Pollinator favorites: Anise hyssop and African blue basil draw a crowd

Herb gardeners are well aware that bees love herbs – their flowers almost vibrate with activity as summer arrives. Lavender, thyme, rosemary, mint, oregano, borage, and bee balm are all favorites among the bees.

However, the two that seem to attract the most attention are anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and African blue basil (Ocimum kilimandscharicum x basilicum). Both are carefree herbs with so many endearing characteristics for pollinators and humans alike.

Anise hyssop is a tender perennial that reaches up to four feet tall and around one to two feet wide, thriving in full sun and average, well-drained soil. With pale purple flower spikes, it's a very attractive candidate for the herb or butterfly garden. This stately plant will not only buzz with bees of all types, but moths and hummingbirds too.

Anise Hyssop, “all-star bee plant,” enhances gardens and landscapes. (Photo: Elizabeth Georges)

Historically, mass plantings of anise hyssop were established in parts of the Midwest specifically as a honey plant. Nineteenth century beekeeper accounts claimed that a single acre could provide ample forage for 100 colonies of honeybees. Besides being an all-star bee plant, the fragrant leaves make a lovely anise scented tea or syrup. The individual blossoms could even adorn a salad.

African blue basil is a sterile hybrid of an East African camphor basil and a standard garden variety called ‘Dark Opal’. It produces leaves that are rich green with deep purple venation, and long purple stems sending up spikes of delicate lavender blossoms.

Unable to produce seeds of its own, this herb is easily grown from cuttings and works great as a standalone shrub or a border plant in full to part sun. It’s considered a tender perennial and will not survive a frost. It can be overwintered inside if grown in a pot, then planted in the ground come spring.

The amount of pollinator activity on this selection makes it a benefit to any garden – from European honeybees, to native solitary bees and beneficial wasps – African blue basil is simply alive with pollinators when in bloom.

The leaves exude a musky camphor-laced flavor that may be too pungent and less appealing to those who are familiar with more traditional basil flavors. I find it flavors pesto and sauces nicely and makes a stunning addition to herbal vinegars and scented oils.

Tiny metallic green sweat bee visiting African blue basil. Photo by Elizabeth Georges. African blue basil blooms are very attractive to many native bees and beneficial wasps. (Photo: Elizabeth Georges)

As well as being beneficial for native bees and other pollinators, African blue basil and anise hyssop are very easy to grow – no special herb garden necessary. You can plant them in the existing landscape, mixed with other native wildflowers and ornamentals, or you can plant them in a pot.

Attracting wildlife, in this case our very special pollinators, takes a little extra work, but the effort is worth it when you see and hear the hum of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and moths visiting your herbs. Have a go and you will be amazed how much life you will attract with just a few plants.

Backyard pond attracts frogs, dragonflies and birds

Vanessa and Richard Crisler designed a pond in their Betton Hills backyard, not for fish, but for frogs, dragonflies, and other wildlife. It is shallow and includes a sandy, gravelly beach along one edge.

They were shocked when an immature bald eagle perched on a snag above the pond and hung around for half a day. They often have hawks and owls bathing, drinking, and catching frogs, snakes, and other critters using the pond.

At Native Nurseries, I like to hear the sound of the large leopard frogs plopping into the water as I approach the pond in the evening. It is exciting to watch an occasional great egret or great blue heron hunt for fish and frogs in the pond. I even enjoy watching banded water snakes basking in the sun while curled up on a pond plant at the edge of the pond.

People build ponds for lots of reasons; for the tranquil scenery, for the relaxing sound of cascading water, for cultivating prized water lilies or koi, and for providing wildlife habitat. If attracting wildlife to your pond is your goal, planting native pond plants is your means to achieve it. Build habitat and they will come.

Plants serve as food, cover, and habitat for small fish and insects which become part of the food web for other wildlife. In addition, plants are of utmost importance in creating a healthy garden pond.

It is good to incorporate a variety of types of plants in your pond or water garden. There are two categories of underwater plants, submerged and deep-water aquatics. Both survive and thrive with their roots underwater or in permanently saturated soil.

Submerged plants have underwater leaves. Two of the best submerged plants are hornwort and tapegrass. Both provide cover and breeding habitat for fish, frogs and other wildlife. They help oxygenate the pond, releasing oxygen from their leaves as a by-product of photosynthesis. Oxygen passes directly into the water, enabling the water to support other life forms.

This garden pond, planted with all native plants, provides habitat for wildlife.

Hornwort is a free-floating plant and is purchased by the handful and released to float loosely in the pond. Tapegrass, purchased in small pots and placed on the bottom of the pond, is a graceful underwater undulating grass for sun or shade. Both will multiply and need to be thinned periodically.

Deep water aquatic plants have roots and flexible stems which are submerged, but leaves and flowers must float above the water. Good examples are water lilies, which must have sun in order to bloom well.

