Welcome Guest Blogger - Suzanne Weber!
Special Thanks
Over the course of 2022, Maryland Park Service launched Phase I of Project Butterfly and Bumblebee. If you are an MPS naturalist, ranger, or maintenance technician who recently established a pollinator habitat landscape or garden for Project Butterfly and Bumblebee, this blog posting is for you. Many thanks to you and your park’s great efforts, PB&B is well underway.
Introduction to
Overwintering Native Pollinator Habitats
Pollinators are inactive during the winter, in egg and pupa stages, or may undergo diapause (like hibernation.) During the winter, pollinators need safe spaces of refuge when they are dormant or undergoing metamorphosis. Please leave areas where larval host plants are located as undisturbed as possible during the winter months. If winter maintenance in pollinator habitats seems necessary, here are some guidelines to consider…
Overwintering Native Pollinator Plants
Collecting native plant seeds: When nature takes its course in pollinator habitats, wildflower seeds will self-sew and provide food for songbirds in winter. Collected seeds from native plants can be planted indoors to be transplanted, or scattered in the park. Snow will help wildflower seeds stratify, which will help to break dormancy in spring.
Milkweed stalks and pods are a familiar sight in park winter landscapes. If you collect milkweed seeds, they require 4-8 weeks cold stratification to germinate in spring. Milkweed easily self-seeds. Also dispersed by seed balls! When other flower stalks are knocked over, it’s best to leave them in place. If it’s necessary to remove the stalks, take them to a safe area in the park, and gently scatter, near milkweed is an excellent location. If there are any monarch eggs in this pile of flower stalks, late in the season, larvae can crawl to host milkweed plants.
Plant stalks and stems are excellent overwintering habitat for cavity nesting insects - pollinator eggs, pupae and larvae. Joe pye weed, baptisia stalks, and Black eyed Susans are upright, butterfly weed was knocked over by wind. In the spring, it’s ok to cut back stalks to 8-24” above ground, varying heights. Wait until after March or April to clip back or clear the leaves out of native perennial pollinator plant habitats. This is best for overwintering pollinators.
*Special note: For more information on the winter care of pollinator habitats and the pollinators which inhabit them, please refer to Xerces Society’s Nesting and Overwintering Habitat For Pollinators and Other Beneficial Insects. Print this article. Take it with you to your park’s pollinator habitat for inspiration. Refer to it as you as you make plans for the spring… Xerces Society are experts.
Overwintering Native Pollinator Shrubs
Newly planted native shrubs planted in your park’s pollinator habitat should be fine if established suitably during the growing season. No need for additional winter care, except it’s important to provide protection from deer. About pruning newly planted shrubs: wait until late winter or early spring.
Overwintering Native Pollinator Trees
Leave the Leaves.
Leaves provide winter protection of pollinators. Just a reminder that clearing away leaves with leaf blowers under trees is harmful to pollinators. It is, however, important to have cleared sidewalks that are safe for visitors and pedestrians. There are no easy answers to how to manage leaves in public areas. This is why it’s so important to plant pollinator habitats and to Leave the Leaves in pollinator habitats, and throughout the rest of your state park.
Sometimes mistakes happen and protecting newly planted pollinator habitats involves going slightly overboard! Staff untrained (in the ways of protecting pollinators) may use leaf blowers to clear leaves and stomped through pollinator habitat garden.
If deer are damaging trees, protect the tree bark with 4 ft tall plastic-coated fencing, or some other tree protection.
It’s generally fine to prune trees in winter. Please note that pruning birch, maple, dogwood, elm, walnut and yellowwood in late winter or early spring will result in running sap. This doesn’t harm the trees, but the issue can be avoided by waiting until May or June, or pruning in late fall or early winter.
Tree planting ended in early December. Wait until spring or fall for planting new trees.
Always remember when scheduling tree work to think about safety first and reschedule if weather is inclement. Injuries happen more often when tools are wet or you are otherwise distracted by uncomfortable conditions. It’s also easier to make pruning mistakes under stressful conditions.
If you planted trees in your park’s pollinator habitats, these articles on pruning guidelines are a good refresher. DNR Wildlife and University of Maryland Extension
Pollinators need sheltered places. Trees are shelters for pollinators. Butterflies and moth pupae benefit from leaves on the tree or leaves on the ground, tree canopies, tree cavities, tree canopies, woody piles or debris, tree snags… Proper tree care saves trees. Saving trees saves pollinators.
Is it ok to remove invasive species from pollinator habitats in winter?
Yes. That said, please exercise care when working in your park’s pollinator garden and remember to be mindful – this is their habitat. Better to not walk on damp, moist, or wet soil, as it will compact the soil. Ground nesting bees might be damaged by soil compaction.
Winter is likely the best time to remove the weedy rhizomes to avoid chiggers and deer ticks.
What else can be done before Spring?
Winter is a great time to evaluate successes and
challenges of your pollinator habitat plantings.
Project Butterfly and Bumblebee end notes:
Please let MPS Training Division know if your
park would be interested in sending a representative to a training event in the
future… Sponsored by MPS training
division and Project Butterfly and Bumblebee, for technical and moral support.
Coming soon: Information on developing QR Codes and signage for Project Butterfly and Bumblebee demonstration gardens.
Continuing
Education:
“Pollinator Habitat
101: An Introduction and Refresher”
When or If you have time, please watch the
excellent continuing education video series “Pollinator Habitat 101: An Introduction and Refresher” produced by
the Ohio State University. It would be
an excellent inclement weather activity.
Be prepared to take notes.
Tawes Garden in Winter
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