Probably obvious to everyone but me
I recently had a DURR moment in my beekeeping class. The class featured a lecture on planning your garden to improve bee forage. I was surprised to learn that most hybrids don't produce any pollen and are therefore useless to bees.
I was shocked to learn this, but it makes sense. Every time a stamen is turned into a petal...for my lovely double daffodils, for example...that's less food for the bees.
I wonder if this is why my Coneflower "double decker" didn't produce any seedheads either; because it is a hybrid? I was depending on those seedheads to feed the goldfinches, and I was disappointed when the flowers turned black and fell off instead of making a nice big seedhead. It sure changes my whole gardening plan.
My mother who lives in California has a boatload of fresias every spring. They are small, single and cream colored, but they have the most awesome fragrance. Whenever I see fresias sold either as a cut flower or as a bulb in the nursery, they are some crazy hybrid that has a lot of color but almost 0 fragrance. I am asking her to smuggle me some bulbs next time she comes in the fall.
Another reason to choose heirloom varieties.
I was shocked to learn this, but it makes sense. Every time a stamen is turned into a petal...for my lovely double daffodils, for example...that's less food for the bees.
I wonder if this is why my Coneflower "double decker" didn't produce any seedheads either; because it is a hybrid? I was depending on those seedheads to feed the goldfinches, and I was disappointed when the flowers turned black and fell off instead of making a nice big seedhead. It sure changes my whole gardening plan.
My mother who lives in California has a boatload of fresias every spring. They are small, single and cream colored, but they have the most awesome fragrance. Whenever I see fresias sold either as a cut flower or as a bulb in the nursery, they are some crazy hybrid that has a lot of color but almost 0 fragrance. I am asking her to smuggle me some bulbs next time she comes in the fall.
Another reason to choose heirloom varieties.