Re: question about non-native plants and pollinators

**A*@aol.com**

Carolyn,

The authority on native bees (and other pollinators) is The Xerces  
Society. The link to the native bee section is  
http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/native-bees/ .  Basically, if they don't know it, it isn't yet 
known. They have some  wonderful materials which will be extremely helpful to 
you. 

About native vs. non-native plants: Non-native plants are fine if they are  
attractive to bees. While it may be fun to specialize in native plants 
only,  we'd miss out on some of the wonderful plants which are also attractive 
to bees,  such as those which you've mentioned and many others, such as 
lavender and  Russian sage, both of which absolutely swarm with bees in my 
garden. 

An hour exploring their web site will be well spent. Don't confine yourself 
 exclusively to pollen plants. Read about nesting requirements as well. 
After  reading their web site, I'm just a little less tidy in my garden than 
I've been  in the past, to give them spaces of their own.

Lina Burton

In a message dated 7/9/2016 1:50:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
cultivated13@gmail.com writes:

I'm well  aware of the importance of growing native plants in order to 
benefit  pollinating birds and insects. But I also see in my garden that certain 
 non-natives attract bees and other insects.  Nepeta, calamintha and  
Allium 'Spring Beauty' attract bees in droves, and the nepeta is particuarly  
valuable, it seems to me, because it gives the bees something to eat in May  
when Joe Pye weed, cultiver's root, echinacea, milkweeds, anise hyssop and  
ironweed are still weeks away from blooming.  I have Penstemon digitalis,  
which the bees like in May, but they also like nepeta at that time, and it  
seems to me that they need the nepeta. 

Should I not grow crocus? At  the end of March, when the snow crocus open, 
I always see some bees hovering  above them. If I didn't have the crocus, 
what would these bees be able to feed  on?

So is there any "harm" in growing these non-natives?  Does the  pollen from 
these and other non-natives negatively affect the ecosystem in  some way? 
I'd like to contact someone who can speak authoritatively on this  topic and 
not polemically. 

Carolyn  Ulrich
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