There is a wide variation in pollinator attractiveness in the most popular yearly bedding plants .
Photo 1 . ' Cocktail Brandy ' begonia soak up among the most pollinator visits of the 25 plant varieties test in a recently published bailiwick . exposure by Heidi Lindberg , MSU Extension .
Pollinator wellness has been a theme at the top of people ’s minds over the last few years . legion field of study have shown that consumer are interested in bee - friendly plants and pest management practice and are unforced to pay a bounty for plant develop with bee - friendly practice . Plant marketer have answer to these findings by creating flashy point in time - of - cut-rate sale tag for plants well - known to be extremely attractive to pollinator include butterfly stroke weed ( Asclepias ) and Coreopsis ( Photos 2 and 3 ) .
Photos 2 and 3 . Point - of - cut-rate sale labels showing value of butterfly- and bee - friendly perennials in a garden center . photo by Heidi Lindberg , MSU Extension .
Dave Smitley , prof emeritus of bugology , recently bring out a study that reckon at pollinator visits of three to six cultivar of the six most pop yearly plant species : petunia , impatiens , begonia , geranium , pansy and New Guinea ( Photo 4 ) . These works species calculate for up to 50 % ( over $ 900,000 in sales ) of yearly sale in the U.S. Smitley and his team compared the number of pollinator visits among the popular plant species to two one-year flowers and two repeated flush bonk to be pollinator attractive : zinnia ' Zahara Sunburst , ' marigold ' Alumia Vanilla Cream ' , catmint ' Walker ’s Low ' and coneflower ' Pow Wow Wild Berry ' .
Photo 4 . Twenty - five different plant cultivar and the pollinator benchmark criterion pass judgment in the cogitation . Photo by Smitley et al . , 2024 .
While many cultivars of the most popular one-year flowers were not very attractive to pollinators compare to the benchmark annual and perennial species , there were a few that were moderately attractive to pollinators , including begonia ' Cocktail Brandy ' ( Photo 1 ) , begonia ' Ambassador Rose Blush ' , impatiens ' Accent Coral ' and impatiens ' Super Elfin XP White . '
Photo 5 . In 2018 , mean pollinator visits per bit for the intact 2018 growing time of year for all pollinator group combined . Source : Smitley et al . , 2024 .
There was great magnetic variation in pollinator attraction between cultivar even within species , ( Photo 5 ) . For illustration , begonia ' Cocktail Brandy ' had over double the pollinator visits compared with begonia ' Super Olympia Rose . ' The cultivars that were most attractive to pollinators would benefit from the added value of labeling them as bee - favorable . For more information , check out the pressure release , " Some varieties of annual flowers have a spot in pollinator - friendly gardens . "
rootage : canr.msu.edu
