Windbreak Trees

[Jim Ray]

Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts are offering the following for windbreak trees. Any experience out there of bee use (nectar or pollen) of:

Caragana
Nanking cherry
chokecherry
cotoneaster
hybrid cottonwood
siberian elm (yuck!)
green ash
hackberry
honeylocust
lilac
bur oak
native plum
lombardy poplar
european sage
sumac
golden willow

Keep in mind that I live in the treeless high plains, although flowering woodies and flowering plants are available in neighborhoods/towns/farmsteads and nearby canyons.

[Michael Bush]

Nanking cherry-nectar
chokecherry-nectar
hybrid cottonwood-propolis and pollen
siberian elm (yuck!)-pollen
honeylocust-not as much nectar as black locust...
lilac-never seen the bees work it unless there's a serious dearth
native plum-nectar
lombardy poplar-propolis
sumac-nectar
golden willow-pollen

I love black locust, tulip poplar, pussy willow, red maple, chokecherry, sandplum, sumac, basswood, sourwood and gum. I imagine any of them would grow if you watered them long enough to get a tap root down to the water.

[mike haney]

wouldnt a more logical option bee to ask your state apiarist?

[Jim Ray]

Maybe other bee keepers out there have experience with the listed plants, and this would be interesting.

[dragonfly]

From the list, my choices would be suman and native plum. In this area, the bees work all plum trees heavily. The only sumac I have here is "flaming sumac" and though bees reportedly work it, I haven't seen that to be the case. That being said, I would still plant is due to its hardiness and its tendency to spread, if you are wanting a windbreak.

[Jim Ray]

Thanks!

[summer1052]

Caranga -- no earthly idea.

Nanking cherry will make the birds happy, but it makes a thicket and it suckers.

Chokecherries are the first thing Adam and Eve saw outside the borders of the garden of Eden. They are evil, suckers, impossible to kill once planted, and inedible. Birds don't like them either. I have nothing positive to say about them.

Cottonwood and ashes and elms do best with a steady water source but are brittle and prone to lots of breakage in high winds. Plan on 15 years or less as a life span on these. They CAN make nice shade trees, but . . .

Cotoneasters make great shrubs and can be very pretty in the fall. Never seen a bee work them, or any blossoms. Ever. Also good bonsai subjects.

Honeylocusts are so called because the leaves are a honey yellow color, NOT because they are a good honey plant like a black locust. The leaves are a beeech in gutters.

Never seen bees work lilac, poplar, bur oak, sumac or willow. Not sure why they would make good windbreaks either, frankly.

Don't know what *European* sage is, but RUSSIAN sage is a great bee plant! Not for a windbreak, tho.

Native plums are a pretty tree, the plums make great jelly, and the bees like the blossoms. They would make an excellent deer fence. The branches make thorns about 2 inches long. Down here in So TX, we'd call a group of them a "mott".

Sounds like someone got a heck of a deal on questionable nursery supplies and doesn't know what else to do with them. I wonder about their usefulness as windbreaks and honey plants. :scratch:

The price is good, tho.

GL
Summer

[Michael Bush]

>Chokecherries are the first thing Adam and Eve saw outside the borders of the garden of Eden. They are evil, suckers, impossible to kill once planted, and inedible.

I've been eating them as jam, jelly, juice, wojapi and wasna all my life. I'm shocked find out I've been eating something inedible...

The bees love the flowers too.

[sentientsoil]

Chokecherries
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/nutritionfacts/nutrition-comparison.php?o=35179&t=35204&h=&s=100&e=100&r=100

The leaves, on the other hand, release cyanide when crushed or bruised. Very bad for your livestock.

[Brent Bean]

All the trees MB mentioned are great for honeybees. Sumac is worked heavily when it is presenting nectar. Black Locust is even better when the trees are in full bloom they do have a five year bloom cycle. One year nothing, fifth year flowers from top to bottom with years 2-4 having progressively abundant flowers.. We have lots of Black Locust in our area and when they are in high bloom. Get ready to extract honey and get the boxes back on or they will quickly run out of room. :)

[Jim Ray]

Definitely going to plant Russian Sage.

Bee plant sources definitely tout the following as great bee plants for pollen or nector: Caranga, Cottonwood, Cotoneasters, Poplar, Sumac and Willow. Been studying for several weeks now.

These plants are chosen for windbreak trees because they do well in a harsh xeric area. I, however, would prefer native three-leaf sumac, net-leaf hackberry, plains cottonwood, black willow, and western soapberry. None of these naturally occur on the clay loam soils found on my lot, but all but one ocurr within my three mile radius on the forks of the Red River (Palo Duro Canyon).

I'm going for cotoneasters, this year, from the Soil and Water Conservation District.

[Sundance]

Siberian Pea Bush has nice flowers and my bees
love them as well. Not sure climate wise.

[Jim Ray]

Sundance, I think that is the same as Caragana. Glad to read your experience. Where are you located?

[Sundance]

Sundance, I think that is the same as Caragana. Glad to read your experience. Where are you located?

By golly, you are right. I am in Devils Lake, North Dakota.
If they grow here, they'll grow anywhere.:lookout:

[Jim Ray]

You are right!

I went to graduate school at SDSU at Brookings, SD: wildlife and fisheries. Loved it up there!

[BEES4U]

Are your cotoneasters Fire blight tolerant?
Red escalonia is a bee favorite too in mild winter areas.
Ernie

[Jim Ray]

Have read that they are susceptible, but I don't know about this part of the world.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts are offering the following for windbreak trees.


That's a great deal! Kansas used to have the same program except you could order different packages. Some were for windbreaks and included either cedars, pines or nut trees. I ordered and started pines and Pecan trees that are now 25 year old trees. Unfortunately the pines are dieing out in Kansas and are all doomed to be dead in the next couple of years. :(

They also had what they called "Song bird habitat" that included Russian olive, Cottoneasters, sandplumbs, willows, and a few others I have forgotten now. The best thing about state programs is that they are offering plants that will survive in your area at very reasonable costs. The major drawback that I encountered is that they are usually very small one year plants and need close attention to survive.

I will have to stop in to see the County people and see if we still have a program and sign up.

Mom used to make the best choakcherry jelly, I sure miss it.

BTW, I have ordered the Nanking Cherry bushes from one of the seed and plant catalogs (Burgess?), and planted them around my houses. They don't have thorns and are the sweetest little cherry, I love to gorge myself on them at the peak of ripeness. They can keep a kid entertained for quite a while.

[Jim Ray]

That's cool! I have a lot of fond memories like that about wild currant. My grandmother use make me jelly. I'd go over with a "ton" of currants -hard work picking, and grandmother would struggle to crank out one jar. :) Good stuff, though.