Alas, just another pretty face

I’ve been waiting six months for my dahlias to bloom and finally! hallelujah! they are putting forth the most incredibly beautiful flowers in the garden. I don’t know why they took so long to bloom. Maybe because it was an unusually wet summer? Maybe I had them planted too close to other plants? I’ve never grown dahlias before so I’m not sure.

But unfortunately, after waiting all this time, I’m finding out the my double-flowered beauties are just another pretty face in the garden. I spend a lot of time gardening in the front where the dahlias are planted so I have ample opportunities to see which plants the pollinators love (black and blue salvia is the TOP winner.)

I watched carefully as the dahlias came into bloom and nary a single insect landed on the blossoms. Of course not! There’s no pollen in most of them and the others are packed so full of petals that the bees can’t find the pollen. Remember that old commercial about the hamburgers, when the guy says, “where’s the beef?” That’s what I imagine the bees are saying “where’s the nectar?”

This does not mean that all dahlias are completely useless to pollinators. It just means that the double varieties that I planted in a less-enlightened time of my life (last spring) provide no value to the ecosystem. Open centered dahlias, with simpler flowers are actually fairly decent as pollinator plants.

Most of us by now know that by far the best pollinator plants for native insects are native plants. Not only can the pollinators “find the beef,” but also the plants and insects also evolved together so that the insects instantly recognize them as useful plants.

Does this mean that our beloved ornamental plants are of no value? No of course not. I value my dahlias simply for their beauty. But I also have to take into consideration the carrying capacity of my yard and how many plants I can support when considering space, water and mostly my own time and energy.

I think it more important to choose plants that provide both beauty and value to nature rather than to just plant more pretty faces. We are at a juncture where we all need to help nature in whatever we can. By providing a diversity of flowers useful to pollinators, I feel that I am making a contribution to the greater biodiversity of the planet, which I consider a worthy goal.