The Best BOMBs: Blue Orchard Mason Bees!
By Katie Vincent, Garden Hotline Educator
Honeybees may be cute, popular and extra fuzzy, but the real proboscis behind most of our region’s fruit crops is a completely different arthropod: the blue orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria). Why Choose Mason Bees? Native to North America, mason bees get their common name from their habit of patching up naturally occurring holes with […]
Celebrate the return of our cool season flowers!
Sue Hartman, Garden Hotline Educator ‘Tis the season for pansies, violas, calendula, and sweet alyssum. The weather is changing, the rains are returning and the nights are cooling off. This means those delightful spring bloomers that thrive in this kind of weather are also returning to our gardens. They will all easily self-sow and Calendula […]