Plantings for Pollinators

We've been very busy during the month of June, for which we thank all our loyal customers, new and returning. Add that to the fact that Robert is having a new house built, and there hasn't been a whole lot of time for blog writing, although he's keeping up his Facebook pages pretty well.

One of the things we like to specialize in here at Baldwin's is plants that attract pollinators, especially bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.

Buddleia, or butterfly bush, isn't hardy for everyone in Nova Scotia, but many people can get it to overwinter. It grows so quickly from a small plant that there are some who simply treat it as an annual, although we're hearing reports of many buddleias overwintering this past winter. Here's a nice 'Black Knight' blossom being adored by hummingbird moths.

One of the most important plants you can have if you want to attract Monarch butterflies is milkweed, Asclepias species. This isn't a Monarch on the flower of rosy milkweed but a Spangled Fritillary, which also quite enjoys the plant as a source of nectar.

Among the things that you need in establishing a butterfly garden is a sheltered spot where the butterflies can land, feed, lay eggs, and then, later on, create their chrysalis where they will turn from caterpillars into butterflies.

This post is a little shorter than we had intended because Blogger decided to be cranky about uploading photos, so we will probably edit and add more information when it regains its senses. But we'd like to put in a plug for Preston Lilacs as fantastic plants for butterflies and other pollinators. The Prestons were bred by Isabella Preston, the first woman to work as a horticulturist at a Canadian agriculture research station. These lilacs are later blooming than the French hybrids, and have smaller individual florets but a long bloom period and fantastic fragrance. Check out these and other great plants for pollinators at Baldwin's nursery, and perhaps get a free rosy milkweed plant to take home with you!

We're on Facebook! Also, raptures of Rhododendrons

With the arrival of some warmth and sunlight, things are really popping around Baldwin's nurseries. The herb planters (some of which include three or four different types of basil) are loving the heat. We really like the purple basils for their deep colour and rich flavour.

So the big news around here, besides the return of spring and a house-building, is that Baldwin's Nurseries is now on Facebook. We have an open 'fan page' which we hope you'll 'like' and add to your favourites, and Robert also has his personal page up and running, for those who are personal friends. Of course, Robert is busy in the nursery and usually only has time in the evening or early morning to do Facebook stuff, so his handy garden gnome will continue to help with that as well as with this blog.

We are huge fans of handsome and exciting foliage on our shrubs and trees. Even if a plant doesn't or isn't in bloom, if it has lovely foliage it makes its own statement, adding its own colour, texture, form to a  garden or landscape. One of our favourites is the dawn redwood, Metasequoia, and this year we're thrilled to have a number of the 'Gold Rush' (also known as 'Ogon') gold-foliaged form for sale. The dawn redwood is a deciduous conifer, growing a fresh flush of new needles each spring, which change colour and drop in the autumn at the same time as the tamarack. As noted in Jodi DeLong's new book, the dawn redwood is a fast-growing tree that has a tough trunk resistant to damage from lawnmowers and trimmers. In case any of you have ever had such things happen in your yards.

The 'Tricolour' beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Roseo-marginata', also seen as 'Tricolor' and 'Purpurea Tricolor') is a favourite for those wanting something really special in their gardens. New foliage can be deep red and green, softening to pink, white and green as the leaves grow. We have some smaller trees this year if you're wanting to try a less expensive option, and this tree won't grow huge (usual maximum no more than 40 feet high, 30 feet wide, with a rounded pyramid shape).

We are very fond of viburnums, and usually have a number of species and cultivars available, including the lovely 'Popcorn' (V. plicatum 'Popcorn'. Others in our inventory include several fragrant species and cultivars, 'Onondaga' with its red new foliage and flowers, and 'Mariesii' the elegant doublefile viburnum.

The brilliant scarlet, red, or pink flowers of Chaenomeles, or Japanese quince, attract hummingbirds and other pollinators, providing an eyecatching display of colour in May.

Just as it's been quite a season for magnolia blooms, we're finding the rhododendrons to be spectacular this spring. 'Ken Janeck' has rich pink buds that open to a softer shade of pink, and lovely indumented foliage. (look on the underside of the leaves and you'll see a soft, fuzzy 'wool' like coating; this is the indumentum. Not all rhododendrons have this feature, but we think it's a real selling point.)

We have a wide variety of rhododendrons and azaleas, too many to show or list here, but there's a rhododendron or two or six for everyone's garden and budget.

We love the rhododendrons with the showy contrasting markings on their flowers, which we fondly refer to as 'bee landing strips'. Bees and other pollinators adore rhodos and their relatives.

For the garden who wants something stunning and lovely, we recommend the native Labrador Tea, Ledum groenlandicum (sometimes seen as Rhododendron groenlandicum). In 2007, on a plant hunting expedition with our mentor, the late Captain Steele, in Labrador, we collected seed of Labrador tea on a high, windswept cliff overlooking the Strait between Newfoundland and Labrador. These plants are now  a good size and have wonderful starry flowers and a rusty indumentum on the underside of the leaves.

