Are Pretty Flowers Useful?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Marla Spivak, a very highly regarded bee scientist, talk about how bees defend themselves from disease.  Very interesting stuff.  I took a lot of information away from the talk, two bits of which I want to share with you.

The first is a vocabulary word — propolis – go ahead, google it (I don’t think too much inappropriate stuff will pop up) – it’s an antimicrobial “ointment” which bees create from stuff like the resins on tree buds.

The second is that the number of bee colonies is the US has been going down in the US since 1945 for a number of reasons.  One of the most important of which is the fact that we like to kill flowers, such as dandelions and clover, which bees like, and then we plant crappy flowers – at least as far as the bees are concerned.  The whole crappy flower thing isn’t something that I’d spent much time thinking about, so it was kind of an ah-ha moment for me.

Here’s how it works.  People tend to like double flowers.  Double flowers usually occur because the male parts of the flowers – the parts which normally contain pollen – instead develop into petals.  It’s a mutation – very pretty – but it inhibits the flower from reproducing itself through seed and it certainly isn’t great for bees who rely on pollen for food.  So when we plant our gardens we are removing plants that bees may love because we consider them weeds.  Then we replace these flowers with what amounts to plastic fruit.  My opinion – this is probably more significant to the lives of both honey bees and native bees than whether we plant natives or exotics.

So let your yard go wild!  The bees will thank you.

18 thoughts on “Are Pretty Flowers Useful?”

  1. Pretty fascinating stuff, Jeff ! “Propolis” is going to be my new favorite word for a while.

    Maybe the best thing to happen for bees in a while, at least in my neck of the woods, is the declining budgets for things like park landscaping upkeep. Sure the workers still mow the grass, but less often & they don’t bother trying to kill the ‘weeds’ anymore. It does my heart good to walk through the grassy expanses & see the clover & dandelion cropping up all around – very cheerful. And to hear it’s also good for the bees ? Yippee ! But now I’m going to take a really critical look at my garden as it comes into bloom…

  2. With such a fantastic intro, I thought for sure you were going to take us to bee friendly plants, planting plans, and gardens. I don’t think many people are willing to let their yards go wild, but it might not be too hard to convince them to switch to beautiful, garden friendly plants, that also work for the bees. How about some links to bee friendly plant lists that also make good garden additions?

  3. I didn’t know that about “double” flowers. I actually prefer singles, typically, but now I prefer them even more!

  4. Thanks for enforcing my no chemicals for the lawn attitude! Started a top-bar hive 2 summers ago and looks like the colony has survived the winter. No chemicals used in the hive or on the property so any the workers pick up while foraging won’t be getting re-enforced. Will be planting single flowered zinnias & herbs again. Will also swap out the hive with a clean one to help the sisters with mite control. Question: Is the Linden tree I planted really at risk for emerald ash bore
    r and if so by what mechanism?

  5. Interesting – I have 3 types of purple coneflowers – those with the largest set of male flowers are my colony of straight species. The flower parts (male and female) on them are much larger then even the older varieties of ‘Ruby Star’ and ‘Magnus’ which I also have. The bees and butterflies I noticed tend to love the species the best. More pollen and less modified petals. I refuse to have those crazy mutant double cones they don’t even look natural.

  6. Thanks for the information Jeff. My house built in 1977 has clover in the grass seed mix which you know is not used much anymore. Good to know about the dandelions though.
    I have lots of flowers and also a tons of hostas (collector). Bees seem to love the flowers of hostas so I’ll have to endure them and not remove until done flowering.

  7. Chemical companies convinced the public clover is bad … a most effective and harmful ad campaign. I prefer clover in lawns – it’s beautiful and also free fertilizer – but I’m in the minority. As an avid gardener I’ve noticed pollinators prefer old fashioned, run-of-the-mill blooms of purple coneflower, Joe-pie weed, scabiosia, black-eyed Susan, sedum, thyme, lavender, zinnia … the latest is not usually the greatest.

  8. Chemical companies convinced the public clover is bad … a most effective and harmful ad campaign. I prefer clover in lawns – it’s beautiful and also free fertilizer – but I’m in the minority. As an avid gardener I’ve noticed pollinators prefer old fashioned, run-of-the-mill blooms of purple coneflower, Joe-pie weed, scabiosia, black-eyed Susan, sedum, thyme, lavender, zinnia … the latest is not usually the greatest.

  9. I don’t think all double flowers really inhibit bees and other beneficial insects from doing their thing. Common garden plants that usually come in double forms such as roses and peonies are capable of fully opening to reveal abundant pollen and potential nectar. Not all stamens have fused and mutated into petals or tepals. In fact, wouldn’t you consider a dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) a double flower as well?

  10. A couple of questions that I missed over the weekend! First, I was asked about lists of bee friendly plants — there are a few lists out there, but joene does a good job of listing some popular choices above. Second, can emerald ash borer attack lindens? The answer is no. And finally, is dandelion a double? No — it’s a completely different type of flower — actually many flowers — it is what is known as a composite flower.

  11. Linda, I set up a link to Facebook. I created the page some time ago but haven’t done much with it. Let me know if this is helpful to you. (And Holly, Jeff and Bert, let me know if you want to have access to the page as administrators).

  12. I LOVED this article! I want to encourage more bees in my yard so I will definitely be looking to plant flowers/herbs that the bees like!

  13. Thank you for publishing this information. I give lectures on nectar and pollinators. I am always amazed that people don’t realize the flowers they are planting do not provide nectar. In fact, many cultivars produce no nectar at all. The plants are selected for larger bloom size and color. Often, this is at the expense of producing nectar. Nectar is a large energy expense for the plant. So, by selecting for large flowers and not nectar, we are forcing plants to forgo this energy expense. In addition, many pollinators navigate by ultra-violet patterns and fragrance as well as color. Again, these patterns and fragrance may be disrupted by cultivation. I always tell people, walk into a big box nursery when there are all the plants in bloom. Take a whiff. You barely smell anything. Now, if you are old enough, remember your grandparents garden and the fragrances you would smell. We truly lose so much by focusing just on color and size of bloom.

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