Laban Dance Centre – Bulbs and Bees -IYB
by Dusty ~ February 3rd, 2010. Filed under: Green Roof News.A cold damp winters day visit to the Laban Dance Centre. Our first green roof visit of the year. This roof is the original rubble or brown roof. We carried a couple of bags of crocii bulbs to plant in the rubble. At this time of year, to many the roof’s look will not appeal, but we know that there is life inside this gray roof. We had watched a few bumblebees digging in the substrate late in the year seeking a refuge until spring. And by May the roof will be all awash with the yellows and blues of native flowers. But in early spring there is little colour to succour an emerging bee with early Spring nectar.
Last year, however, we noticed a few mining bees on another roof in London nesting at the base of some crocii and muscari plants that had been planted in February.
The flower heads also provided an early spring nectar source. We later discovered a species of cuckoo wasp visiting the nests, no doubt to lay their eggs on the larvae inside. A micrcosm of ecology set in motion by a bulb!
So here we were adding some bulbs to the roof in the hope that when the Andrena species become active and the bumblebees emerge from this rubble landscape they will have a little food to see them through until May, when the Viper’s bugloss, kidney vetch and clovers will start to flower. Roll on spring.
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