Spring has come to Marjorie’s garden. The snow line has retreated to the shady edges. Red elder buds have parted purple scales sufficient to glimpse the clustered lime-green flower buds. A fox sparrow scratches under the feeder while chickadees flit among the upper branches of the pin cherry, nipping at swelling buds. Somewhere nearby the cardinal sings.

Soon there will be bees, the moment there are flowers to forage. Marjorie and I plan to participate in a nationwide summer census, counting the bees that visit the garden’s sunflowers.

The Great Sunflower Project is looking for citizen scientists all over the United States to plant sunflowers and then observe how many and what kinds of bees forage on them. It is asking each participant to observe for 30 minutes twice a month and record the results on the Internet. It is looking for observers of any age in urban, suburban and rural environments.

When all the data are in, project scientists will use them to make a coast-to-coast pollination map, showing where bees are and are not throughout the U.S. Project leader Gretchen LeBuhn, biologist at San Francisco State University, is particularly interested in the role of urban gardens in maintaining suitable habitats for pollinators. “We know that pollinators are declining in certain wild and many agricultural landscapes,” says LeBuhn. “We do not know much about how healthy bee populations are maintained in an urban environment. Because natural habitats are uncommon in urban landscapes, they may not provide enough resources to support viable pollinator communities. However, if other habitats, such as urban gardens and restored areas, are sufficiently connected to natural habitat, then native populations may thrive.”

At the project Web site, www.greatsunflower.org, you can find detailed information on how to grow sunflowers and how to count the bees. One important aspect of the project is having every participant growing the same type of sunflower, the wild sunflower, Helianthus annuus. Once you register for the project, you will be sent seeds, or you can provide your own.

Twice a month, between 10 a.m. and noon on a designated Saturday or Sunday, Marjorie and I will take our coffee to the garden. We will record the temperature and then settle into a spot within sight of our sunflowers but not so near as to scare the bees. Focusing on one sunflower, we will count and record the number of open flowers. Then we will wait patiently for visitors, recording how long it takes for the first five bees to visit the flower.

Part of the fun will be trying to identify each bee, not to species level, of course, but by type, such as honeybee, bumblebee, or other native bee. Given the prevalence of colony collapse disorder in honeybees and the knowledge that bumblebees are struggling to find suitable habitat, project leaders are especially interested in getting information on those groups.

I noticed with a twinge of jealousy that project participants in Georgia and Southern California are already entering data on bee visits, and have been for some time now, while here it is still too early to plant the sunflowers! But my time will come, summer mornings sitting next to Marjorie in her garden, drinking coffee and counting bees.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to rmanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.