What a year we’ve had! We’re reflecting back and feeling grateful for your support of Bees N Blooms during such an unpredictable time. This week we are sharing the importance of planting organic trees. Fall is a key time to plant trees and shrubs. Here at the farm, we sell a variety of pollinator-friendly, organic trees for your consideration. Our trees are now 25% off, through December 1. You can purchase through the online store and arrange a pickup time, or make an appointment to come by and take a look at the trees to pick out your favorites. Delivery is available to addresses in Sonoma and Marin counties. Also, don’t forget to mark your calendars for our pop-up open-farm weekend on October 17th and 18th!
Eureka! Trees are like Gold
As many of you may know, planting trees accomplishes many vital functions for overall ecosystem health: they produce oxygen, slow storm water run-off and erosion, provide shade, sound barriers, and windbreaks, feed pollinators, and sequester carbon dioxide. Planting organic trees goes one step further, by providing pesticide-free food for pollinators. More on that below. Each of you can be pollinator protectors by investing in organic, pollinator-friendly trees for your yard and garden. Planting now, as we head into the fall season, ensures that the trees will not struggle in the summer heat, and the coming rains will provide the water needed to establish a stable root system for the years to come.
Why Trees for Pollinators?
We don’t often think of trees when planning our pollinator gardens, but we should! Think of them as a three-dimensional source of nectar and pollen, providing much more bloom per square foot of ground space than other flowering plants. We decided to focus our production on pollinator-friendly trees that provide forage for bees throughout the year. Honey Locust blooms in spring, Lindens in early summer, and most important of all, the late summer/fall-blooming trees Red Flowering Gum and Purple Chaste Tree (Vitex). These late-blooming trees are critical for pollinators, as there is little else for forage here in dry Northern California at that time of year.
Why Organic Trees?
These trees are important for the ecosystem because they are free of systemic pesticides. Bees N Blooms is one of the few tree nurseries in the U.S. that is certified organic. Most other nurseries use systemic insecticides and fungicides to manage pests; however, most of the pesticides used are very persistent once inside the tree and can make the pollen and nectar poisonous to pollinators for several years after planting.* Specifically, nurseries typically use neonicotinoid pesticides and some fungicides. This makes the pollen and nectar poisonous to pollinators. Neonicotinoids have been linked to colony losses in honeybees and declines in other insect species, as well as insectivorous birds. In the last few years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that the extensive (and typically prophylactic) use of these insecticides is disrupting crucial aspects of water and soil ecosystems, thus placing ecosystem services and biodiversity at risk.
Systemic insecticides are chemicals that are absorbed by a plant when applied to soil, leaves, and/or seeds. Once applied, these chemicals subsequently circulate through the plant’s tissues, killing the insects that feed on plant sap. But all parts of the plant, including pollen and nectar, are now toxic to insects. In 2013, 50,000 bumble bees died in Wilsonville, OR when someone treated flowering Linden trees that hung over a Target parking lot with a neonicotinoid insecticide. The store didn’t want sap dripping on the cars parked below. We can do better than this.
The initial use of neonicotinoid pesticides on food crops began in 1994. It has steadily increased over the last 25 years, such that most of the 400 million acres of agricultural land is now treated with these chemicals. For perennial plants like trees, residues of these insecticides can persist for several years, remaining toxic to pollinators long after treatment. To protect the health of pollinators, it is critical to plant pesticide-free forage for them.
Our Trees
We currently have five different types of trees available,: Red-flowering Gum, Vitex, Red Maple (x Freemanii), Honey Locust, and Silver Linden. Below, we highlight two of our late-summer-blooming favorites, Red-flowering Gum and Vitex. For more info, see our main tree page.
The Beautiful Red Flowering Gum Tree
A native of Australia, Corymbia ficifolia grows best on the western coast of the United States and is seldom successful in the interior climates. It prefers temperate coastal conditions, where it tolerates salt spray, dryness and smog. For this reason, these trees are popular in California. Some of the areas where they grow successfully in the state include, Burlingame, San Diego, San Francisco, San Leandro, Solvang, Pacific Grove, South Pasadena, and now Santa Rosa! The City of San Francisco uses these trees for street trees, creating a spectacular display of bloom and food for the pollinators. This tree can live up to 150 years, reaching heights of 18 to 45 feet. Its flowers are spectacular clusters of red or orange, blooming in late Summer through fall.
Vitex, A Bumblebee favorite
The Vitex trees (also known as Chaste Tree) are also blooming now, much to the delight of the bumblebees. These trees produce spikes of purple flowers from mid-summer to early fall. The Vitex tree attracts both butterflies and bees and grows anywhere from twelve to twenty feet tall. They are clay-tolerant, so perfect for our Sonoma County adobe soil.