In addition to providing habitat, underwater plants also absorb nutrients (from pond fish) that are dissolved in water, thereby competing with algae. Probably more important in the control of algae is the shade that water lilies and other plants provide. Good advice is to plant your pond with enough aquatic plants to cover 60 to 80 percent of the pond's surface. However, remember that algae is a fact of life for a water gardener. It cannot be totally eliminated but can be controlled through creating a balanced ecosystem.

Your pond should also contain marginal or edge plants that inhabit shallow water or the edges of a water garden. They provide vertical contrast and cover for birds, aquatic insects, and other small creatures. It is important to position marginals in the depth of water that best suits each individual plant. Most grow quickly; you may need to control growth by isolating them in planting beds or in pots.

Some good examples are lemon bacopa, duck potato or arrowhead, pickerelweed, soft rush, yellow canna lily, powderblue snakeroot, cardinal flower, and blue flag iris. Lemon bacopa is a low growing, mat-forming perennial found on saturated soil or shallowly inundated. It has bright blue flowers in summer and what I love most about it is its lemon scented foliage.

Another favorite is cardinal flower, with its brilliant red flower spikes that hummingbirds visit in summer. This can be planted at the edge of the pond or kept in a clay pot sitting in shallow water. Want butterflies? Plant pickerel weed with its lovely purple blossoms.

Finally, use moisture loving plants around the pond to create habitat and to lightly shade the pond. These are the plants that thrive in moist soil but will not tolerate waterlogged soil. A good example is maidenhair fern. It will accent the rocks around the edges of your pond but will die off if inundated.

All the plants listed in this article are native to Florida. Be very careful with non-native aquatic plants. Some may have the potential to become the next invasive plant, such as hydrilla or water hyacinths, which choke our lakes, rivers, and springs. The worst of our aquatic invasives were introduced as pond plants through the aquarium and nursery industries.

The Other Coneflower

There are many tough and lovely native wildflowers that belong in more gardens but are overlooked and underappreciated. Many of them may even be rare or listed endangered plants, even though they are surprisingly prolific and low-maintenance. The common purple coneflower, a species found in many butterfly gardens and even commercial landscapes, is actually a state listed endangered species which only occurs naturally in Florida in Gadsden County.

The common purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is actually a state listed endangered species that only occurs naturally in Florida in Gadsden County. Photo by Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org.

The native wildflower in which I wrote this article to praise, prairie coneflower, is also uncommon in the state. In all of Florida it occurs only in Jackson and Gadsden counties. Like the purple coneflower, it is found there in open woodlands with exposed limestone outcroppings. Invite it into your yard though, and you will find it happily adapts to a variety of soils. Just like purple coneflower, prairie coneflower seems to tolerate our naturally acidic soil, although I have found they both respond with increased vigor if you raise the soil pH to make it more alkaline. To do this you can purchase and apply dolomite lime in dust form. But I love the look of a few limestone rocks placed in my garden next to plants that prefer a high pH; this raises the pH of the soil near the rocks and creates a more aesthetically natural setting.

Prairie coneflower is a long-lived and tough wildflower that is more common further north in the prairies of the Eastern United States. It grows best in full to part sun, reaching two to three feet tall, although some plants will reach four feet. This height variability is common in native wildflowers. Natural variation in their genes make them less uniform in their visible traits than selected or hybridized varieties. Some might bemoan this lack of uniformity, but I love seeing the little differences between individual plants within the same species. In one patch of native wildflowers, it’s common to see variance in size, shape, or color of their blooms; and those are just the visible differences! These variations allow them to be flexible and adaptable to changes in their environment over time.

Tiny sweat bees forage for pollen and nectar on the composite flowers of prairie coneflower. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec.

Despite its name, prairie coneflower is not closely related to purple coneflower, and this is visible in its distinct foliage: pale gray-green and pinnately divided. Even when not in bloom, the foliage is an attractive addition to the garden.

The long-lasting flowers appear in late spring through summer, with drooping yellow petals surrounding a center cone, reminiscent of shooting comets or even tiny hula dancers. Prairie coneflower has composite blooms, meaning that the center “cone” is actually a mass of many flowers; making it highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. The center cone begins a gray-green color, slowly turning brown as the small individual flowers on it open. Once the blooms have faded you can cut them back to encourage the plant to produce even more blooms: this is called “deadheading”. If you allow the spent blooms to stay on the plant, they will ripen their seed and provide tasty treats for songbirds. This will also allow them to reseed and form a nice patch.

Ironweed, blazingstars, purple coneflower, dotted horsemint, and other summer blooming wildflowers are complimentary companions to prairie coneflower in the garden. I recommend all gardeners consider this addition; you will be rewarded with a multitude of blooms, bees, and butterflies to accompany them.