Article by Patti Brantley
As I stepped out to hang a hummingbird feeder earlier this year, during the last months of winter, I began to notice that the hummingbirds preferred the real flowers of my orange tree and then soon after my Apricot tree, and later I began to think about how our garden blooms and the succession of blooms throughout the year. It’s always at the forefront of a gardener’s mind. We need those little workers to help us out! So I began to track when what was blooming in my yard. As I started to notice, I have things blooming all year round. I was actually shocked! Whether by my purposeful design or by some subconscious psychic-gardener-pollinator-connection, we’ve managed to have something blooming in our yard, providing food for a variety of bees, birds, and other creatures throughout the entire year. As you’ll see by the chart, the time when we have the least amount of “free floral feeding stations” is in December and January. At this time, it’s a good idea to supply some extra food for those pollinators like hummingbirds that don’t migrate. You can create your own chart, it doesn’t have to be as elaborate as mine, by simply writing down each of the 12 months on a sheet of paper and listing underneath what blooms in your yard. You’ll be able to easily see any empty spaces and plant away to fill those blooming gaps. Let’s keep all the pollinators happy and keep our gardens blooming all year round.
Bombus melanopygus photo by Tom Tucker