Tag Archives: Native Plants
A Story of Gophers & Great Camas
According to the staff at Oak Creek and many other gardeners and farmers I’ve had the opportunity to talk to, it appears that though 2020 was a difficult year for humans, it was truly a remarkable year for gophers and … Continue reading
Virtual Field Day: Garden Ecology Lab
Our colleague, Brooke Edmunds, was kind enough to shoot and edit this short video on two of our current lab projects: Jen Hayes’ study of native plants and nativars and Tyler Spofford’s study of the economic costs and benefits of … Continue reading
Garden Ecology Lab Research Update
COVID-19 has impacted our research in many different ways, including making it more difficult to find time to provide research updates on a regular basis. Despite the long silence, we have many projects up and running this summer! In fact, … Continue reading
How attractive are native wildflowers to gardeners?
For my dissertation research, I am studying which native Willamette Valley wildflowers are most visited by pollinators and natural enemies for use in home gardens and urban landscaping. I’ve previously shared preliminary results from my field study on our blog, … Continue reading
From the Lab to Your Laptop: Getting Research to the Public
The members of the Garden Ecology lab spend much of their time on research into subjects that affect, what else, the ecology of home gardens. Pollinators and their relations with native and non-native plants, bee variety and abundance in gardens, … Continue reading
2019 Native Plant Field Season Update
I’m thrilled to announce that this summer I completed the third field season of my study. This is slightly bittersweet – while I’m excited that we are done with hot fieldwork, I will miss chasing bees around the farm and … Continue reading
Native Plants and Pollinator Survey
Aaron Anderson is repeating his original survey on native plants and pollinators. This time, he is trying to understand how knowledge of a plant’s ecological function may alter impressions of native plants. The survey takes about 25-30 minutes to complete. … Continue reading
PolliNation Podcast and Lab Update
If you love bees, and you have not yet subscribed to PolliNation, you’re missing out! OSU Professor and PolliNation podcast host, Andony Melathopolous, does a wonderful job assembling a diverse array of guests to talk all things pollinator. Aaron Anderson … Continue reading
Plant of the Week: Douglas Aster (Revisited)
This entry is from Lucas Costner, an undergraduate horticulture major at Oregon State University. It highlights one of the plants that Aaron Anderson is using in his research. Original “Plant of the Week: Douglas Aster” post available here: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/gardenecologylab/2017/11/07/plant-week-doulgas-aster/ Last … Continue reading
Webinar on Willamette Valley Native Plants and Pollinators
Aaron’s webinar on his Ph.D. research has been posted on YouTube. He highlights some really interesting results from his 2017 and 2018 field seasons, including recommendations for what to plant, if you are interested in attracting native bees to your … Continue reading