Help for honeybees

Demonstration gardens teach ways to create pollinator habitats

By Joanna Poncavage |Of The Morning Call

July 25, 2008

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Birds do it. Bees do it. Even butterflies and wasps do it. They pollinate plants so their flowers can grow into the fruits, vegetables and nuts we eat. With honeybees threatened by a mysterious illness called colony collapse disorder, keeping pollinators healthy is more important than ever.

Pennsylvania State University leads the investigation into the disappearance of bees -- suspects include loss of habitat, pesticides, viruses or parasites -- and will use part of a $150,000 study grant from Haagen-Dazs to create 40 pollinator demonstration gardens across the state. Tended by master gardeners, the garden plots will be used to help teach backyard gardeners how to provide food and shelter for beneficial pollinators.

''If you are going to plant a garden, there's no reason not to make it pollinator-friendly,'' says Robert Berghage, an associate professor of horticulture at Penn State and a member of the Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Bee Board. The ice cream company cares about bees because many of its flavors depend on them, from vanilla Swiss almond to strawberry.

When bees, insects and other creatures visit flowers to sip nectar, they move flower pollen grains from stamen to stigma, where it fertilizes the plant parts that develop into seeds, fruits and vegetables. The most common pollinators are bees, bats, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles and flies.