Gardening for the Bumblebees of Vancouver Island

Here are the resource links from my talk at Saanich Seedy Saturday. Thanks again for such an awesome event! Island people are the best. These are the bare bones of my resources, but I will keep adding to this.

Saanich Native Plants: They have workshops and sell plants and seeds. They are giving a workshop on the Garry Oak Ecosystem in April/May.

 http://www.saanichnativeplants.com/About_us.html

Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team: Their handbook has garden plans in it that are fabulous for bees

http://www.goert.ca/

Dr. Elizabeth Elle’s info for the Public

http://www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/elle/Bee_info.html

An article on Dr. Elle’s work on Vancouver Island

http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/whats-the-buzz-on-bees-at.html

http://journals.sfu.ca/cfn/index.php/cfn/article/view/113

Habitat Acquisition Trust: Their brochure on native gardening is the bee’s knees.

http://www.hat.bc.ca/attachments/HAT_Garden_Brochure_web.pdf

How to make a bumblebee box

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nests_for_native_bees_fact_sheet_xerces_society.pdf

Rosemary at Willow Wood Farm on Vancouver Island sells many varieties of willows that are great for early spring forage for bees.

I also highly recommend Gardens Aflame: Garry Oak Meadows of BC’s South Coast

By Maleea Acker, published by New Star Books. It’s such a passionate and poetic celebration of the Garry Oak meadows.

Bombus occidentalis Plant List Garry Oak Ecosystem

Early Flowering (from March)

yellow glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum)

white fawn lily (Erythronium oregonum)

pink fawn lily (Erythronium revolutum)

red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)

broad-leaved shootingstar (Dodecatheon hendersonii)

sea blush (Plectritis congesta)

spring-gold (Lomatium utriculatum)

Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)

Mid-Season April-July

arbutus (Arbutus menziesii) a great tree for bumblebees

camas species (Camassia spp.)

gold star (Crocidium multicaule)  (Aster family)

menzie’s larkspur (Delphinium menziesii)

nootka rose (Rosa nutkana)

oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor)

snowberry (Symphoricarpos spp.)

Deltoid Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea)

wooly sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum)

Late-flowering (until Aug or Sept)

pearly everlasting  (Anaphalis margaritacea)

nodding onion (Allium cernuum)

salal (Gaultheria shallon)

evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)

entire-leaved gumweed (Grindelia stricta)

white glacier lilly (Erythronium Montanum)

(Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery)

Team Society, 2009, p. 32; USDA Forest Service, 2010, p. 2.

Source: Native Pollinator Campus Restoration Project, Darnell it al, University of Victoria, 2014.

https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/environmental/assets/docs/course341/Native_Pollinator_Spring%202014.pdf

Some of the key plants for bumblebees in the Garry Oak Ecosystems (from Dr. Elle’s list)

1)   Common Camas (Camassia quamash)

2)    Great Camas (Camassia leichtlinii )

3)   Snowberry (Symphoricarpus albus)

4)   Sea Blush (Plectritus congesta)

5)   Trailing Blackberry (Rubus ursinus)

6)   Dull Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa)

7)   Salal (Gaultheria shallon)

8)   Menzies Larkspur (Dephinium menziesii)

9)   Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii)

10) Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium)

11) Hardhack (Spirea douglasii)

12)  Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana)

13)  Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor)

14)   Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parviflora)

15)   Oregon Sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum)

16)     Pacific sanicle (Sanicula crassicaulis)

17)    Field chickweed (Cerastium arvens)