Buyer Beware

               Most of us concerned about the plight of bees are now conscientiously choosing plants for our gardens that are good for bees.  What we may not be aware of is that the very plants we are purchasing to help bees may have been treated with the same pesticides that have been killing or sickening bees worldwide – neonicotinoids.

               Neonicotinoids or neonics are a group of systemic pesticides that are used on crops to control insects.  When they are used as a seed coating or a drench, the insecticide enters the system of the plant and can be found in all parts of the plant – leaves, stem, flowers, fruit.  Insects feeding on any part of treated plants are affected. 

               The neonicotinoids widely used to prevent insect damage on crops have been recognized as dangerous to bees.  Although bees are not the targets, they are attracted to the flowers of crops that have been treated.  The bees ingest the neonics through nectar and take the pollen of the treated plants back to their hives to feed their young.  Large doses of the pesticide will kill bees outright, but even very small doses of neonics, can cause bees to become disoriented, to experience memory loss or to lose their foraging ability.  Honey bees are often unable to find their way back to the hive.

Those very same neonics that harm bees on crop plants may be present in the ornamental plants we purchase at nurseries and big box stores.  Studies of plant material from a variety of retail sources have revealed the presence of neonics in plants offered for sale.  Some growers use the pesticides on their ornamental stock as a control for insects just as farmers do on crops.  And we purchase those plants for our bee gardens!

To reduce the danger to bees, many countries have banned the use of neonicotinoids, but there is no legislation banning the use of neonics on garden plants in Canada or the USA.  The nurseries and plant producers, the sources of our plants, are free to use neonics on the plants they produce.  Of course, we wouldn’t choose plants for our bee gardens that contained harmful pesticides, but there is no way of knowing whether the plants we purchase have been treated with neonics or not. 

Here’s where you and I come into the picture.  

The Ontario Horticultural Association has acted.  OHA has written a letter to the main large box stores asking them to choose plants for sale that have not been treated with neonics and to label plants that have been treated.

You and I can act, too.  We can ask our plant sources whether neonics have been used on the plants, and we can choose not to buy plants that have been treated with neonics.  We can regulate the use of neonics with our purchasing decisions.  Buy only bee-friendly plants this spring.

Here are some sites you may want to visit for more information:

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/garden-center-neonicotinoids/

http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/Krischik-UofMN-PowerPoint.pdf

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/business/farming/scottish-study-claims-to-prove-pesticides-are-harming-bees-1.822577

http://www.xerces.org/neonicotinoids-and-bees/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/07/neonicotinoids-affect-bees.aspx

http://www.planetexperts.com/study-confirms-neonicotinoid-insecticides-impair-bee-brains/#sthash.00JDwuH9.dpuf

In the Midst of Death

The sunlit fungus on the log in the picture is proof that the death of a plant gives opportunity for life.  

Sunlit Fungus on Log Fla 2015

Fungi are an interesting family of living things.  As a gardener, I have been most interested in one member of the family, mycorrhizal fungi.  These fungi form partnerships with plants.  The fungi side of the partnership is to increase the effectiveness of the root of the plant. The mycelium of the fungi provides the host plant with minerals and other nutrients from the surrounding soil, and the plant provides the fungus with food in the form of carbohydrates.  While vital to the good health of a plant, mycorrhizal fungi are not usually seen. 

The lovely fungus you can see on the log in the picture is a saprophytic fungi, a member of the largest group of fungi.  Saprophytic fungi feed on dead matter such as fallen trees and dead leaves.  These fungi produce enzymes that will rot (or digest) the cellulose and lignin of the host.  Eventually, through the work of these fungi, the log in the picture will disappear and its components will re-enter the food chain. 

A commonality in all fungi is that they are not green.  Fungi do not have chlorophyll cells and, therefore, cannot photosynthesize sunlight into energy.  They depend on the dead host for the sugars and starches they need to live. 