Yellow rhododendrons are a delightful addition to the colour scheme, and we have several, including 'Capistrano', a fairly large plant, and the dainty 'Wren', a smaller variety. We find rhododendrons and azaleas are like potato chips--we can't have just one, and you can't either!

The beauty of Fallscaping: Berries and Foliage

While some people look at autumn with fear and loathing--because of our Atlantic winters on the horizon--we love the riot of colour found at this time of year. We at Baldwin Nurseries are wholehearted fans of the colours of autumn, when foliage erupts into blazing shades, when berries and seeds glow against leaf and twig. Let's show you some of the magical colours found in ornamental plants, both native and introduced. We'll start off with the flush of burgundy in this 'Popcorn' viburnum.

Not everyone can grow smoke bushes (Cotinus) successfully in Nova Scotia. In some areas, the temperature just gets too cold, and the winds are too brutal, to have these shrubs come through year after year. But many people CAN and do enjoy having a smoke bush in their plantings. Autumn really shows off the best of this shrub's attributes.
Our native oaks provide a gorgeous burst of colour, usually later in the season. They often will hold onto their leaves for a long time, right into winter, a process known as marcescence. Usually, younger trees and shrubs are more apt to do this than more mature specimens. Oaks, beeches, and hornbeams quite often exhibit marcescent behaviour.


The common shrub northern Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) has handsome leaves that turn marvelous shades of wine and burgundy...

...while the female plants display their waxy blue-grey berries, which are used to make bayberry candles by people, and enjoyed by various songbirds as a source of winter food.

Our native maples such as the sugar and red maple put on a spectacular show in autumn, turning our hillsides and streetsides glowing with carmine, fuchsia, scarlet, gold, bronze and crimson shades.

The native shrub Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) is an underutilized shrub in home landscapes. This is a great pity, because it's an easy care, hardworking shrub, with fernlike foliage that has a pleasing scent, and excellent fall colour.

Some of the hydrangeas, including the lacecap 'Blue Billows' and 'Preziosa', have excellent fall colour to their leaves and stems.

A nice selection of evergreens and hardwood shrubs and trees, glowing with a rainbow of shades. Not a flower in sight, but this is an attractive planting, isn't it?

One of the best native small trees or large shrubs, the amelanchier (various common names include shadbush, serviceberry, saskatoon, chuckly pear...) is an excellent choice for any garden. Early to bloom and leaf out, excellent fruits, and then this iridescent foliage colour in autumn. What's not to love?

Another tree that holds its foliage even after the colour has faded is the beech. Both the native and introduced species exhibit marcescense.

The native highbush cranberry is not a cranberry but a viburnum (Viburnum trilobum), a small tree or good-sized shrub with brilliant crimson berries. Songbirds eat these berries by late autumn. The foliage turns a handsome burgundy.

We carry a number of different cultivars of barberry at Baldwins, many of which have gorgeous fall colour. This is a common green form, which looks like foliar fireworks, and which is covered in bright crimson berries that show up beautifully after the leaves have fallen.

One of our hardy dogwoods, (Cornus sericea) with snowwhite berries against burgundy foliage.

All sumacs display excellent fall colour, although the most popular are the cutleaf sumac (shown here) and the new cultivar 'Tiger Eyes', which is even more brilliant. The berries of female sumacs are a good source of nutrients for songbirds.

Next time, we'll talk more about fall colour, with more of a focus on evergreens.

Critters of Baldwin Nurseries...

Whew. It's a busy, busy BUSY time of year (and hot, too) for nursery operators, for gardeners, for bloggers, for writers working on their book deadlines. Apologies to our readers for not updating sooner than this; the nursery owner is busy working with plants, while the other blog-tender has a book deadline approaching. That leaves me to fill in with some comments. I thought we'd talk about some of the wildlife you might see when you visit the nursery.

These waxwings were stuffing themselves on the barely-there fruit of the wild elder growing beside the fountaining pond in the upper part of the nursery. They were unafraid by the photographer's approach, until she got a little too close for their liking.
There are several different types of swallows hanging around and nesting at the nursery, including this handsome tree swallow.

Dragonflies come up from the irrigation pond to catch insects and bask in the warm of the sunlight.

We saw the first monarch butterflies several weeks ago, and were very excited to see them. While we haven't noticed any eggs yet, it's only a matter of time til we find caterpillars munching on the milkweed. After a couple of weeks of feeding and growing, they'll look for a place to pupate. Like the leaves of this weigela.

They'll split their skins one last time, this time turning into a gorgeous green chrysalis...and after a couple of weeks...

The next generation of adult monarchs will appear, ready to start the cycle all over again. While the adults will sip nectar from any of a myriad of wildflowers and cultivated plants, they MUST have milkweeds to lay their eggs on, as that's the only food their caterpillars will eat.

We at Baldwin Nurseries are a registered Monarch waystation!

Not only monarchs like to hang out here. We see a variety of other butterflies and moths, including one of several species of fritillary (here dining on the flowers of swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.

