Gimme a B, Gimme an E, Gimme Another E! (Hot Off The Press, Gotta Read Great Sunflower Project Goodness!!)

Is it beginning to seem as though I've become a pollinator pimp of sorts or am I simply an enthusiastic cheerleader of bees and other flower visitors? (Maybe I'm a little of both...) Well, the little guys need our support, so please bear with me... 

Greenwalas who have had a chance to read my first two posts about the Great Sunflower Project probably have an inkling that this cause is close to my heart, so it may come as no surprise that any updates I receive straight from the source I am automatically inclined to share with my eco-peeps. If any of you are at all curious about the latest and greatest developments, please take a look at the following e-mail that was just sent to all project participants courtesy of the coordinator, Gretchen Lebuhn. 

While the Great Sunflower Project is trying to create a standardized account of pollinator visitors across the country by relying one specific variety of sunflower called Lemon Queen Sunflower (available online through Renee's Garden and other assorted retailers), I know that they are eager to gain as many participants as possible. If you can access the same variety of seeds locally, I believe that you can still contribute data to this project.  This contact (sfbee@sfsu.edu) will be able to offer you clarification on the specifics of your unique situation and how you can make it work.

One last note -- as I mentioned previously, I've scanned the Great Sunflower Project data sheets that were sent to me as a participant, so if you're interested in taking a look at them, please don't hesitate to e-mail me and I'll attach them stat.  As a side note, I'd love to find out who among us are actually enrolled in the study, so please don't be shy - let me know!! Alrighty then, without further ado...here's the e-mail I mentioned:

Dear All,

If you haven't gotten your sunflower seeds yet, the next shipment is going on the week of May 11th!  We have over 65,000 people who have requested seeds.  I am just thrilled.  We also were featured on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, complete with photos. 

First, as you wait for an opportunity to watch bee activities on your Lemon Queen Sunflowers, we have two things you can do.  While we really want Sunflower data from everyone, many people have asked if they can collect data from some other species.  So, we have expanded the list of plants that we are collecting data from to include Bee balm, Cosmos (only the purple one), Tickseed, Rosemary, Lacy Phacelia, Purple coneflower and Goldenrod.

When you go to the submit observations page on our website, you will have the option to choose Lemon Queen sunflower or any of the above referenced flowers from our pull down menu.  You can follow the same procedure that you do for a sunflower.  If you would really like to send us data from a plant not on the list, please do so, however, it isn't really useful to us unless we have many people collecting from exactly the same varieties. We also do not want to bias our data by having everyone only pick
the plant that has the most bees in their garden!! 

Please consider monitoring phenology of your sunflowers! We have partnered with the USA National Phenology Network www.usanpn.org and http://www.usanpn.org to assist in monitoring the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. We invite you to track the timing of the first leaf appearance, first flower appearance, last flower, ripe seeds, and senescence (death) in your sunflowers. Please see the Great Sunflower Project website for more details.  By May 15^th, you will see a form called "Submit Phenology Data" which you can use to enter those data.

We will be sending out information on how to take pictures in our next e-mail. 

Enjoy the spring!

Gretchen

The Queen Bee