Great South Florida Vines

29. June 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

This is what Kimberly asked:

KimberlyO says:
29. June 2010 at 12:48 |We have an outdoor lanai/shower. We want to cover most of the wood with vine type plants. I know I have seen wood covered before with vines but I would appreciate your guidance as to what type of vines would give not only greenery but we would like vines that bloom. What are your thoughts?

Kimberly, we are so lucky to have such a broad variety of vines that do well in south Florida. Many are fast growers and cover a broad expanse quickly.

Some of my favorites which are also butterfly hosts, include: Passion Vine, they come in a variety of colored flowers. One fruits and the native gets a very small fruit and tiny flower. The others have very showy flowers. Passion Vine Flowers are subtly scented. Pelican Vine and Pipe Vine and other Aristolocha varities are great, as well.

Native Honeysuckle Vine is a butterfly nectar and fine choice if you are looking for a less agressive vine, which doesn’t grow as quickly.

Lonicera (Honeysuckles) have lovely scented trumpet shaped flowers.

Native Climatis has small scented white flowers.

The Mexican Flame is a butterfly nectar host and the orange flowers are subtly scented.

These are twining vines which will cling to your trellis or fence. They require a lot of sun to bloom well.

Native Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans) and the native Allamanda are fine vines for this area. Native Allamada is quite different than the varieties one usually sees in garden centers.

Clereodendrum vines are lovely and thrive in our area.

For a shady area  choose (Thunbergia grandiflora) Sky Vine with its showy lavender blue flowers or the White flowered Clock vine with its scented flowers.

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Pollinator Peril, Will Conservation and Research Efforts Prevent The Extinction of Bees?

5. June 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

By Carol “Pink Shovel” Whitaker

 

Have you ever gotten yourself really sick because of your lifestyle? Have you ever felt sick to the point where you feel you just can’t take it anymore? Driving long distances in traffic, running from chore to chore? Run down from all the fast food you’ve been eating, the same thing every day? Dragging through the days, barely functioning, not getting everything done that needs to be done? Spending far too much time doing simple chores, disoriented, wondering where did you put your keys?  Everything hurt? Tired?

 

But for the disappearance of the bees, which occurs with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), if this sounds like you or someone you know, then you likely have a lot in common with Honey bees and other pollinators. While it’s been widely publicized since 2006 that Honey bees are sick and disappearing, the plight of wild bees has not been as widely publicized.

 

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name used to describe what is happening to honeybees, is characterized by the disappearance of large numbers of bees from managed honeybee colonies. The magnitude of losses over recent years has scientists, beekeepers and growers concerned.

 

The scarcity of vital pollinators, both domesticated honeybees and wild bees, could drive up prices of almonds, oranges, blueberries, cranberries and a host of other important bee dependant food crops, as the demise of the pollinators continues. Along with rising prices, in a worse case scenario with the loss of pollinators, the food crops that depend on them could disappear completely from the market.

 

Various culprits have been blamed for CCD over the years. In 2007 imported Australian bees were blamed as a possible source, due to a virus they may be responsible for bringing into the country.

 

Whatever the cause, over the years scientists have discovered that not only are honey bees sick and getting sicker, slow, disoriented, and disappearing, so are native bees.

 

Bees problems are growing, and their numbers continue to dwindle, while crop sizes grows.

 

It has been suggested by some scientists, that bumblebees in particular, another work horse social bee, are victims of diseases spread by commercial bumble bees shipped around North America to pollinate crops.

 

Some scientists, along with many beekeepers, believe that indigenous bee pollinators and honeybees have been killed off due to monoculture planting and pesticide use.

 

 

While scientists don’t agree on any single culprit which is causing their demise, James Ellis, an entomologist who studies bees at the University of Florida, believes bee illnesses and losses are the result of a combination of elements that make up their lifestyle, a combination of management and environmental stressors.

 

The combination of problems of honey bees’ lifestyles runs the gamut. Nutritional stress is part of their problem. Bees are feed on monocultures of the same crops over and over. And when not pollinating one particular crop, honey bees are fed sugar water. This limited food source for a bee is not a well-rounded diet, kind of like eating only McDonalds or  submarine sandwiches or turkey on rye everyday would be for us. In nature honeybees feed on a variety of plant flowers. 

 

Pesticides are a common problem, a no-brainer, according to Ellis.

 

In his research, Ellis has found 80 different chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides in honey bee colonies.

 

“Developing honey bees,” says Ellis, “can forage up to three miles or twenty eight square miles in all directions. They bring exposures back and they get concentrated in their wax.

 

“Pesticides are killing them in their larval stage.”