The fungi enter the body of the host through thread-like, tubular filaments called hyphae.  The tip of a hypha grows or elongates and may branch out to form a mat of hyphae called mycelium.  It is from the mycelium that the fruiting body of the fungus arises.

The fruiting part of the saprophytic fungi is the part we see.  Fruiting bodies come in a variety of shapes from lacy growths like the fungus in the picture to the mushrooms we love to eat.  It is the fruiting bodies that contain the spores by which the fungus multiplies.

The grey fruiting part of the fungus on the log is what attracted me.  In sunlight, it has a beauty that belies the fact that the fungus lives on death.

Christmas Cactus

The wonderful magenta bloom

On schedule, my Christmas Cactus begins blooming just before Christmas -- every year.  The cactus is a cutting of my Grandmother's plant.  I've had the plant since 1979 in one or the other of its iterations.

You can see the buds that have formed.

This cactus had rounded leaves -- not the spiky leaves found so often on the market nowadays.  It sets buds in my 3-season room when the temperature gets cold and the number of daylight hours diminishes.  I'm not sure which triggers blooming -- maybe it's a combination of both temperature and light. Moving the plant to another location, changing the temperature too much, or overwatering will cause the buds to drop.

I used to put the plant outside for the summer until one year I forgot it and left it out until November!  Many of the leaves were frosted but the plant survived.

When the plant gets too big for its place in the sunroom, I take cuttings and start a new plant.  The existing plant is probably the 3rd or 4th cutting generation from the original plant.  I think of the Christmas Cactus as a bit of my Grandmother that lives on.

Gone Native

I've gone native!  Now when I plan for next year’s garden, my mind’s eye no longer drifts to a specimen from a faraway place or a new cultivar limited to only a few customers.  Instead, I dream of Joe-Pye-Weed and black-eyed Susans and the joy of another native spring ephemeral.  I plan bee houses and bug hotels.  I let my leaves and plant stalks stand, and I rejoice at the site of a dragonfly or a new bee.

My conversion didn’t come overnight.  It crept up on me gradually and was scarcely noticed.  It came from rereading Sara Stein and Rachel Carson and from the words of Douglas Tallamy and from listening to David Suzuki.  It came as I looked at my garden and yard, my local area, my city, through their eyes and realized what had been lost. My local ecosystem had been converted to asphalt plains and plants that didn’t belong. Alien plants, sidewalks, paved roads and shopping plazas covered all that once was native and natural. How had this happened? How many species had been lost? Was the original ecosystem forever gone?

At first I complained and lamented that governments and damned capitalists were allowing our natural resources to slip away.  The blame for the situation rested squarely on the shoulders of a populace that did not care.  Letters to an MP, snippy tweets and interruptions into casual conversations were my modus operandi.  I pointed out to all and sundry that others were ruining what was once the glory and abundance of the natural scene.

Soon, I said, there will be no space for wildlife at all.  The natural flora and fauna will be gone forever, I said.  And it’s all the fault of the non-thinking public, I said.  The public has allowed this to happen, I said.

And then, like a slap on the side of my head, I realized that I am the public.  What happens to the local ecosystem is up to me.  Now with clear eyes, I reviewed my garden.  I saw the expensive aliens, the must-have cultivars, and the collection of plants from wherever that I had insinuated into the piece of the environment that I controlled. I noted the lack of any habitat for critters and creatures, and I was ashamed.

So…. I am doing my best to restore a sense of place to my garden.  I am welcoming back the life that once belonged in this space.  I’ve gone native.

Fall Beauty

  Now that November is here, there are different things to see in the garden. Plants that boasted one colour in summer, now show another colour as they succumb to cold and frost.

 The big Sum and Substance hostas that flaunt their huge, chartreuse leaves all summer change yheir appeal as winter approaches.  How wonderful they look with its Fall colours.

 Too soon the leaves of the hosta will become entirely limp as they prepare to pass their nutrients into the soil for next year's growth. The leaves will lie limp on the ground releasing food for the soil as they lie under a cloak of snow. But for now they are in their autumnal gold stage.  The garden is beautiful all year long.