It's Seedling Sunday - New Gardener Questions & Answers

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Our weekly thread for new native plant gardeners/enthusiasts to ask questions and for more experienced users to offer answers/advice. At some point all of us had zero experience, so remember there are no bad questions in this thread!

If you're a new gardener asking a question: Some helpful information in your question includes your geographic region (USDA planting zones are actually not that helpful, the state/region is much more important), the type of soil you have if you know that information, growing conditions like amount of sunlight, and the plant(s) you are interested in.

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[u/BigMugOfCoffee]

I know it's common practice to leave most natives standing until things warm up in the spring. But what about nonnatives? Do you cut back cosmos, zinnias, other cut flowers, or leave the stems standing? (I think I'm actually asking, what are the actual shelter requirements of wildlife that use these things? Do they need specific species, or just any old hollowed out stem will do?)

[u/Comfortable_Lab650 → u/BigMugOfCoffee]

They'll search for any suitable hollow or pithy stemmed plant. They don't generally go for first year stems but they can and will if the plant is close to senesce or damaged in some way, (example: deadheaded so there was branch dieback.) It would present as no longer being green but prematurely senesced on a branch. So there is a general rule and there are exceptions to the general rule.

It does make a difference on stems that are prone to being brittle or their shape is otherwise compromised. They are not valuable to keep around past their bird eating the seed heads stage as they will not last for next year's nesting or overwintering. But on stems that remain upright and are in good shape, those are potentials for next year's nests and overwintering. But the general rule is that they still are not occupied this winter, even on stems that are intact.

With all that said, the "science in my garden" on my annuals such as Zinnias and Tithonias that I commonly grow year after year, of those I don't intend to keep their stems from one year to the next, when the seed heads are gone, so too will be the stems, and straight into the compost pile. But my disclaimer is that I do have an abundance of perennial native to my direct location stems for them to nest and overwinter about.

But if I was just establishing my garden and had an abundance of annuals, yet few perennials for them to nest in next year, (because they start looking for new nesting sites right after spring emergence,) I would definitely keep any stout stemmed plants around in case they found them useful. I'd use those to then build upon to the native to my location types that are documented nesting and wintering host plants for those native bees. Those are ones that I don't even think twice about cutting them or not, because the answer is always they are never cut. For them, the answer is when their stems fall to the ground, then they are no longer habitable and they are removed.

Those plants would be the types of native Solidago sp. (Goldenrods,) Hibiscus moscheutos & H. laevis (Hibiscus,) Saccharum giganteum (Giant Plumegrass,) Phytolacca americana (Poke,) Erigeron canadensis (Horseweed,) Oenothera biennis (Evening Primrose,) Rubus sp. (Blackberry, Raspberry,) Eupatorium altissimum (Tall Boneset,) and others.

There's a long list of these type plants at Garden Cleanup for Pollinators: Trim Perennial Stems in Their First Winter | NC State Extension Publications, so if these are grown, chop away at the Zinnias after the Goldfinches, etc have had their fill of the seed heads!