2 MILLION BLOSSOMS


Planting gardens to feed and attract pollinators was


unheard of in decades past. Not many years ago, people were hard-pressed to describe pollination, much less the creatures that do it. But now legions of gardeners, land managers, and  birds, and a catchall of less familiar pollinators. Open any gardening or seed catalog and you will see choices galore  appeal to pollinators. As we wander past tables crowded with plastic pots,


                   the yearly pollination chore? How can we maximize the value of our plantings for pollinators and still maintain an attractive landscape?


Native Plants for Native Creatures One of the most common bits of advice is simple: Select plants that are native to the geographic region of the garden.          and fauna native to any geographic area evolved together, becoming interdependent through time. For example, some  pollinators, and those pollinators, in turn, have nutritional        


26


 


dictated by years of coevolution in a spectacular choreography of insect and host. In some of the tightest relationships, only one pair of species is mutually suitable. More commonly, one               those with the most explicit dependencies.


Finding Native Plants The idea of planting natives is appealing, but the execution is   Retailers responding to requests for native species have begun to carry both seeds and starts for gardeners. Many of these are nativars—another word for native cultivated varieties—and they have names and labels to help you learn  grow. But before we get into the details of nativars, I want to  planting for generations.


What is a Cultivar? The word cultivar is short for cultivated variety. A cultivar is a variety of plant developed from breeding, using techniques


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