The Great Sunflower Project

I found this in a magazine called Hobby Farm Home, which is incidentally one of my new favorite magazines.

The Great Sunflower Project is asking folks all over to plant sunflowers in their yards, or in containers on their porches or decks, and then count the bees that visit the flowers. The counts are only twice a month, and take less than half an hour. You write down your starting time, then each time you see a bee, you write down how many minutes it's been since you started. If you start at noon, and the first bee visits at 12:05, you write down "5". If the next one visits at 12:12, you write down "12". You're done after 5 bees or half an hour, whichever comes first.

Not any kind of sunflower will do, as most have been bred for purposes other than prolific production of pollen. Apparently Lemon Queen sunflowers are the flower of choice, as they're packed with pollen and produce multiple blooms all summer long.

If you see a lot of bees on your flowers, that's great! If you see none, that's actually even more important information. And if you keep bees of your own, they're still interested, so it doesn't mean you're "cheating"!

The project is being led by Gretchen LeBuhn, an associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University. You can donate to the project, or ask for free seeds to participate in the project, at http://www.greatsunflower.org. You can also get the appropriate type of sunflower seeds at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds or Gurney's Seed & Nursery, among others.