Annual flowers change throughout the season. At the Flowers for Pollinators St. Paul site, some flowers have been quite slow to flush out a decent bloom (cosmos, white swan sage, lemon queen sunflowers, Rudbeckias, Twizzle Penstemon) while others were amazing right away and now look, well, pretty lousy. The sunflowers which I was so blown away by are being decapitated by a weevil.
Sunflowers I deadheaded are struggling to flush out a weak second bloom. The Popart zinnias continue to be resilient and bloom well though are a bit ragged. Some that are still looking great are the butter daisy (Melampodium) which continues to look almost fake it’s so nice, the short marigolds, the orange fudge Rudbeckia, Dakota Gold, and Zinnia ‘Old Mexico’ (one of my personal favorites) and Zinnia ‘Zahara Starlight Rose’. Click on pictures for captions.
So how does this late season effort reflect on pollinator activity? Fewer sunflowers have resulted in insects visiting other plants. For example, there was little to no activity on the butter daisy until the sunflowers bit the dust. This could be due to the fact bees are opportunists and efficient pollinators. They will stay with one flower until they are finished collecting the pollen. This is great for the flowers as compatible pollen is important to reproduction.
The honeybees are still the most widely seen insects in the garden (if you ignore the rash of Japanese beetles. Hoo boy.). Bumble bees have been almost nonexistent here at the St. Paul site and I am not sure why as we saw them often on the same Salvia varieties last year in a garden not far from this planting site. Hover flies, too, are less frequent as well. Does the age of the flower have anything to do with it? Could the presence of other insects like the Japanese beetles? Other insects are coming onto the scene now – soldier beetles, stinkbugs, assassin bugs and gorgeous butterflies. Click on the pictures for captions.
Flower for Pollinators 