Scouts. Many of these groups need a 20-30 minute basic discussion of why we should appreciate and use native plants; your efforts can help more people not take the native green for granted. (Hat tip to a DNR friend for that expression!)

Talking about native trees at Arbor Day school talk

Advocate for native plants – We should follow native plant and habitat issues and contact our elected legislators to support them. Recent examples: issues like the recent expansion for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Boundary or the proposed change to the State Flower (HB145). Share these issues with others and contact your legislators to let them know which issues are important to you.

Donate – You can help groups that educate people, manage nature centers, and seek out opportunities for land conservation by donating funds that they can use for staff and resources.

Georgia Piedmont Land Trust is one such group.

Plant – Get your hands in the dirt by planting native plants in pots for your patio, in school and church gardens, or in public spaces like libraries and neighborhood green spaces. Squeeze in native plants wherever you can! Seek out “Friends” groups for State Parks and county ones too.

Whether you plant in your yard or you convince/enable others to do it, it’s a win for the local ecosystem. Need some resources? Look to your native plant society for help. As an example, here is a link to education resources developed by the Georgia Native Plant Society.