Other Pollinators habitat gardening

Bees, flies, beetles and other pollinating insects are an endless and fascinating study, and California native plants that are beautiful and easy to grow can attract a multitude of these creatures into a habitat garden. Native bees alone encompass over 10,000 different species in North America. Incorporating a diversity of native plants in our home and public gardens can help support the survival of these important pollinators essential to sustaining natural ecosystems and agriculture All you have to do is observe, enjoy and learn….

• Access the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Gardens website for information about pollinator gardens and click here to review an article by Jaime Pawelek and Gordon Frankie on pollinator habitat.
• The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
• Creating Nest Sites for Native Bees (pdf): for some, it's a simple as creating a patch of bare soil over the growing season.
• California Plants for Native Bees (pdf)
• Plants for Native Bees in the Pacific Northwest (pdf)
• California Agriculture, July-September 2009 Volume 63, Number 3: Native bees enrich urban gardens (pdf) (Peer-Reviewed Research Article)
• Las Pilitas Nursery list of plants to attract bumblebees and other interesting native bees
• Tree of Life Nursery handout Creating a Pollinator Garden

Fascinating bees in amazing jewel colors visit habitat gardens, such as this beauty on an Oenothera species (primrose) flower. Photo by Laura Camp

Pollinator on Desert Gold Poppy, Eschscholtzia glyptosperma. Photo by Laura Camp