Do specialty cut flowers make the cut for attracting pollinators?

Floral resources can be a limiting factor in many agricultural habitats, cut flower production can be utilized to enhance biodiversity across the landscape. Flower production can provide biological benefits by providing nutrition and shelter for various crop pollinators and beneficial insects. We grew five specialty cut flower species including Calendula ‘Princess Golden’, Matthiola ‘Lucinda Mix’, Helichrysum ‘Double Mix’, Daucus ‘Dara’, and Celosia ‘Celway Mix’. We selected these species to have a range of flower types from a variety of families. Timed observations on insect pollinators were done during the 2020 summer growing season in two high tunnels for a total of three plots. Sampling occurred approximately every two weeks throughout the growing season starting 7 June 2020 and ending 23 September 2020. We observed each flower species for 360 minutes throughout the growing season and observed over 2,000 insects. Insects were generally identified to order or family, with bees being categorized as bumble bees or other native bees. Daucus was the most popular for fly and wasp visitation. Calendula had the most bumble bee and other native bee visitors. Helichrysum was popular for butterflies and moths, and Matthiola had the most beetle visitors. This study showcases that cut flowers produced in high tunnels have the potential to provide resources to support insect communities. This work was made possible by a Specialty Crop Grant from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.