Good day, gardeners! I hope this newsletter finds you healthy and well. Here’s some knowledge and inspiration I wanted to share with you.
This piece on The View from Federal Twist by Anke Schmitz details the ending of naturalistic planting research at Hermannshof in Germany. Thanks to Giacomo Guzzon for translating it.
Research at the University of Gothenberg showed that having both honey bees and mason bees pollinating cherry trees resulted in greater yield than just either type of bee alone. They hypothesize the synergistic effect comes from the solitary mason bees changing the honey bee foraging behavior. While I have known that having multiple cultivars of a plant can increase yield, this case is the first time I’ve realized that having different bees could have a synergistic effect on fruit production.
Garden Media Group has come out with their 2024 trends report. They focus on seven personas—digital, bold, enchanting, eclectic, elevated, hopeful, and punchy.
Over the past few weeks at Ephemera Farm, we’ve gotten over 2 inches of rain! After an incredible long dry period, I have been celebrating. It’s amazing how fresh things look once again. Our two native rainlilies—Zephyranthes chlorosolen (evening rainlily) and Habranthus tubispathus (copper lily) are blooming. You can distinguish the genera apart because Zephranthes flowers are straight up while Habranthus have a slight bend.
As always, thanks for welcoming me into your inbox each week to share what I’m learning about plants.
Cheers, and keep growing!
Dr. Jared