While you’re hopefully bundled up in a warm place reading this blog, the pollinators that support our local ecosystems don’t have this luxury. They rely on overwintering strategies for shelter and insulation during the cold months. Overwintering is a general term that describes how various species survive the cold. IIt’s not a universal strategy, but […]

Nectar is often seen as a simple sugary reward that plants offer to pollinators, fueling the flight of insects and birds that visit flowers. However, recent research reveals that it is much more than just a food source. There are secondary metabolites in nectar and pollen known as nectar secondary compounds (NSCs). NSCs are complex […]

Pollinators are organisms that transfer pollen from the male structures of flowers (anthers) to the female structures (stigmas), facilitating plant reproduction. This makes them vital to the health of our ecosystems. Common pollinators like bees and butterflies have seen their numbers threatened in recent years. Various factors cause this, but any gardeners or landscape architects […]

Since before there were any humans around taking note of it, pollinators have played an invaluable role in maintaining the natural environment. They’ve evolved alongside the native plant species they feed on and help pollinate, which means the two are so intertwined they cannot live without each other. This codependency means that anyone interested in […]

From overcoming dormancy with stratification to ideal soil and planting practices, our guide will teach you everything you need to cultivate butterfly milkweed successfully.

The Allegheny County Parks Foundation in Pennsylvania oversees the operation of one of the largest regional park systems in the United States. The nine parks under their care occupy over 12,000 acres of land in the areas surrounding the city of Pittsburgh and welcome more than 22 million visitors each year.  After conducting a 2015 […]

Envisioning the Possibilities for Pollinators In 2015, when the McCormick Corporation announced that they would break ground on their new headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland, they saw 350,000 square feet of possibilities. They planned on offering amenities like a full-service café and a fitness center, which spoke to their company’s desire to create an inviting […]

Creating habitat for pollinators is one of the most effective and efficient ways we can naturalize our landscapes. By establishing healthy, diverse wildflower meadows with the intent to accommodate native pollinators, landscape architects can combine sustainability with design. In 2016, Bill Kieffer, a landscape architect at Hershey Gardens, partnered with Ernst Seeds to build a […]

The PA Queen Project and the HHBBC, with support from Penn State University and Purdue University, collaborated on a study comparing colonies with varroa mite-resistant queens versus non-varroa mite-resistant queens from 2018 to 2019. The study enlisted 100 hobbyist beekeepers in the comparison study with the objective of helping change their behavior to promote varroa […]

by Rachel Sohmer Solar farms can (and should) do more than produce clean energy. Creating pollinator habitat at solar energy sites means renewable energy in a sustainable landscape that benefits us all. As the sight of rows upon rows of solar panels sprawling across the landscape becomes increasingly more common, we have good reason to […]