 

David Mendes, president of the American Bee Keeping Federation is concerned. “We believe small does of pesticide are impacting the bees,” he says.

 

He and others like him, have seen the symptoms of CCD in the hives. The bees’ immune systems and feeding behaviors are affected. Bees suffer memory loss, become sick and stop eating. He believes the viruses the bees are contracting are a symptom of the problem and not the cause.

 

Viruses such as Nozema; and pests like the Varroa mite are two of a host of known problems bees are subject to.

 

In addition, says Ellis, a lack of genetic biodiversity caused by their management in colonies, plays a role.  And winter is another stressor, he says. All, he thinks, contribute to CCD. So that they can survive the winter, bees are often kept over winter in Florida.

The lifestyle of domesticated honey bees requires that they live in their colonies in boxes, which are seasonally tossed up onto the backs of trucks and carted around the country to various crops in a variety of states when it’s time to pollinate.

 

Imported European honey bees are  considered the most important single crop pollinator in the United States. They are essential to many of our industrial food crops, included among them are almonds in California, blueberries in Main and cranberries in Massachusetts. That means quite a few yearly trips and back, on the back of a truck for oodles of boxes of bees.

 

According to Ellis managed colonies have been suffering decline in this country for the past 70 years. 

 

According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in a 2006 report prepared by the National Research Committee (NRC), all North American pollinators are in decline. This includes honeybees and hundreds of species of native, unmanaged, wild bees.

 

Recently, in an effort to cut down on bumble bee loses, a group of entomologists, The Xerces Society For Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Oregon, and other environmental groups joined in supporting a petition to regulate the commercial bumblebee industry. The group hopes to change laws to require managed bumble bees be inspected and certified as disease free.

 

Bees pollinate a host of fruits, nuts, and vegetables in the United States and are responsible for approximately $15 billion annually in crops according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Scientists at The Xerces Society and Cornell University estimate native bees are worth $3 billion annually in the U. S., making them vital to the crop industry and sustainability of agriculture.

 

According to the Xerces Society website and its director, Scott Hoffman Black, a wide range of native bees help with crop pollination, and in some cases provide all of the pollination required. Wild bees are also especially important as pollinators for cover crops of clover and alfalfa eaten by animal crops on sustainable farms.

 

In addition to their role as food crop pollinators, wild native bees are also essential to the integrity of many ecosystems, from forest understory and pastures, to fields, meadows, orchards, vegetable and flower gardens, our own gardens and roadsides. Without native bees, sustainability and productivity of our ecosystems will be lost. Many flower plants would become extinct.

 

The health of these important pollinators is important to sustainability: our sustainability, and that of many other living species. The loss of bees will come at a considerable cost.

 

Since 1950 the number of managed honey bee hives in the United States has declined by 50 percent.

 

The past four or five years the decline has worsened.  Five years ago, says Ellis, there were 5 million. Now there are 2.4 million. If the decline continues at this rate, in 70 years there would be no bees left.

 

 “The losses are significant when our nations food supply is dependant on these creatures,” says Ellis, who has been keeping bees since he was 12.

 

In a recent survey conducted by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA), honey bee colonies nationwide lost 33.8 percent of their bees from October 2009 to April 2010.

 

An increased loss over a similar survey from 2008-2009, when losses were reported at 29 percent.

 

“The colony losses that beekeepers are suffering, at greater than 30% per year, are unsustainable,” says lead researcher, Jeffrey Pettis of ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville Maryland. “CCD has added an extra burden to keeping bees at a time when our agricultural production is being asked to increase to feed a growing world.”

 

Pettis notes that losses over the summer months were not documented in the recent survey.  Like Ellis, Pettis believes the problem of CCD cannot be attributed to one specific problem, but is caused by “a combination of factors.”

 

He and entomologist, Jay D. Evans continue to research the problem, conducting experiments that will assess the effects of a combination of factors. One study will look at the effects of exposure to pesticides and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), and another will look at the effects of the combination of pesticides and Varroa mites.

 

There is an estimated 4,000 species of wild bees native to the United States.

 

According to Ellis, there are 1400 registered beekeepers in Florida.

 

What can we do as citizens and gardeners to help with bee conservation?

 

Bees forage for nectar, so provide plenty of nectar sources with blooming flowers. Native plants are always a smart choice to provide habitat for desirable wildlife. Check out the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign at www.nappc.org. for more good plant choices, or check with the Native Plant Conservation Society where you can find a listing for your local native plant society at www.plantsocieties.org.

 

 

 

 

Carol can be reached for comment at her blog at www.greengardenersnews.com

or email at thepinkshovel@greengardenersnews.com

or pinkie@pinkshovellandscapes.com

 

Photograph by Jacob P. Whitaker

 

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