It is crazy to think that we are now only a little over a month away from the beginning of spring. However, don’t let the warmer weather fool you, even once we get to spring, it may be too soon to do much in your landscape.
Garden Cleanup
Wait to clean up the dead material from last year’s growth, it is still too early for that. That plant material should be left until the temperatures are more consistently spring-like. I recommend waiting until later April or early May when the plants can tolerate temperatures. That plant material, including the build-up of leaves during the winter, protects plants through the cold months. If that plant material is removed too soon, it will expose the plants to colder temperatures and it could injure them.
Pollinators
The other thing to remember about plant material left on the garden space from last years’ plant growth is the impact on pollinators. Many of our pollinator insects and other beneficial insects overwinter in the leaf litter around our plants or in the hollow stems of the plants left behind. If you remove that plant material too soon in the spring, you will likely kill those insects nesting there. Try to leave that plant material as long as possible in the spring to allow those adults to emerge in the spring.
Pollinator Insects
Insects that pollinate plants are vital to our ecosystem. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from male flowers to female flowers to produce seeds which, of course, leads to more plants and the fruits we eat. Some plants are only pollinated by insects, others are pollinated by wind or self-pollination, while some plants are pollinated through multiple methods. Insects can improve production on even self-pollinated plants. Bees and other pollinators are responsible for the pollination of more than 60% of flowering plants, including 95 crops in the United States that are pollinated by honeybees (from NebGuide: Creating a Solitary Bee Hotel). Apples, Grapes, Watermelon, Cashews, and Chocolate are just a few of our favorite foods that must have insects to be pollinated to produce the foods we love.
Honeybees are great pollinators and are what we usually think of for pollinators. Their bodies have a lot of hairs to pick up pollen and move it from plant to plant. There are also many solitary bees, flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths that make great pollinators. One very well-known beetle pollinator is the soldier beetle found on Linden trees while they are in full bloom.
Plants for Pollinators
There are a lot of great plants to use for pollinators. Of course, milkweed is a preferred food choice for monarch butterflies. While common or swamp milkweed may not be the desired choice for landscapes for many people, there are alternative milkweeds that are also great food choices for butterflies including butterfly milkweed which has a very pretty red/pink colored blossom.
Many other pollinators use various other plants for food sources that can really enhance your landscape including sunflowers, butterfly bush, zinnias, gayfeather or liatris, beardtongue or penstemon, pasqueflower and coneflower. There are even trees like lindens, redbuds, and maples and herbs including basil, dill, thyme, oregano, and parsley that are attractive to pollinators. Pay attention when purchasing sunflowers, some new varieties have been developed that are pollen-free for less mess with cut flowers, choose varieties with pollen if your purpose is for pollinators.
Plant flowers with an array of different bloom times throughout your garden. It is important to cover all the seasons of bloom including early spring and late fall.
If you have any further questions please contact Nicole Stoner at (402) 223-1384, nstoner2@unl.edu, visit the Gage County Extension website at www.gage.unl.edu, or like my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NicoleStonerHorticulture and follow me on twitter @Nikki_Stoner
Nicole Stoner
Extension Educator
Gage County
February 2024