Flowers for Bees?

[brooksbeefarm]

Went to Lowes yesterday and seen they had 75% off of there flowers and bushes. Ended up buying 4 different flower colors of the plant Sedum, i think i read on the forum that some of you have them and the bees love them? Did i do good or just bought a pretty flower? I like flowers, but i think like Dad, he would tell mom that if you can't eat it we don't need it. and that would fire mom off. He liked to stir mom up ( a 5ft 4in, squirt) and walk off grinning from ear to ear. Jack

[riverbee]

yes bees love sedum jack!

and ps you also bought a pretty flower!!!

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks Squirt.   Jack

[Bakersdozen]

Jack, Sedum is good to have in the fall when there isn't much else out there.  A lot of pollinators will be working sedum. 

I know I have said this before, but I will repeat myself.  In the spring I take cuttings from sedum to multiply or give away.  When they reach about 12 inches tall, in the spring, cut them down by 1/2.  I dip the ends in rooting hormone.  It probably isn't a necessity, but I have rooting hormone on hand.  Place a group of the cuttings in a new pot filled with potting soil.  I will put enough cuttings in the new pot to make it look full.  I make holes with my finger and stick the cuttings in.  Water and place in a protected place from wind and strong sun.  In a few weeks the pot will be filled with roots so that you can transplant into the ground.  You can't hardly kill a sedum.  Cutting them back prevents them from flopping over in the late summer.  If allowed, they will splay out from the center landing on anything in it's path.  Trimming back in the spring keeps the plant in a small shrub form. 

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks B12 very helpful info . Here's another plant i bought because i seen some small bees working it ( not honey bees), i think only because there's not  that many honey bees in the area and it was late afternoon? It's called Veronica First Love, it has a 3in. to 5in. spike with pink/purple small flowers all around the spike, cold hardiness to -30f to -40f grows 12in. to 18in. H & W. As you can see i'm not that up on flowers. Jack

[brooksbeefarm]

Whooops, i might have messed up??? Whet back to get some more sedum at lowes close out sale, the employee moving plants around showed me what they had left. I told him i was getting them for my bees, he said the company they get sedum from use GMO and may not be good for my bees Should i dig up the ones i have already planted and get rid of them Jack

[apisbees]

The fact that they may not be that good for bees is that the bees may not find them that attractive as a forage plant. In order to make plants more attractive in the flower gardens Plants are selected, bred, and modified to bloom for a longer duration. One way to achieve this is to keep the flower from being pollinated. the easiest way to achieve this is to make the plant less attractive to pollinators by reducing the pollen, nectar, and the sugar content of the nectar.
The plant most likely wont heart the bees, they just wont get much benefit from it.

[brooksbeefarm]

If i take cuttings from these plants and start others will the GMO's be passed on to the cuttings? I'm not up on this GMO stuff. Jack

[apisbees]

Can't tell, depends what they have done to the plant. Some plants like roses and most fruit trees are a graphed root so cutting will not produce the same plant. The only thing you can do is to try and see what happens and see if the bees respond to it differently than the mother plant.

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks apis. Hey B12, Squirt,or anyone else out there, What's your take on this??? The ones i planted are some really pretty plants, i would hate to get rid on them, Butt, what needs to be done will be done. Jack

[iddee]

Jack, GMO is not always seed coated pesticide. It can be for more blooms, larger flowers, longer blooming periods, etc. Remember, we have been raising GMO mules for hundreds of years.   

Keep your flowers, but they may not reproduce the same flowers when they multiply.

[Bakersdozen]

I have several different varieties of sedum.  My bees seem to like them as long as they are in the sun. 
I have noticed that the pollinators prefer the native purple coneflowers as apposed to the new varieties that have been developed in the last few years.  I don't think the new varieties have as much nectar.  The goldfinches don't seem to mind.  They love coneflower seeds.

Jack, I would keep the sedum.  You got it at a great price and it's something you will probably never have to water.  That isn't all bad.  I don't think it will hurt pollinators because they are GMO, I just think they won't be attracted to them if they don't produce something a pollinator can use.

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks to all of you, i thought i had bought something that might kill the girls We have a circle drive and the flower garden is in the middle lined with sand stone rocks. I filled it with rotted cow manure, put that black plastic weed guard on top that water can go through, put 1/2in  black role up pipe that you can punch those water trickle buttons in it where you plant flowers, bushes, ect. in circles. After my wife plants what she wants in it, i'll spread gravel on top around the plants (pea gravle), i planted a Russian Sage bush and a Lavender bush in it also. Jack

[riverbee]

jack, we have been readying to plant again for the bees, two fields........one is 3 acres or so and the other is maybe 2. it's amazing all the work that goes into this.  the 3 acre field when tilled up and treated with roundup was full of rocks...........it had been used (and more) by a local gravel company to dredge the river for rocks some time ago.  the top soil was removed, so what remains is what the river brought in from floods. nothing much grew there. we hope to change that with some restoration of bee friendly and pollinator plants!

[Bakersdozen]

Jack, I think your bees will like the Russian Sage.
Riverbee, that sure sounds like a big job.  Pictures when you are done?

[riverbee]

yes bakers, i should have provided pix of the other field we labored over, it was BEAUTIFUL this year, with my bees and other pollinators in it from spring through fall this year!  very successful hard work!

[rober]

gmo has more to do with the plants genetics than anything else. the issue is whether they've used neotoid pesticides which it turns out most nurseries are using. there are a lot of different types of sedums & the bees like most of them. I would buy all of the Russian sage you can afford. it blooms all summer & the bees are steady on it. if it likes where it is it will spread. you can bend branches over & bury them & the branches will root. salvia in another good plant. the lowes by me has the Russian sage & salvia marked down to .95 per plant. hyssop is another good plant if you can find it.

[brooksbeefarm]

I have seen bees on the Russian sage where we buy Pizza i know the owner and he told me to pull out all  the sucker plants around the mother plant that i want Only got 3 that i found, the flowers on it looks a lot like my huge Vitex bush by the spring in my yard, and when it blooms it will have bees on it till frost. For some reason the seeds off the Vitex don't germinate and it produces thousands of seed ?? I have thrown thousands of seed at my other bee yards many times over the years and have not found any growing even under the Vitex bush
PS. i have two other Vitex bushes on the farm so pollination shouldn't be the problem? Jack

[Gypsi]

How many Vitex bushes do you have? Because none of mine germinated no matter what I did til I added 2 more vitex last year and I'm guessing it's like some species of apples, you have to have 2 different bushes to get fertile seed.  After that, germinate them in a really wet pot under a bush, on a plant tray in a waterfall, on came up under my live oak and that's a fairly dry part of the yard. I am no longer trying to air-layer to propagate my 10 year old vitex.  It is doing a great job, want me to mail you some seed?

[Bakersdozen]

Jack, I have 2 vitex.  This year, for the first time, I had dozens of little seedlings pop up under the vitex.  I have to assume all the rain when had this spring and summer help.  I dug some up in late summer and took to my bee club to give away.  I would be happy to seed too, if you would like.