Just a brief thank you to Hannah for the lovely letter left for us at the magical hanging postbox (!) at the Ginkgo Sunflower garden across from the P.O.! We left a note in return. Hannah has been shepherding the Nagle plots by the Citibike stand, and also dropping by to bring a little water to the sunflowers. It definitely takes a village, and one of the most gratifying things about this street tree bed project has been connecting with some of our neighbors! We love you, Hannah the Librarian!
Category: flowers
hooray for ground bees!
In which we meet the ground bees living in the Bogardus plot, and rejoice!
While caring for the Bogardus tree bed, which is thriving with a growing hemp groundcover and lots of beautiful little coreopsis flowers, we noticed there were some large, somewhat scary-looking, hornet-like insects buzzing around us constantly. Passersby had various (incorrect!) info about these little guys: they were hornets; they were wasps… But turns out, they are ground bees, and we are so thrilled to have met them!
Did you know that 70% of all bees nest under ground? For some more information on these amazing pollinators, check out the Bee Conservancy page.
According to the Bee Conservancy, “70% of the world’s 20,000 bee species actually live largely solitary lives and lay eggs in underground nests.” Not even hives! These little ground bees do an amazing share of the pollination of flowering plants in the Americas, up to 80%–and what’s more, all ground-nesting bees are in danger of extinction. Their loss would affect habitat throughout the world, very much including the human food supply.
There are ways to help, including protecting the entrance to their underground caves, and avoiding mulching in some parts of the garden so they can dig down to nest. For other ways to nurture the bees, check out the Bee Conservancy’s excellent page.
las equináceas sanadoras
The coneflowers have arrived, and Bogardus is in for a surprise! These amazing flowering plants belong to the genus Echinacea, and are in the family of daisies (Asteraceae). The 10 species of Echinacea are known as “coneflowers,” and are native to eastern and central North America; Rudbeckia, the genus of black-eyed susans, is closely related. Probably the best-known of the species is Echinacea purpura, purple echinacea. The growing range for some of the species extends deep into Mexico, although a lot of US maps weirdly show a boundary in Texas.
Echinacea has a long history of use in traditional medicine for treating infections, pain, and wounds; Traditional use included external application (insect bites, burns, wounds), chewing of roots (throat and tooth infections) and internal use (cough, pain, snake bites, stomach cramps). Some Plains tribes use Echinacea for cold symptoms; the Kiowa and Cheyenne use it for sore throats, and many nations used it as a pain medication. It’s not clear it helps with colds, but an overview of testing (meta-analysis) done in 2025 indicates that Echinacea purpura may in fact be good for respiratory diseases and ear inflammation–so it may be one of the many anti-inflammatory plants needing further research. My mom and I swear by echinacea tea for warding off colds, anyway!
The Latin name of the genus, Echinacea, comes from the Greek word echinos (ἐχῖνος), “hedgehog.” This is because of the central capitulum of the flower, which looks sort of like that spiny little animal. In reality,
the ‘flower’ of the Echinacea is actually a cluster of dozens of flowers, or disc florets, arranged in a whirl on a cone shaped flower receptacle. These individual flowers together make up what is known as a capitulum. Echinacea, like all members of the Asteraceae family, have a capitulum surrounded by a whirl of several infertile ray florets. The ray florets are commonly thought of as ‘petals’, surrounding the central ‘head’ of the Echinacea ‘flower’.
See the amazing Outdoor Learning Lab page, https://www.gcc.mass.edu/oll/plants/purple-cone-flower/ , for a lot more of the real science behind this composite flower, which is a characteristic of the daisy (asteraceae) family. The Dr. Robert L. Pura Outdoor Learning Laboratory is based at Greenfield Community College, in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
In other news, the two sister beds on Nagle are looking amazing–Ellen reports that they are twinning. Possible? You decide:
new discovery: beautiful functional hemp
So, did you know that hemp is a good ground cover? Ellen’s been planting seeds… Indian hemp (aka brown hemp, Madras hemp, or Sunn hemp), Crotalaria juncea, so-called because it’s native to South Asia including India, grows during the summer and spreads itself out well. It can get as tall as 6 feet within two months, tolerates heat and drought well, and is a nitrogen-fixer– so good for the soil. It even has nice yellow flowers, if you live in the right region for it. Look out for something a little later in the summer in some of the beds that looks like this picture; I hope the flowers happen!
the little violet
“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.” —Thérèse of Lisieux