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LinkedInPosts Tagged: flower
Bad year for honeybees, good year for syrphid flies
Gordon Frankie a bee biologist at UC Berkeley and I are doing a study to ultimately identify what plants could grown in avocado orchards to attract more honeybees, as well as other pollinators and potential biocontrol agents. There are five orchards in Ventura and Santa Barbara where we have been monitoring flower visitation by different insects in order to get a baseline of what is there before introducing potential pollinator/biocontrol attractants. The numbers are finally in for last spring avocado bloom. Virtually no honeybees, but significant numbers of syrphid flies. They are also called flower flies or hover flies. They superficially resemble bees. They are predatory as larvae, primarily feeding on aphids. Then they become important pollinators as adults. They are not as efficient as honeybees because they lack all the hairs on their bodies where pollen gets stuck and carried to female flowers. The cause of the honeybee decline has many causes, but the most likely one is the drought in the avocado growing areas. There just aren't any plants in the foothill areas to provide pollen and nectar year round.
Images of egg, larvae (going after aphids) and adult syrphid flies
syrphid eggs
syrphid larvae
syrphid adult
Master Gardeners Make News in Ventura County
Recently "Ventana" a monthly magazine focusing on fine living in Ventura County published a four page spread on the program. The article describes the program and features a beautiful pictorial of Master Gardener projects and the Hansen Agricultural Center.
The author also spent time talking with our Master Gardener program coordinator, Leah Haynes, and some of the program volunteers. According to Leah Haynes, "There are 165 volunteers in Ventura County who put in at least 15,000 hours of community service a year."
This article in the September 2012 issue can be found at the Ventana website.
The Master Gardeners were also featured in the Local section of the Ventura Star, Tuesday, August 14, 2012 edition. The two-page article, entitled "Course to Teach Cut-Flower Skills" describes the Master Gardener flower cutting workshop that was held at the Hansen Agricultural Center in August. Sixty-five people attended this event which featured a presentation by a Master Gardener on the science of planning and growing cut flowers, soil preparation, seed and plant selection.
Check out the Ventura Star to search for this article.
Every year a new group of Master Gardeners are trained who then give back to the community with knowledge and service. Our office is proud to be associated with these dedicated volunteers and look forward to seeing them spread their seeds of gardening know-how in the county.
