The summer days have been rolling along and we have been able to get in a little gardening here and there, between all of the rain. I have been fielding many questions regarding how the 4-H youth are doing on their Flowers for Pollinators study. The kiddos have started counting their insects and we will report on their counts later in the gardening season. I have been receiving some awesome pictures from the kids with their flowers and gardens! They will be posted on the U of M blog at https://flowersforpollinators.wordpress.com/ and their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HortExtensionEducators/.

While we are waiting for our newly minted researchers to discover for us what plants work the best in our gardens, here are some facts about how previous annual flowers have done. The first exciting discovery is through research, we have found out that double flowers do not provide enough food for pollinators. We need to stay with the single flowers such as zinnias.

The 2015 research shows us which flowers were visited the most often to the least. The research in 2015 was limited to Zinnia and Salvia varieties. Salvia “Summer Jewel Red” was the winner which was closely followed by “Victoria White.” Zinnia’s that were closely following the attractiveness to pollinators were “Lilliput Mix” and “State Fair Mix.” Salvias as a whole did not fair very well and were not very interesting to pollinators along with Zinnia “Profusion Double Hot Cherry.” There was one Salvia that was an exception to the study and that was Salvia “Flare” which was quite high in pollinator visits.

The research that our area youth are contributing include zinnia, marigold, Suntastic sunflowers, butter daisy, cosmos, salvia, moss rose and a few others. The research will be coming from youth in 4-H from Lyon, Lincoln and Redwood counties. As you participate in our upcoming fairs, the Lyon and Lincoln County fairs, you will see an opportunity for the public to participate in this research too. The youth have a similar garden at both fairs and it will be set up for people to watch for pollinators for one minute, fill out a piece of paper and leave it in a box. We will tally each of the fair counts and I will place that data in this column for everyone to read about. This is called Citizen Science. The Flowers for Pollinators is something that you can conduct your own pollinator counts in your own garden. The research has been primarily done on annual plants. It is quite easy to do. You count the pollinators on your annual flowers for one minute and record how many and what kind of pollinator visited. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly what species that bee is or exactly what the name of that butterfly is — you know they are pollinators so just write down “bee” or “butterfly.” Make sure to write down which flowers you are watching so you can get a total at the end of the growing season. You may find that even though this one type of flower is very pretty, it doesn’t attract pollinators. There are some varieties of flowers out there that do not have much if any pollen for the pollinators. This may become a decision point for you and if you wish to keep growing that type of annual flower again.

The U of M offers many other programs for Citizen Science. The website for this program is located at http://citizenscience.umn.edu/get-involved-0. If you are interested in Monarch butterflies, they have a Citizen Science program for that too that most people can do at their very own home. It is fun and informative. It is something that the whole family can do together too.

The Lyon County Master Gardener program is looking for individuals who would like to work with our group and learn more about the Master Gardener program. If you would like to “Job Shadow” with our group, please contact me for further information. We have programs coming up with the Lyon County Fair. For more information on gardening, please contact me at s.dejaeghere@me.com or call 507-828-5754.