Dear Great Sunflower Project Friends,
A few weeks ago, many of you stepped back into the garden with us — it is great to have so many counts coming in as flowering seasons commence. Thank you. Every one matters more than you might think.
Together, this community has now recorded more than 200,000 pollinator counts from tens of thousands of gardens, schoolyards, parks, and porches across the country. That is one of the largest community-gathered records of pollinators anywhere in the world, and it exists only because you kept watching flowers, recording visitors, five minutes at a time.
Your counts answer questions no single scientist could answer alone. Which flowers draw the most visitors? Where are pollinators thriving, and where might they be in trouble? How is each season shifting from the last? Every count you add, especially when there are no bees, sharpens that picture.
Because this is a national project, the season looks different depending on where you are right now. Across much of the country — the East, Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the mountains — gardens are coming into their fullest bloom, native plants are opening, and pollinators are at their busiest. If that sounds like your garden, this is your moment: now is the time to get into a rhythm. But if you're in the desert Southwest or another hot, dry place where the spring peak has already passed, please keep counting anyway. Your observations of what's still flowering, and what happens as pollinators face the summer, are some of the most valuable data we collect, because they show us how seasons shift and how pollinators cope when blooms grow scarce. Wherever you are, the next flower that opens is worth watching.
You might wonder where the bees go after visiting a flower: most of our native bees nest not in hives but in the ground, in tunnels they dig themselves or in cavities, often built by other insects. Most bees are gentle, solitary, and easy to overlook — which is exactly why your careful watching matters so much.
So this month, if you can: do a few more 5-minute counts. Watch any flower in bloom near you, record your visitors at GreatSunflower.org, and please remember that a count of zero is real data, too.
We are also hard at work behind the scenes, making the project easier to use, easier to teach with, and ready to do even more for pollinators in the years ahead. That work is only possible because of the community standing behind it. More on that very soon.
For now — thank you for watching, counting, and caring. Your flower is waiting.
Bee Well,
Gretchen
The Queen Bee
The Great Sunflower Project
One flower, five minutes, a future for pollinators.
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