Daylily are hardy in Kansas. As you can see they do pretty well when your looking for ground cover. These are some growing under a pear a friend gave to me.
Parts of my orchard floor and my bee garden are full-on creeping charlie. Great early bee food. I dont mow until other food sources bloom. I love the stuff. If it smothered everything else i would never have to mow at all
Those are edible also, Clark. The blooms are good in stir-fry, especially with chicken, and the stem section of the tuber just below ground is crisp, tender and pure white, goes really good in a salad.
Not so fast, on the ‘bee food’.
Acres of this stuff in bloom along a river…and two hives of bees placed there on a trial bases a few years ago both died of starvation. (In late summer). One hive had just a few cells of dark honey, so bitter that I would classify the detestable dandelion honey to taste better in comparison.
Even the few scattered sourwood trees and a couple native American basswood trees in the valley didn’t help. But, acres of ‘creeping charlie’ do not a happy beehive make.
I would not have thought that Clark. Seems like a poor strategy to bring them in and be poor food. As a plant u stand to lose yr pollinators. Good for u to supplement them
I have been planting a lot of other pollen sources over the last 2 yrs. Going to clamp down on charlie and keep importing better stuff
I sold my bees over 20 years ago, (but may get a couple hives again for my own pollen and honey at some point…maybe I’ll have time when in retirement for them).
I would suggest “Gleanings in Bee Culture” and “American Bee Journal”, I submitted reports for state of Kentucky to them both in the early 1990’s. And there is a “Honey Plants Manual” you can buy…online if you don’t have other connections.
Good sources of info if you’re wanting to get up to speed on honeybees.
I’ve had the pleasure of sampling many flavors of honey…many of them from my own in times past. As well as little jars of imported stuff from over the years.
Sourwood is my favorite. The honeysuckle shrub so many people want rid of produces honey of the lightest shade of yellow (“water white” it is called). Blackberries, tulip popular trees, white Dutch clover, sweet clover, are great. A few ‘unusual’ harvests have come from Carolina Buckthorn, Black Locust, and hairy vetch. Getting to even have a wee taste with a toothpick of “creeping Charlie” honey, poison ivy honey, or maple tree blossom honey can be “fun” if you’re as devoted as I once was.
I use the orange daylily blooms fresh, I just tear or cut them a little and toss in a salad, or they cook quick in a stir-fry. When they cook, the color goes darker to a brownish orange with no specific taste to them they add bulk and pick up the flavors in the pan. For the stems, you don’t use the flower stem but the part of the plant itself just about an inch under ground, usually about 2 or 3 inches long but well above the actual tuber. When you peel off the outer skin it’s white and crisp without a real sweet or strong taste, just a fresh taste like many Spring greens. The white stem part looks about like the same part of a green onion. As with any food though, double check to verify that they are the common old orange daylily, I don’t think any of the Asian lilies are edible and may actually be toxic to an extent. I’ve only eaten the flowers and the stem section I described, not the leaves or tubers. I’ll try and post this link, it looks like gibberish but the article is here…Redirect Notice
THANK YOU! This is great information, im really glad we crossed paths here.
I will look-into those books.
I took a look today, and the CC is in tight bunches. Im going to plant over as much as i can, pull the rest - i think with white clover. ( is that dutch clover?)
I have loads of honeysuckle.
(I have an odd box-planting strategy. I put low cardboard boxes over what i want gone and plant what i want in the box. It looks silly for a bit but after a winter the sides are gone and it looks just fine.
I have lots of rose of sharon. Crabs. They work the 2 golden chain trees - is that a good pollen source? They work the flowers like mad
Bees will find enough pollen (desert locations or extended drought…maybe not). A bigger issue is they may find pollen where uncaring homeowners have sprayed their flowers with pesticides.
(Having dandelions, clover, or anything that blooms on the ground under fruit trees is a big risk to honeybees…if someone is spraying powerful pesticides on fruit trees and it contaminates other blossoms. Same for other spraying and dusting.)
(And I’m still not sure but what part of the “colony collapse” situation isn’t caused by bees collecting pollen from corn tassels…from genetically modified corn that has the “bt” in it…where corn ear worms eat the ears of corn and die automatically…I suspect larvae of honeybees fed this pollen die and therefore soon the hive of bees with no young bees is weak and doesn’t make it.!)
I have no experience with golden chain tree…except that I recognize it when I see it. But, t know the roots and seeds are harmful to fish and certain other wildlife. Have no idea if bees and it are a good match.
Basswood (tilia spp.) and Euodia (tetradium) the “BeeBee Tree” is probably worth planting if you can find any…they (Euodia/tetradium) come in male and female trees. They bloom when many other trees aren’t.
You mention rose of Sharon…probably fine for bees…but with many folks putting pesticides on it to kill Japanese beetles…be aware.