The Eastern Swallowtails are fond of a variety of flowers, including the coneflowers.

Hummingbird moths swarm to the buddleia, or butterfly bush, which I guess we can also call the hummingbird moth bush!

And there are plenty of insects to feed hungry baby swallows with. Score one for the swallows, and one less for the mosquitoes trying to feed on all of us!

Plantings for Pollinators

The last couple of weeks we've all been busy as bees at Baldwin Nurseries, but we're taking a few minutes off to catch up with readers and talk about plantings and pollinators. First, thank you to everyone who turned out and said hello and bought plants from us when we were at the Native Plant Sale at Acadia two weekends ago. It was terrific to see so many people intersted in native plants in particular, and gardening in general.

Speaking about being busy as bees, we've been thinking a lot about pollinators in the past few weeks. Pollinators are organisms that move pollen from one flower to another, allowing fertilization to take place, which leads in turn to seed or fruit production. Mind you, pollinating insects aren’t performing this task altruistically: they’re looking for nectar to feed themselves, and in the process of moving from flower to flower, transfer pollen.

Many people think of honeybees when they think of pollination, but they're just one of many different types of pollinators. And interestingly, honeybees aren't native to North America, but were brought here by settlers. There ARE many native pollinators, including bumble, carpenter, leafcutter and other solitary bees, hover flies, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and even some beetles.

We are very dedicated to encouraging pollinator gardens, and carry a variety of plants that are attractive to all kinds of different pollinators. In the past few years, more of us have been developing gardens that are wildlife friendly. In many cases, the wildlife we’re primarily focusing on are birds, perhaps some reptiles and amphibians, and butterflies. But the same sorts of things we do to attract these types of wildlife will also help encourage native pollinators and other beneficial creatures to visit our gardens.

What can we do to help entice pollinators to our gardens?
1. Don't use pesticides. Even organic products can be very detrimental to bees and other pollinators, so if you feel you must use something to combat a pest of some sort, make sure to follow manufacturers instructions and avoid spraying at times when pollinators are active.
2. Plant a wide variety of native and open-pollinated species of flowering plants, which are suited for the native pollinators in our region.
3. Leave an area of your garden "wild", allowing wild plants to flourish as habitat for pollinators to live in.

4. Plan your garden to have a good variety of flowers blooming from spring to fall. Spring flowering plants include witch hazels (hamamelis), willows (Salix), pulmonaria, (seen above), and many more.
5. Plant species with a wide range of colours, and plant them in drifts of one colour at a time rather than polka dot effect. Different types of pollinators are attracted to different colours, and its easier for them to see a drift of brilliant red bee balm or bright purple phlox than to look down at a 'muddy' mixture of many colours.
6. Select flowering plants with a variety of different shapes. Different type of pollinators work with different types of flowers. Hummingbirds, for example, use their long beaks and tongues to probe inside trumpet-shaped flowers of honeysuckle, weigela, columbine, and others. Magnolias are pollinated by beetles, so they have thick, sturdy petals and stamens strong enough to hold the beetles' weight, while butterflies like to land on flat-topped flowers such as milkweeds and asters.
7. Don't be in a huge hurry to weed out every wild plant. Goldenrod, for example, are important sources of pollen for bees, and the pollen will NOT make you sneeze, because it's too heavy to float through the air.

Here are some plants that are very useful to pollinators of different types.

Scarlet bee balm and wild bergamot (Monarda species.)
Lupines
Red Twig dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)
Herbs including borage, rosemary, thyme, dill and parsley
Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum)
Globe thistles (Echinops)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
Milkweeds (Asclepias—the only larval food for Monarch butterflies)
Asters, both cultivated and wild
Blazing star/gayfeather (Liatris)
Annual and perennial sunflowers
Yarrow (Achillea species)
Sedums, including ‘Autumn Joy’
Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea
Willows (Salix, various species)

Want to know more about pollinators? Check out the Wild About Gardening website of the Canadian Wildlife Federation, Monarch Watch, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Protection.

Native Plant Sale at Acadia University!

Want to get to know about us and about native plants? Come out on Saturday morning, June 5, 2010, because Baldwin Nurseries will be at the Native Plant Sale at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, from 9am to 12 noon.
The plant sale is being held in the Walled Garden and Conservatory area of the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens, adjoining the KC Irving Environmental Science Centre.
Plants grown by the Friends of the Acadia Forest Region Society, as well as nurseries like Baldwins and our friend Jill from Bunchberry Nurseries, will be available for sale.
We're great fans of native plants, because they are adapted to our soils and climate conditions, usually are resistant to local pests, and are handsome, hardworking plants for any landscape situation.

There is a growing interest in using plants native to our region in gardens, and you'd be surprised at just how many native species of perennials, shrubs and trees there are available for you to work with. Many of them are highly attractive to pollinators, have great fall colour, and produce terrific fruit, berries or seeds for wildlife to enjoy as well as for winter interest for us.

So we hope to see you at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning. Please come and say hello, and mention you saw our blog; we're open for suggestions about posts and information you'd like to hear from us!