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headlines: “We are loosing our Honey Bees.”

Here are some of the stats:
Year Country % Lost

2004 Canada 2%
USA 3%
2010 Canada 29%
USA 30%
2012 Canada 44%
USA 45%

I guess master gardener Carol Dunk read the same thing—which might have
encouraged her to write the next article “Planting for Bees”. They do not know the cause
as yet but believe it maybe connected to a new product used for the growing of corn.

Reprinted from Master Gardners’ “Digging It!” – August 2013
Planting for Bees

By Carol Dunk

When you plant tomatoes or zucchinis, do you just assume you’ll get fruit?
Did it slip your mind that for fruit to appear, pollination must occur? No bees, no
tomatoes.

Our native pollinators, the ones that pollinate your tomatoes among them, are
decreasing across North America and around the world. Pesticides and disease
are possible causes, but one of the biggest causes is loss of habitat. Gardeners
everywhere have been spurred into action to help native bees. They’re creating
habitat by planting for bees in their gardens,
in vacant lots, in community gardens,
among their crops, and along roadsides.

Your garden can become a haven for
bees by providing a source of nectar and
pollen, one of the primary needs of bees.
The plants you choose to put into your
garden are important to bees. Did you know
that many of our “must haves” or favourite
garden plants are highly hybridized and not
at all attractive to bees? Hybridizers often
sacrifce the nectar and pollen qualities of 
Canadian Iris Society Newsletter 23